5 Soviet cocktails to shake at home

Some may think the Soviets didn’t have a cocktail culture and knew nothing about making fancy drinks.

In reality, it was quite different. There was even a so-called ‘Cocktail-hall’ in Moscow, an extremely popular and elitist establishment that opened in the 1940s and remained in business up until 1968.

Below are some unique Soviet cocktail recipes that you may easily recreate at home.

1. Old Thomas

Youth in Moscow, USSR, drinking cocktails in a western style cafe "Cocktail Hall."

Getty Images

Ingredients:

Vana Tallinn liqueur — 50 ml.

Red currant juice — 75 ml.

Cherry compote — 25 ml.

Lemon — 1 slice

4-5 Cherries

Sugar — 1 tbsp.

Ice

How to prepare:

Put sugar on the edge of a glass. Mix the liqueur, compote and juice in a shaker with ice, then strain into a glass filled with more ice. Add a slice of lemon and cherries. The cocktail also works well with a few fried almonds.

2. Coffee flip

Soviet citizens drink cocktails at a bar "Yakor" (Anchor) located on a boat.

Sputnik

Ingredients:

1 Egg yolk

Dessert wine (muscat, port) — 50 ml.

Cognac — 30 ml.

Coffee liqueur — 30 ml.

Powdered sugar — 1 tbsp.

Crushed ice

Grounded cinnamon — 1 pinch

How to prepare:

Mix everything in a shaker except the grounded cinnamon. Pour into a glass filled with ice. Sprinkle cinnamon on top. 

3. Volga

V. Chin-Mo-Tsai/Sputnik

Ingredients:

Vodka Stolichnaya — 35 ml.

Mint liqueur — 10 ml.

Orange liqueur —15 ml.

Lemon juice — 25 ml.

Sugar — 1 tbsp 

Ice

How to prepare:

Mix all the ingredients in a shaker with ice and strain into a glass filled with fresh ice.

4. Cherry cocktail

Yuri belinsky/TASS

Ingredients:

Cherry liqueur — 50 ml.

Champagne — 100 ml.

Cherry compote — 25 ml.

Lemon — 2 slices

Canned fruit

How to prepare:

Mix everything in a glass with ice, top it up with champagne, and decorate with fruit.

5. Cowboy

Boris Krishtul/TASS

Ingredients:

Apricot liqueur — 20 ml.

Bénédictine liqueur — 20 ml.

1 Egg yolk

Gin — 30 ml.

Pepper infused vodka — 30 ml.

How to prepare:

Mix the ingredients in a wine glass and carefully place the yolk in it. Drink in one gulp.

Click here for a recipe of Soviet-style okroshka soup.

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