The cocktail was born in the 1800’s out of the desire to make low quality spirits taste better. Sugar, bitters and vermouths made from herbs and spices and sometimes fruit were added. Of course the cocktail evolved into much more than that. Yet to make a good cocktail you don’t need to make you own bitter and have thirty three different vermouths in your liquor cabinet. You only need a couple of quality ingredients and a couple of basic spirits to make delicious drinks.

Here are six cocktails that require few ingredients and little work:

Cuba Libre

Yes, it’s an upgraded rum and coke but what’s wrong with that? Coke and rum, especially dark rum, go well together. Add some lime and you have a superb drink. Squeeze half a lime into a glass, add 60 ml of rum and stir.  Then add ice, 110 ml of coke and stir gently. You can use Thai rum if you like yet you’ll see that the cocktail will improve if you use a quality dark rum.

Daiquiri

The daiquiri has been seriously molested during the course of its existence by some overly ambitious bartenders. A true Daiquiri, however, is a marvel of simplicity. Squeeze half a lime in a glass, add 60 ml of light rum, a teaspoon of sugar and add ice. Shake well for ten seconds. If you don’t have a cocktail shaker, an old fashioned stir will do. Don’t use dark rum for this cocktail.

Gin Gimlet

This classic consists of 45 ml of gin, 30 ml of sweetened lime juice (1 part lime juice, 1 part simple syrup). Finish with ice and soda. If you don’t like gin you can use vodka or tequila instead.

Moscow Mule

If you have stainless steel or copper cups, do use them. If not, any glass will do. Take 60 ml of vodka, 90 ml of ginger beer and the juice of 1/2 a lime. Add ice and stir gently.

Gin Buck

The Gin Buck is a delicious combination of the two previous cocktails. Fill your glass with 45 ml of gin, 75 ml of ginger beer and the juice of 1/2 a lime. Add ice and stir.

Piña Colada

This one isn’t the simplest to make but it’s included in this list because all the ingredients are readily available in Thailand.

Take 50 ml of rum, 50 ml of pineapple juice, a tablespoon of coconut cream, 6 to 7 bit sized chunks of pineapple and ice. Put all of this in a blender and blend till it’s smooth. Note: Don’t exchange the pineapple juice for chunks of fresh pineapple, too much fresh pineapple in the drink can give you a sore throat.

Except for the last one, all of these cocktails include lime. A simple but delicious cocktail should be made from easily obtainable and relatively affordable ingredients. Limes can be found anywhere in Thailand and they’re of good quality. If you do use the smaller Thai limes you might want to use a whole lime instead of 1/2 a lime since they’re smaller.

That goes for the other ingredients too. Use the recipes as a guideline and tweak the cocktails to your liking. Buy some vodka, gin and/or rum and make sure you have some sugar in the house. Now all you need is some sodas and limes and you’re good to go. Enjoy!