Cocktail Wars Premiere: Every Cocktail Recipe From Episode 1

Cocktail Wars premiered on E! this week, and the Velvet Shelf team watched it the way we watch everything: with a notebook open and a jigger within reach. The format is simple. Three mixologists, three escalating challenges, one goes home after round two, and the last one standing takes $10,000. Joey Fatone and Lance Bass host and judge, master mixologist Melissa Brooke keeps them honest, and E! host Justin Sylvester sat in as the premiere's guest judge. Below you will find a full Cocktail Wars premiere recap plus every cocktail recipe from episode one, each with a one-tap link to save it to your Velvet Shelf.

Every spec below comes straight from the official episode 1 recipe page at cocktailwars.com, so the measurements are exactly what the competitors poured. Save any of them and the recipe lands in your bar with cocktailwars.com credited as the source.

Who competed on the Cocktail Wars premiere?

Vanessa Brown came in as the self-described speed bartender, a dive bar veteran who thought her pace might sneak up on people. Marc Rodriguez, 31, ran the bar at a Michelin-listed restaurant in Brooklyn and was used to working under a spotlight. Jon Schott, from Virginia by way of Washington, DC, credited his mother for pushing him to take bartending seriously, and he was the calmest person in the room all night.

The theme of the episode was temperature: how heat, smoke and cold can each change the way a cocktail tastes. Round one was a hot cocktail with Jack Daniel's. Round two was a smoked cocktail with Woodford Reserve Double Oaked. The final asked the last two standing to use cold as an ingredient with Diplomatico rum.

Round 1: Hot cocktails with Jack Daniel's

The first-impression round asked for a hot cocktail built on Jack Daniel's. Three drinks, three very different ideas of comfort.

Take a Hike (Jon Schott)

Jon's first-impression winner. A hot toddy built to taste like an autumn hike from Virginia into Tennessee, with hot apple cider doing the work hot water usually does. The black walnut bitters and the six dashes of absinthe are what make it smell like a trail in October.

Glass: Heatproof glass

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 oz Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey
• 1 dash Fee Brothers Black Walnut Bitters
• 1/2 oz Monin Honey Syrup
• 6 dashes Absinthe
• 3 oz Apple cider
• 1/4 oz Lemon juice

Method

Heat the apple cider to near boiling. Warm the glass with hot water. Mix the whiskey, honey syrup, lemon juice, absinthe and bitters in a mixing glass without ice. Discard the water from the glass and add the hot cider. Pour the mixed cocktail over the cider and stir to combine.

Save Take a Hike to your Velvet Shelf account

The Pick Me Up (Vanessa Brown)

Vanessa called it a stiffy, and she was right. Amaro, ginger liqueur and a peppery rim give it the spice the judges kept coming back to. Eat the candied peel first if you want the heat up front.

Glass: Rocks glass
Garnish: Candied orange peel; red pepper flake, salt and pepper rim

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 oz Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey
• 1/2 oz Amaro S. Maria al Monte
• 1/4 oz Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur
• 1/4 oz Orange syrup

Method

Rim a rocks glass with a mix of red pepper flake, salt and pepper. Combine the ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled. Strain over fresh ice into the rimmed glass. Garnish with candied orange peel.

Save The Pick Me Up to your Velvet Shelf account

Dirty Cha Cha (Marc Rodriguez)

Marc's take on a dirty chai latte: chai spice, espresso, Tennessee Apple and a spoon of pistachio cream. His garnish fell apart at the buzzer, and Justin Sylvester still called it a strong start.

Glass: Short glass
Garnish: Apple fan

Ingredients

• 1 oz Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey
• 1 oz Jack Daniel's Tennessee Apple Liqueur
• 1 oz Cafe Bustelo Unsweetened Espresso Style Iced Coffee
• 1/2 oz Masala chai spices
• 1/4 oz Spreadable pistachio cream

Method

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake hard. Double strain into a short glass. Garnish with an apple fan.

Save Dirty Cha Cha to your Velvet Shelf account

Round 2: Smoked cocktails with Woodford Reserve Double Oaked

Cocktail expert Melissa Brooke set the skills challenge: 20 minutes to build a cocktail on Woodford Reserve Double Oaked and finish it with smoke. Smoke binds to alcohol, and a cold drink holds that smoke longer, which is why every build below is chilled first and smoked last.

Home Is Where the Heart Is (Jon Schott)

Jon's smoke-round winner. It reads like a Manhattan with the volume turned up: vermouth, amaro and a sherry blend under the bourbon, and a barspoon of smoky Scotch inside the glass so the smoke on the nose feels like it belongs to the drink. The judges' one note was to leave it under the dome a few seconds longer.

