Vodka cocktails are kind of pointless really… since it has no flavor and is essentially alcohol and water, you can mix it with anything.
Gin on the other hand, has a huge number of great cocktails in which it is the main spirit.
Things like the Pegu Club, Singapore Sling, Tom Collins, Corpse Reviver, Negroni, Gimlet, etc…
For simplicity’s sake, I’d say to start with the Tom Collins and Gimlet, and see where you go from there.
Tom Collins
1 1/2 oz gin
1 oz lemon juice (fresh, not realemon)
3/4 oz simple syrup
soda water
Shake the first 3 ingredients, and put in a collins glass (tall glass, not a pint glass) with ice, Top off with soda water. (it’s essentially a sparkling lemonade with gin)
Gimlet
2 oz gin
1 oz Rose’s Lime Juice (or other lime cordial)
Shake together, and top with soda water if you want.
If you’ll tolerate flavored vodkas, I totally love Skyy ginger vodka and pink grapefruit juice over ice. A splash of soda, mint sprig, very refreshing.
+1 to the gimlet. You have to say ‘gin gimlet’ I find when ordering it someplace, though. I don’t know how I started drinking white Russians but it was before that movie (having been through bartending school one summer didn’t hurt though). Take a pint glass, put some ice in it, half fill with vodka, and split the rest with equal parts coffee liqueur and whole milk. Nutritious and delicious.
Oh, ‘pink gin’ – I read about these in David niven’s books a bunch. Don’t remember what’s in them. And the skip run and go naked – a boilermaker with vodka instead of whiskey.
I see they are a producer of liquers. I assume you mean that they publish drink recipes that consist primarily of their product. I just like my vodka to be straight, potent, Russian, and cold. Keep it in a freezer and the ice is unneccesary.
I over-did it once with flavored vodka, and can’t do it anymore. Vodka flavored vodka for me only. And it has to taste like vodka. None of the fancy stuff, which I can’t taste once mixed. I drink Smirnoff. And not to sound like a complete alkie, but don’t overlook the time proven recipe of vodka and kool-aid. Okay, I’m an alkie.
Make peanut flavored vodka, when its ready put together a shot of the vodka and a shot of creme de cacao. And you have a reese’s peanut butter cup shooter!
Holy shit, you’re a fucking genius. How do you infuse vodka with peanut flavor? Raw unsalted peanuts in everclear maybe, then dilute to 80 proof? Wait. Peanuts, have oil, where’s the flavor going to get in. This is a lab experiment in the making.
I like roasted unsalted peanuts personally. Just throw some into your vodka, wait 1-2 weeks, strain, and enjoy! Rinse and repeat for any other flavors you want to infuse your vodka with. Black pepper and mint vodkas are two of my personal favorites.
My favorite vodka cocktail is the Moscow Mule (though I prefer it with ginger ale rather than ginger beer).
You’ll be unlikely to find a bar that serves it unless you have one that caters to a Japanese clientele (although it’s popularity died out in the US decades ago, it’s easily within the top 3 or 4 cocktails most widely available in Japan.)