These four drinks are the foundation of so many modern cocktails. If you understand these, the rest of the cocktail world starts to make a lot more sense. The four: - Old Fashioned - Martini - Negroni - Daiquiri Each one teaches something different: - Balance - Spirit-forward structure - Sweet/bitter interplay - Acid + sugar control This is how I think about cocktails — not as individual recipes, but as systems you can build from. 👇 Question for the group: Which one do you make the most at home? Or which one still gives you trouble? Drop questions, tweaks, or photos in the comments — that’s how we make this space actually useful. — Nick

I really enjoy playing with flavors in ways that are different an not expected. I was working in a gastropub with a fun cocktail program and got interested in dessert themed drinks, I started with a sort of chocolate milk shake drink based on chocolate brandy. When I first tasted this chocolate brandy my mind went straight to chocolate cake, I also really enjoy the flavor of Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur, its made from the stems, leaves, pits and stems of Marasca cherries so immediately my mind went to Black Forest Cake. Then I started to think through the other flavors that would be needed to make it happen, walnut bitters for the nutty notes and cherry bitters to bring it all together. Here is the recipe I ended up with and to my palate it turned out pretty well! 1. Rince Glass with Vanilla Extract and discard excess Add 1 Cocktail Cherry 2. Fill Shaker with ice and add 2 Oz Chocolate Brandy 1/2 oz Creme De Cacao 1 barspoon Luxardo Maraschino 2 barspoons Cherry Syrup(From the jar of cherries) 5 drops Walnut Bitter and 5 drops Cherry Bitters 2 drops 10% Salt Solution If your interested watch the video and see how it all came together!