Recipes

On this page we present some of our favorite recipes for cocktails using White Birch and Old Russian. We aim to make this page the most complete compendium of vodka recipes on the web, but .

We Need Your Help!

If we wanted to, we could post 10,000 vodka recipes here in no time - just Google "vodka recipes" and then cut and paste. But how fun would that be? To get the recipes below, we relied on our own memories, and we talked to some of our favorite vodka drinkers. That's how we'd like to keep it. As we talk to more people, we'll add to the list. But we'd also like to hear from you about how to make your favorite vodka drink. Click here and tell us!

• Apple Martini

4 cl White Birch or Old Russian
1.5 cl apple schnapps
1.5 cl Cointreau
Shake with ice, strain, garnish with apple slice.

 

• Arctic Horizon

1.5 oz. White Birch Vodka
.75 oz. Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur
Dash of Blue Curacao
1/16 tsp. Peppermint Schnapps
Very finely crushed ice

Fill a chilled martini glass 3/4 full with crushed ice. Shake vodka, chocolate liqueur, and schnapps with ice. Strain into chilled martini glass. Pour drop of curacao over rim of glass. Garnish with leaf of fresh mint.

—Created by Theresa Turner for 1147vodka.com

 

• Birch and Birch

3 parts White Birch
3 parts Birch Beer
Build over ice cubes in a highball glass, and serve with a lime wedge.

 

• Birch Bark Martini

2 oz. White Birch Vodka
.25 oz. Noilly Prat dry vermouth
2 fresh sage leaves

Bruise (with muddler) one fresh sage leaf in cocktail shaker. Stir (do not shake) vodka, vermouth, and bruised leaf with ice. Strain into martini glass. Float other sage leaf in drink. Balance small drop of vermouth on floating leaf.

—Created by Theresa Turner for 1147vodka.com

 

• Black Russian

5.0 cl White Birch or Old Russian
2.0 cl coffee liqueur

 

• Black Sea Cola

2 oz. White Birch Vodka
.5 oz. Cherry Pucker
.5 oz. Vimto Fruit Cordial (black currant & raspberry)
Club Soda

Shake vodka, cherry pucker, and fruit cordial, and pour into Collins glass over ice. Top off with club soda, and garnish with maraschino cherry.

Comment: Tastes like cherry cola, and deceptively non-alcoholic. We call it Black Sea cola in honor of the region in Russia where White Birch is made.

—Created by Theresa Turner for 1147vodka.com

 

• Bloody Mary

To get our Bloody Mary recipe, we went directly to the source: the King Cole Bar at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City. One day last week, over late morning cocktails, we learned the following from Mixologist Gavin:

"The Bloody Mary was born at Harry's New York Bar in Paris, where Fernand Petiot served as a bartender in the early 1920s. For one reason or another, he poured a half glass of tomato juice one day and filled it to the brim with vodka. Et voila! An entertainer, Roy Barton, provided the name, saying it reminded him of a Chicago Club, 'The Bucket of Blood.'

"In 1934, Fernand Petiot became a bartender here at the St. Regis Hotel. One day, Serge Obolensky, a well-known man about town whose penchant for vodka was in keeping with his aristocratic Russian background, asked Petiot to make the vodka cocktail he had enjoyed in Paris. The formula was spiced up with salt, pepper, lemon and Worcestershire sauce, but since 'Bloody Mary' was deemed a little too inappropriate for the elegant King Cole Bar, it was rechristened the 'Red Snapper,' which is how you will see it on your bill today. The new name never caught on in the rest of America, but the spicy concoction itself sure did!"


1 oz. White Birch or Old Russian vodka
2 oz. Sacramento tomato juice
1 dash lemon juice
2 dashes salt
2 dashes black pepper
2 dashes cayenne pepper
3 dashes Worcestershire sauce

It's as simple as that. Thanks to Mixologist Gavin at the King Cole Bar for a most excellent liquid lunch!
(Added Dec. 1, 2007)

 

• Capri

4 cl White Birch or Old Russian
1 cl Chambord
splash tonic
splash grapefruit juice
shake, strain, garnish with lime wedge

—invented by mixologist Anthony at Eno Restaurant, Peachtree Street, Atlanta

 

• Dry Martini

5.5 cl White Birch or Old Russian
1 drop of dry vermouth
Shake with ice, strain, garnish with three olives.

 

• Georgian

5 cl White Birch or Old Russian
2 cl peach nectar
1 cl cointreau
Shake with ice, strain, garnish with fresh mint.

 

• Ginger Buzz

2 oz. Domaine de Canton ginger and cognac liqueur
1 oz. White Birch or Old Russian vodka
2.5 oz. apple cider
Dash lemon juice
Honey
Finely crumbled gingersnap cookies

1. Spread honey on a plate and dip rim of a chilled cocktail glass on plate.
2. Spread crumbled cookies on another plate and dip rim into crumbs.
3. Shake all liquid ingredients with ice, and strain into cocktail glass.
4. Add orange twist (optional).

