Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

The Ultimate 2016 Election Cocktail Menu

Sam Slaughter
By

election cocktail
Alright, folks. It’s one of the most important days of the past decade here in the US and, regardless of who wins, everyone—and I mean everyone—is going to need a drink after this election.

That drink may be helping fight off the bleakness that is approaching in the coming four years, or that drink might be celebrating your candidate’s victory. Either way, drinks will be necessary.

Recommended Videos

Below, we’ve collected a list of election cocktails that will do the job before, during, or after the election. They’re separated by candidate, so choose your side and drink yourself into whatever future we’ll all be welcoming tomorrow, whether we like it or not.

Related

(Also, if you haven’t voted, VOTE.)

Hillary Clinton Cocktails

I’m With Herradura
(Created by the LeGrande at the Time New York Hotel, NYC)


image002

Method: Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into coupe glass w/ salted rim. 

The Pant Suit 
(Created by the Quirk Hotel, Richmond, VA)

  • 1 ½ oz vodka
  • ¾ oz lemon juice
  • ¾ oz herbed simple syrup
  • Splash of pomegranate juice
  • Lemon twist for garnish

Method: Chill a martini glass. Build all ingredients in a martini shaker. Shake and strain into the chilled martini glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

You be Hillin’
(Created by Quarter + Glory, Washington, D.C.)

  • 1 oz of Gin or Vodka (your choice)
  • ½ oz fresh lemon juice
  • ½ oz simple syrup
  • 1 oz Prosecco or sparkling wine
  • Lemon twist for garnish

Method: Add all ingredients except the sparkling wine into a mixing tin. Add ice and shake vigorously. Double strain into a chilled coupe glass and top off with your sparkling. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Blackberry Smash
(Created by The Watergate Hotel, Washington, D.C.)

  • 2 oz Angel’s Envy Bourbon
  • ¾ oz Blackberry Syrup
  • ½ oz Lemon Juice
  • 3 Blackberries
  • 1 Lemon Wedge
  • Dash Angostura Bitters
  • Handful of Mint

Method: Muddle mint, berries & lemon together. Combine with remainder of ingredients and shake. Pour into a bucket glass over ice. Garnish with two blackberries & mint sprig.

I’m with Her
(Created by The Carolina Inn, Chapel Hill, NC)

Method: Rim a champagne flute glass with blue sugar. Add ice, Curacao and St. Germain and shake well. Strain cocktail into flute. Top beverage with prosecco.

The Donkey

  • 1 ½ parts Bombay Sapphire Gin
  • ¾ part Freshly Squeezed Lime Juice
  • ½ part Blue Curaçao
  • 1 part Peach Schnapps
  • ¼ part Sugar Syrup

Method: Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with orange zest.

Donald Trump Cocktails

The Trumpkin
(Created by the LeGrande at the Time New York Hotel, NYC)

image004-1
  • 1 ½ oz Baileys
  • 1 ½ oz vanilla liqueur
  • 1 oz cream
  • I teaspoon pumpkin spice powder
  • ½ oz cinnamon for garnish

Method: Shake Bailey’s, vanilla, cream and pumpkin spice powder with ice. Strain into coupe glass. Dust with cinnamon to garnish.

Trumpence
(Created by the Quirk Hotel, Richmond, VA)

  • ¾ oz bourbon
  • ¾ oz rye
  • ¼ oz simple syrup
  • 2 dashes Angostora bitters
  • Orange peel for garnish

Method: Build drink in a martini shaker. Stir gently and pour over rocks. Garnish with an orange peel.

Get Trumped
(Created by Quarter + Glory, Washington, D.C.)

  • 2 oz of bourbon or rye (your choice)
  • 3 dashes of Angostura bitters
  • 3 dashes of Regans orange bitters
  • Bar spoon of brandied cherry juice
  • Dash of simple syrup

Method: Add all ingredients into a mixing vessel. Add ice and stir with a bar spoon for twenty seconds. Place a large format ice cube into Rx glass. Pour ingredients into the glass over ice. Garnish with an orange twist.

Brag-ga-do-cious
(Created by The Watergate Hotel, Washington, D.C.)

  • 2 oz Appleton 21yr Rum
  • 3 oz Cola Cane Syrup
  • Lemon Slice & peel
  • Lime Slice & peel
  • Orange Slice & peel

Method: Place fruit slices in the bottom of a bucket glass & top with crushed ice. Add rum & syrup. Top with more ice. Garnish with lemon, lime & orange peels.

