gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, egg white (I used Empress Gin, which is why mine is purple.)

I found this recipe on empressgin.com, they call it a Q1908.

Perfection. Really. Such a simple cocktail, such perfect balance. In mixology school a gin sour is used as the starting point for substituting ingredients to make your own cocktail recipe. The message there is “substitute, but keep this balance”.

Can we talk about cocktail glasses? As you might imagine, I have a substantial collection of glasses by now. Part of the fun of picking this up as my pandemic hobby has been shopping online for barware. And I have OPINIONS.

I’ve found many glasses on Etsy and Ebay, and I have the best luck when I find a “mixed lot” of vintage singles. I’ve also found some on Amazon that are sold in singles or pairs (I shy away from the sets any larger than two), as well as Crate & Barrel and William Sonoma. I even bought one very special glass when I graduated mixology school directly from the Waterford crystal website. It is my best glass.

So, back to my OPINIONS. Drink recipes will give you the ingredients to mix a 3-4 oz cocktail to fit in a martini or coupe glass. Long drinks, fizzes, etc. are a different story, let’s stick with martini glasses and coupes.

Vintage glasses hold 3-4 oz of liquid. Follow the recipe, mix the drink, and pour from the shaker with confidence even using the little flip of the wrist at the end, as they teach in bartending school. Nice. The drink is going to fit perfectly.

Modern glasses are enormous! Nine ounce martini glasses and 8 ounce coupes! What happened? It isn’t hard to imagine that home bartenders are mixing bigger drinks…after all, the booze is cheaper at home and we don’t have to drive anywhere. But it messes a bartender up! I can’t serve someone 3 oz of cocktail in a 9 oz glass. Tacky.

This glass, on the other hand, is a modern Nick and Nora purchased from Amazon. And it is a perfect 3.5 oz – just right for 3 oz of cocktail with foam. I think this is my only reasonably-sized modern glass.