A Moscow mule is a cocktail made with vodka, spicy ginger beer, and lime juice, garnished with a slice or wedge of lime. It is a type of buck; therefore, sometimes called a vodka buck. Due to the popularity of the Moscow mule, other buck cocktails with different liquors have been labeled with the "mule" name in recent years. The Moscow Mule is a mid-century classic that was born in 1941 and helped contribute to vodka’s rise in America.
A cosmopolitan, or informally a cosmo, is a cocktail made with vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice, and freshly squeezed or sweetened lime juice. While the cocktail is widely perceived to be a more modern creation, there is a recipe for a Cosmopolitan Daisy which appears in Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars 1903–1933, published in 1934.
The Vesper or Vesper Martini is a cocktail that was originally made of gin, vodka, and Kina Lillet. In a cocktail shaker, combine gin, vodka, and Lillet Blanc or dry vermouth. The formulations of its ingredients have changed over time. The Vesper was made famous by James Bond. The drink was invented and named by Ian Fleming in the 1953 James Bond novel Casino Royale.
A Bloody Mary is a cocktail containing vodka, tomato juice, and other spices and flavorings including Worcestershire sauce, hot sauces, garlic, herbs, horseradish, celery, olives, salt, black pepper, lemon juice, lime juice and celery salt. Its origins aren’t exactly clear, but the likely backstory points to the mid-1930s and Fernand “Pete” Petiot, a bartender at King Cole Bar at the St. Regis hotel in New York City.
Made with vodka (or vanilla vodka), elderflower cordial, honey syrup, red chili pepper, and fresh lemon juice. It is designed to offer a sweet sensation at first, followed by citrusy freshness, and to finish with a slight heat of the chili. The recipe was created in 2004/5 by Salvatore Calabrese for his bar Fifty, London, England, which after the usual delays, opened in 2005.
The Russian Spring Punch is a highball cocktail made with vodka, Crème de cassis, sugar syrup, and lemon juice. The cocktail was created in the 1980s by Dick Bradsell. Basically a spiked Kir Royale over ice. It is named for the russian vodka, and the Tom Collins, which is a spring drink.
The Adios Motherfucker, abbreviated AMF, is new, and its principal feature is the blue color, a beautiful blue like the Caribbean Sea. The taste is less exciting than the color, as it is a careless combination made more to get high than to appreciate a fine cocktail. The idea behind it is to take four of the major spirits (gin, tequila, rum, and vodka), mix them, and eventually mask the taste of this cocktail with the citrus flavor of the blue curacao since the color of it. The AMF is similar to the invisible and the Long Island Iced Tea cocktail, its cousin. The drink is bold, boozy, and blue. Featuring five alcoholic components, it’s very similar to the Long Island Iced Tea. But where the LIIT calls for triple sec and cola, this cocktail needs a slug of blue curaçao and a topper of Sprite or 7UP. That curaçao swap adds vibrant color, while the soda switch gives the drink a lighter, more citrusy flavor. The recipe specifically calls for the sweet-and-sour mix. You can find bottled sweet-and-sour on store shelves, but it’s always a good practice to stay away from those, as they're full of sugar and additives.
The Black Russian is a simple, two-part cocktail mixing vodka and Kahlúa, a coffee liqueur made with rum, sugar, and arabica coffee. The drink was invented in the late 1940s by bartender Gustave Tops at the Hotel Metropole in Brussels in honor of Perle Mesta. The name is a simple connection to the ingredients: Kahlúa is black, while vodka is commonly associated with Russia. The dark and mysterious cocktail would have been emblematic of the time, with the Cold War having been just forming. The Black Russian is a cocktail of vodka and coffee liqueur. It contains two parts vodka to one part coffee liqueur, per IBA specified ingredients. Traditionally, the drink is made by pouring the vodka over ice cubes or cracked ice in an old-fashioned glass, followed by the coffee liqueur. A slight variation is to do a 50-50 mix if you want, totally up to you and how you’re feeling and how much you love that coffee flavor. To make it even more delicious, opt for vanilla-flavored vodka for a touch of sweetness. A dash of orange bitters is completely optional per se, but it helps put this simple drink over the top.