Trumpster
(Created by The Carolina Inn, Chapel Hill, NC)

Method: Combine all ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake well. Strain cocktail into chilled martini glass. Garnish with spun sugar.

The Elephant

  • 1 part St-Germain French Elderflower Liqueur
  • 2 parts Cazadores Tequila Blanco
  • ½ part Freshly Squeezed Lime Juice
  • 3-4 Sour Cherries
  • Top with Club Soda

Method: Muddle the sour cherries in a shaker, and add remaining ingredients and ice. Shake and strain into an ice-filled Collins glass. Top with soda. Garnish with a sour cherry and a lime wedge or wheel.

For Both Sides of the Aisle

Truly Americano 
truly-americano-11
Method: Combine Campari and Sweet Vermouth over ice, strain into rocks glass. Top with truly Spiked & Sparkling Colima Lime and juice from fresh squeezed orange wedge. Garnish with an orange twist or peel. 

Editors' Recommendations

Sam Slaughter
Sam Slaughter
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Sam Slaughter was the Food and Drink Editor for The Manual. Born and raised in New Jersey, he’s called the South home for…
Forget cream or sugar: You should add salt to your coffee
Cut the bitterness of your brew with this simple trick
Small coffee cup and saucer

Love them or hate them, there seems to always be a new coffee trend. At the risk of sounding ancient, before Starbucks came along, people took their coffee either black or with some mixture of cream and/or sugar. That was it. There were no Fraps or triple whip extra shot, drizzle of confusion concoctions. There was coffee. Its sole purpose was to wake you up in the morning, not to act as a prop in Instagram selfies with stupid captions like, "Coffee is my love language."
Now, there seems to be a movement happening to get back to the basics, and some people are embracing simpler pleasures. Pleasures like deliciously rich, home-brewed coffee that has no idea what a Hibiscus Refresher is.
With that said, sometimes, sometimes, coffee trends are beneficial. A piece of information comes along that doesn't necessarily fall into the "trend" category, but is a new way to enjoy a classic. Something that actually improves coffee, and doesn't just slap some glitter on a fancy cup. In this case, that new piece of information comes in the form of an ingredient so ordinary, one could hardly call it trendy. The new, hip trend? Adding salt to coffee.

What does salt do to your coffee?
Salt is notorious for adding flavor to food, and yes, drinks, but it does so much more than that. When added to coffee, for example, salt doesn't make the coffee taste "salty." In this case, it takes the bitterness from the brew, and brings out the natural sweetness of the coffee beans.
Celebrity Chef and Food Scientist, Alton Brown, featured this little trick on an episode of his show, Good Eats, back in 2009. In explaining how to make coffee less bitter, he said that you should add a half of a teaspoon of salt to every cup of water and two teaspoons of coffee grounds. Not only will this trick cut the bitterness of the brew, but it will also make the coffee's flavor smoother and richer.
And while Brown may have been one of the first to discuss this coffee trick on TV, this tasty phenomenon is hardly a new one. In other parts of the world, such as Northern Scandinavia and Taiwan, brewing coffee with salt is as ordinary as spreading butter on toast.
So while we may be hearing a lot about salted coffee at the moment, the truth is, the secret's been out for a while. But unlike adding olive oil or butter to your coffee, this new trend doesn't seem to be a trend at all, but an instant classic that's here to stay.

Read more
The best bars for MLS fans: Get a pint at one of these great spots
The MLS season is in full swing. Here are the best bars for fans to visit, set near stadiums
A pint of beer and a soccer match.

The NFL season is still a ways off and the NBA postseason is winding down. But as the summer approaches, Major League Soccer comes alive. America's top footy league is now well underway and fans are supporting their clubs, from Los Angeles to D.C.

MLS is still relatively new to the States, but you'd never know it by the packed stadiums and wildly devoted fan bases. Soccer supporters have a long history of being vocal, assembling en masse, and donning the jerseys and raising the scarves of their favorite clubs.

Read more
The 11 best banana liqueur cocktails for a taste of the tropics
You and banana liqueur ought to know each other better. Get close with these great cocktail recipes
Banana liqueur cocktail

 

Banana may not jump to mind when you think of the best cocktails, but perhaps it should. With the right liqueur at your side, you can whip something that tastes like a warm breeze in palm tree country. The very best of the bunch play off of complementary spirits like rum and like-minded ingredients like coconut and orgeat.

Read more