 

• Kamikaze

2 oz White Birch or Old Russian
2 oz Triple Sec
2 oz Raspberry Liqueur

How To: I used Razzmatazz Raspberry Liqueur.
Mix equal parts of each and shake over ice and serve in shots.

Comments: I tried White Birch when I was in Atlanta over the holidays and it was so nice I couldn't believe it was not a much higher priced vodka.

 

• Killing Rasputin

1 oz. White Birch Vodka
.5 oz. Raspberry Brandy
.5 oz. Vimto fruit cordial (black currant and raspberry)
Dash of blueberry liqueur
Splash of cranberry juice

Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into a martini glass. Garnish with ultra thin lime wheel.

History: Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, also known as the "Mad Monk," was a mystic and an adviser to Russian Tsar Nicholas II and his family. In December 1916, convinced that Rasputin's influence over the royal family had become too great, a group of noblemen conspired to kill him. They lured Rasputin to a palace, where they fed him cakes and wine laced with cyanide -- enough to kill five men. Rasputin was unaffected by the poison. One of the nobles then shot him four times in the back with a revolver and left him for dead. Rasputin, however, struggled to his feet and grappled with the shooter, whereupon the other nobles returned and clubbed him to death. —Or so they thought. The nobles bundled Rasputin into sheets, took him outside, and threw him into the icy Neva River. Three days later, the body of Rasputin, poisoned, shot four times and badly beaten, was recovered from the Neva River and autopsied. The cause of death was hypothermia. His arms were found in an upright position, as if he had tried to claw his way out from under the ice.

It took the nobles four tries to kill Rasputin. The four kinds of berries in our recipe commemorate the Mad Monk's macabre will to live.

—Created by Theresa Turner for 1147vodka.com

 

• Martini

5.5 cl White Birch or Old Russian
1 cl of dry vermouth
Shake with ice, strain, garnish with three olives.

 

• Naked Natasha

3 oz. White Birch Vodka

Chill vodka to steady 32 degrees. Pour into chilled martini glass. Garnish as you like.

—Created by Theresa Turner for 1147vodka.com

 

• Pear Drop

5 cl White Birch or Old Russian
2 cl pear nectar
1 cl pear brandy
Shake with ice, strain, garnish with fresh mint.

 

• Pom Pom

5 cl White Birch or Old Russian
2 cl pomegranate juice
1 cl triple sec

 

• Raskolnikov

5 cl White Birch or Old Russian
2 cl blackberry brandy
1 cl Cointreau

 

• Rasputin's Revenge

1 oz White Birch Vodka (chilled)
Dash Cherry Pucker Liqueur
Dash Vimto Fruit Cordial (black currant & raspberry)

Pour chilled vodka in a vodka flute or shot glass. Gently pour cherry liquor down the side of glass. With a quick motion, pour fruit cordial in the middle of the glass. It will fall directly to the bottom, creating a layered, bloody look.

 

• Russian Summer

1 oz. White Birch Vodka
.5 oz. Blueberry liqueur
.5 oz. Ribena black currant concentrate
Splash of lime juice
Splash of cranberry juice
3 ripe blueberries

Mix all the liquid ingredients in a shaker. Pour into a Collins glass over ice cubes. Garnish with 3 blueberries.

Comment: The Ribena black current concentrate, sold in most whole foods stores, is a powerful anti-oxidant; it complements the rejuvenating properties of the birch essence in the vodka.

—Created by Theresa Turner for 1147vodka.com

 

• Siberian Sunset

.5 oz. White Birch or Old Russian Vodka
.5 oz. Orange Juice
.25 oz. Blue Curacao
Drop Grenadine

Combine vodka and juice and pour into a shot glass. Pour blue curacao down side of glass and let settle in as a layer beneath the vodka/juice. Add drop of grenadine down side of glass and let settle in as a setting red sun at the bottom of the glass.

—Created by mixologist Susan Turner of Madison Grill, Atlanta

 

• Very Dry Martini

5.5 cl White Birch or Old Russian
Shake with ice, strain.
Slowly whisper “vermouth” over glass. Garnish with three olives.

Note: Unless step 3 is followed this is merely a “neat” martini.

 

• Vesper

3 measures Tanqueray
94 proof gin
1 measure White Birch Vodka
1/2 measure of Lillet Blanc /p>

Shake well. Add dash of Angostura bitters or 1/16 tsp. quinine powder. Serve with lemon peel. (If needed, substitute Noilly Prat dry vermouth for Lillet Blanc)

History: The drink was popularized in the novel Casino Royale when ordered by its inventor, James Bond, to commemorate his strong feelings for its namesake, Vesper Lynd.

 

• White Russian

5.0 cl White Birch or Old Russian
2.0 cl coffee liqueur
3.0 cl dollup of fresh cream on top