Which cocktails do you make with vodka?

The International Bartenders Association lists, among others, the Moscow Mule, the Bloody Mary, the Black Russian, the Espresso Martini and the Cosmopolitan as official vodka-based cocktails.

Those five together cover a broad field: a long drink with ginger beer, a savoury drink with tomato juice, two coffee drinks and a fresh shaker with citrus. Anyone who wants to be able to make all five needs, besides vodka, only ginger beer, tomato juice, coffee liqueur, orange liqueur, cranberry juice, lime and lemon.

In these five official recipes the measure is between 40 and 50 millilitres of vodka per glass.

The Cosmopolitan uses 40 milliliters, the Moscow Mule and the Bloody Mary 45 milliliters, and the Black Russian and the Espresso Martini 50 milliliters. The rest of the glass determines how strong the drink turns out: the Moscow Mule gets 120 milliliters of ginger beer, the Bloody Mary 90 milliliters of tomato juice, while the Black Russian leaves it at 20 milliliters of coffee liqueur.

For cocktails in which the vodka should not taste of itself, choose a vodka without added flavour, so category 15 of Regulation (EU) 2019/787.

Such a vodka is uncoloured and may contain at most 8 grams of sweetener per litre. It brings alcohol and texture to the glass, and little else. In recipes where the flavour of the base does count, the International Bartenders Association prescribes a flavoured vodka: the Cosmopolitan calls for lemon-flavoured vodka.

You make a Moscow Mule by pouring 45 millilitres of vodka and 120 millilitres of ginger beer into a mule mug, adding 10 millilitres of fresh lime juice and stirring gently.

The International Bartenders Association names a mule mug or a rocks glass as the glass, and a slice of lime as the garnish. No shaker is needed, as all the ingredients mix by stirring. Anyone who wants a less strong long drink keeps the measure of vodka the same and pours in more ginger beer.

Vodka can be mixed without a shaker with ginger beer, tomato juice or coffee liqueur; three of these five recipes are only stirred or built in the glass.

The Moscow Mule is built in the glass itself, the Bloody Mary is stirred gently in a mixing glass and the Black Russian is stirred over ice cubes in an old fashioned glass. Only the Cosmopolitan and the Espresso Martini go in the shaker, because citrus, syrup and coffee have to be incorporated there.

The non-alcoholic components of these recipes are available separately, so you can build a Moscow Mule or a Bloody Mary without the vodka.

Ginger beer with fresh lime juice remains a full-fledged long drink, and tomato juice with lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, celery salt and pepper is the Bloody Mary without the base spirit. For guests under 18 that is the only route: the Alcoholwet prohibits supplying alcoholic drinks to anyone whose age of 18 has not been established.