How to Make Common and Most Popular Bar Drinks: Best Recipes

With the high price of alcohol, stiff drinking and driving laws and even expensive gasoline prices, why not stick close to home? With a little practice and know how, making excellent cocktails can beat the ones you pay more than double for at a bar. And no stinky, smoky rooms with drunk strangers inside. When the time is right, prepare to have a great party at your home or other familiar location. You may need to limit your menu to a half dozen choices so you will be sure to be well stocked with the proper bar ingredients beforehand.

Here is a list of some of the world's most popular cocktails around. Many are over 100 years old. Practice a little at home before preparing to throw a party of your own. You want to be sure you can make a great drink every time.

Here are the bare facts, ingredients and recipes.

This popular strong but sweet drink is making a comeback. With many types of alcohol, it goes down easy and packs a punch. Calorie warning: would you believe that a long island iced tea contains a whopping 780 calories? Solution: Prepare to eat salads for dinner for a few days to compensate for the one or two long island ice teas you plan to consume on the night of your party.

The recipe is as follows:

1/2 part gin

1/2 part white rum

1/2 part tequila

1 part vodka

1/2 part Triple Sec

topped up with cola

1 dash each of lemon and lime

5 ice cubes

1 lemon wedge

dash of sugar syrup for sweetness

Pour all ingredients into a shaker and shake just once from top to bottom. Pour into a tall, slim glass with some foam bubbles on the top of the glass. Serve with a lemon slice or mint for garnish and a long straw.

The Margarita is a bit high caloric at 740 calories. Never mind, it is a party favorite and can be served in a variety of glasses. Saucer style, goblet glasses or a Tom Collins' style glass may be used for this standard club favorite.

Margarita Recipe:

1-1/2 oz tequila

1/2 oz Cointreau

1 oz lime juice

Moisten the rim of the glass with lime juice then invert in a plate of salt.

In a shaker, combine all ingredients with ice and strain into a glass. Serve.

A good party food with Margaritas is taco chips or nachos with cheese and salsa topping, Ole!

Pina Colada is also no lightweight at 644 calories! It was very popular a few years ago, in fact a song was written about the drink named Escape, and later dubbed "The Pina Colada Song". Some may be surprised to know that the drink made its debut on the Caribbean Sea when a Puerto Rican pirate invented the drink to cheer up his crew. That was in the 1800s. Two hundred years later, it's still cheering people up. The only major difference was the addition of coconut cream to the drink; it was originally made with piece of coconut instead of the cream of coconut, which makes it creamier.

Pina Colada Recipe:

2-1/2 to 3 oz Rum

2 oz. cream of coconut

2 oz. pineapple juice

crushed ice to fill a glass

Place all ingredients into a blender. Blend and serve! Garnish with a piece of pineapple and drink with a straw.

White Russian - 425 calories

Simple as can be:

White Russian Recipe

2 of vodka and

1 oz coffee liqueur.

Place into a glass filled with ice cubes.

Top off with light cream and serve.

Kahlua can be substituted for the coffee liqueur for an upbeat variation on the old standard.

Ernest Hemingway's favorite drink, it is a delightful combination of gin and mint created by muddling, or smashing, the mint leaves on the bottom of the glass. Refreshingly enjoyable, it contains about 200 calories per glass.

Mojito Recipe

1-1/2 oz Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum

1 T. Sugar

1/2 oz lime juice

10 to 12 mint leaves

crushed ice

2 oz soda water (at the end)

Put most of the mint leaves in the bottom of the glass. Muddle with Rum, crushed ice, sugar, and lime juice. Add soda water and garnish with mint leaves.