Head Barman Kevin Burke of Denver’s Colt & Gray, who enjoys making cocktails at home just as much as he does behind the bar, showed us how to create a delicious spring cocktail with seasonal ingredients and no fuss. He chose a gin and grapefruit medley that you can easily manage at home.

Ingredients:
1 ginger cluster
1 grapefruit
1 basil leaf
1 bottle of Old Tom Gin (we recommend Ransom or Hayman’s)
1 bottle of Campari
1 bottle of (pink) champagne

Tools:
Muddler
Mixing glass
Cocktail glass

Instructions:

Step #1: Hit the grocery store or local farmer’s market, and choose your seasonal ingredients. Burke has the luxury of shopping in the Colt & Gray walk-in cooler, and his ingredient of choice is grapefruit. He says he wants to savor the tail end of grapefruit season.

Step #2: Slice thin horns of ginger (Burke slices 4 because he loves the taste and wants a little extra in his cocktail). No need to peel it – you’re at home, after all, and the ginger peel is actually pretty darn good for you. Slice grapefruit, and add three or four hunks into the cocktail glass. “I love [grapefruit] as an acid,” says Burke. “Lemon and lime juice are lovely, but you have to add sugar for cocktails to combat their intense citrus flavors. Grapefruit you can enjoy on its own.”

Give the basil leaf a quick dice to open it up, and add it to the cocktail glass to deliver a hint of bitter taste to the mix’s sweetness. Muddle ginger, grapefruit and basil.

Step #3: “Now we need liquor,” Burke says with a smile. He adds an Old Tom Gin because it’s not as sweet as some of the other styles of gin. He doesn’t want to add any extra sweetness to this fruity drink. Then he adds ice. “At this point you could go away and wait,” says Burke. “I would make this, wash some dishes and clean up the kitchen, and then come back and have my cocktail as my reward.”

Step #4: “But I’m not sure that gin is the only thing we need. Maybe some bitters,” Burke says with a giddy smile. He pulls out Campari, adding a dash on top to enhance the drink’s pink color, as well as the grapefruit flavor. He then tops it with a splash of champagne on top. “I always try to have a bottle of bubbly at home, like every self-respecting adult should,” advises Burke. “And this one is pink — ’tis the season.”

Step #5: Take the cocktail you’ve created, and pour it into a mixing glass, and then back into the cocktail glass. Burke explains that this is a technique that bartenders call “rolling.” “I’m a big fan of one-glass cocktails where I don’t have to do a lot of dishes afterward.”

The final step, adding a grapefruit peel garnish, is optional. You could also shake, strain and pour the ginger and basil particles out, but Burke doesn’t think you need these extra touches if you’re at home. “So much of what’s done is for aesthetic reasons, but at the end of the day, if you’re making a drink for yourself, it should be easy.”

This cocktail seems pretty easy, and with minimal clean up, you’ll be enjoying the best of spring in no time.

I remember making that transition for the first time at some point post-college. It was intimidating — I didn’t want my friends to think I couldn’t make a drink that, for most people, involves mixing tequila with lime-flavored sugar water out of a plastic jug. It seemed scary, anyways, until I figured out just how easy it is to make Margaritas the old fashioned way.

There are three ingredients in a classic Margarita. That’s all folks, just three: tequila, orange liqueur, and lime juice. Shake those up over ice, pour it into a salt-rimmed glass, and you have yourself a fine Mexican food-ready cocktail.

Having mastered the basics I was recently wondering how I could take this cocktail to the next level. How could I tweak the Margarita to make it splashier, spicier, sexier, while staying true to the original? What I wanted to know was, could I pimp my Margarita?

To maintain Margarita integrity, I would stick to the holy trinity — tequila, orange liqueur, lime juice — and modify the quantities ever so slightly to compliment the additional flavors. Most Margaritas call for silver tequila, the mildest, unaged variety. Since I planned on adding bolder flavors to this cocktail, I decided to stick with the silver, rather than risk clashing flavors with the richer, aged reposado or añejo tequilas.

The orange liqueur adds sweetness and a bit of orange flavor. Depending on the sugar content of the additional ingredients, I could adjust the quantity of liqueur up or down as needed.

This left the quintessential citrus element of a classic Margarita: lime juice. I still wanted lime in my jazzed up cocktail, but I would cut down the quantity and combine it with other types of citrus I thought might pair nicely with tequila. Grapefruit, fresh squeezed orange juice, and in-season blood oranges all seemed like good candidates.

My made-over Margarita was going to need a kick if it was going to stand out in a crowd and what better way to make it unforgettable than with a jolt of spice from fresh chilies.

Tequila and orange liqueur at the ready and a bowl full of citrus and chilies in front of me, I started mixing and shaking. To complement the already sweet orange juice, I used less of the orange liqueur, then tossed in a pinch of minced jalapeño and a bit of cilantro. Tart pink grapefruit harmonized in the shaker with Serrano chili and a touch of honey. And for the decadently dark blood orange, a little chopped chipotle mixed in made for a Margarita at once sweet and tart, smoky and spicy. A little salt from the glass with each sip, that was one smoking hot cocktail. Being a grown up never tasted so good.

Blood Orange-Chipotle Margarita
(Makes 1 cocktail)

2 ounces blanco tequila
1/2 ounce orange liqueur
1/2 ounce lime juice
1/2 ounce blood orange juice
1/2 teaspoon minced canned chipotle chili in adobo
Garnish: blood orange slice and lime wedge

Place all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, and shake. Strain into a salt-rimmed rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with a blood orange slice and a lime wedge.

Orange-Honey-Serrano Margarita
(Makes 1 cocktail)

2 ounces blanco tequila
3/4 ounce orange liqueur
1/2 ounce lime juice
3/4 ounce grapefruit juice
2 teaspoons honey
1/2 teaspoon minced Serrano chili, seeds and ribs removed
Garnish: whole Serrano chili and lime wedge

Place all ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously to corporate honey. Add ice, and shake again. Strain into a salt-rimmed rocks glass filled with ice. Cut a slice in the Serrano chili from the tip halfway up the length. Slip the Serrano chili on the edge of the glass so it straddles both sides. Add a lime wedge to the rim and serve.

Orange-Cilantro-Jalapeño Margarita
(Makes 1 cocktail)

2 ounces blanco tequila
1/2 ounce orange liqueur
1/2 ounce fresh squeezed orange juice
1/2 ounce lime juice
2 teaspoons minced cilantro
1/2 teaspoon minced jalapeño, seeds and ribs removed
Garnish: lime wedge and jalapeño slice

Place all ingredients in a shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously, and strain into a salt-rimmed rocks glass filled with ice. Take a lengthwise slice of jalapeño, and cut a slit on one end. Fit the jalapeño on the rim of the glass with a lime wedge and serve.