Glass: Nick & Nora glass
Garnish: Heart-shaped orange peel, expressed; apple and ginger wood smoke

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 oz Woodford Reserve Double Oaked
• 1/2 oz Cinzano Vermouth Rosso
• 1/2 oz Vecchio Amaro del Capo
• 1/2 oz Pedro Ximenez and Oloroso sherry blend (2:1 Oloroso to PX)
• 2 dashes Fee Brothers Turkish Tobacco Bitters
• 1 barspoon Smoky Scotch whisky
• As needed Apple and ginger wood chips, for smoking

Method

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass. Add ice and stir 25 to 30 seconds. Strain into a chilled Nick & Nora glass. Garnish with a heart-shaped orange peel and express the orange oil over the drink. Smoke with ginger and apple wood chips under a glass-top smoker.

Save Home Is Where the Heart Is to your Velvet Shelf account

The Smoke & Stack (Vanessa Brown)

Vanessa's Southern-leaning sour, named for the twins in Sinners. Peach, honey and amaretto make it taste like a porch in September. Keep the torch flame small: the judges felt her chips burned hot and the smoke went acrid.

Glass: Rocks glass, smoked salt rim
Garnish: Torched peach; cinnamon and peach wood smoke

Ingredients

• 2 oz Woodford Reserve Double Oaked
• 1/2 oz Amaretto Fratelli D'Italia
• 1/4 oz Monin Honey Syrup
• 1/4 oz Lemon juice
• 2 dashes Fee Brothers Black Walnut Bitters
• 2 dashes Fee Brothers Peach Bitters

Method

Combine the ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain over fresh ice into a rocks glass rimmed with smoked salt. Smoke with cinnamon and peach wood chips. Garnish with a torched peach.

Save The Smoke & Stack to your Velvet Shelf account

Bad Boy Boulevard (Marc Rodriguez)

Marc's Boulevardier sour, the only daytime-friendly Woodford drink of the night. Equal parts bourbon, red bitter and vermouth, brightened with lemon. He landed a smoke bubble on top nearly every time, which Melissa Brooke called notoriously hard to do.

Glass: Coupe
Garnish: Hickory smoke bubble (optional)

Ingredients

• 1 oz Woodford Reserve Double Oaked
• 1 oz Red Bitter Caffo
• 1 oz Cinzano Vermouth Rosso
• 2 dashes Fee Brothers Turkish Tobacco Bitters
• 3/4 oz Lemon juice
• 1/2 oz Simple syrup

Method

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake hard. Double strain into a coupe glass.

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Final: Cold as an ingredient with Diplomatico rum

For the final, cold itself was the ingredient: flavored ice, frozen garnishes, frozen glassware, anything that made temperature part of the flavor. The spirit was Diplomatico rum, introduced by third-generation distiller Jose Luis Ballesteros, who described it as vanilla, toffee, orange peel and dark chocolate.

Staycation (Jon Schott)

The $10,000 winner. A layered tiki rum sour hiding under a dessert-like foam, in a glass chilled with liquid nitrogen on the show. Twenty minutes in your freezer does the same job. Justin Sylvester's verdict: two drinks in one, and he loved both of them.

Glass: Rocks glass, nitro-chilled or frozen
Garnish: Pistachio and chocolate cold foam; orchid ice cube; orange and lemon zest

Ingredients

• 2 oz Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva Rum
• 2 dashes Fee Brothers Cardamom Bitters
• 2 dashes Fee Brothers Grapefruit Bitters
• 1/2 oz Monin Yuzu & Pineapple Syrup
• 1/2 oz Monin Passion Fruit Syrup
• 1/2 oz Lime juice
• 1/2 oz Lemon juice
• 1 Big ice cube with an edible orchid
• 3 oz Pistachio and chocolate whipped cream (egg white, Monin Pistachio Syrup, Fee Brothers Aztec Chocolate Bitters)

Method

Combine all ingredients except the foam in a Boston shaker. Add ice and shake hard for 15 seconds. Strain over the orchid ice cube in a nitro-chilled glass. Top with the cold foam. Express orange and lemon zest over the top.

Save Staycation to your Velvet Shelf account

She's a 10 (Vanessa Brown)

Vanessa's guava daiquiri riff, light enough to have two. Her sphere-in-a-coupe caused a stir at the judges' table, but with a deep enough coupe it works. Freeze the mint flat on a plate at home; it comes out crisp, almost like a chip.

Glass: Chilled glass
Garnish: Liquid-nitrogen frozen mint leaf

Ingredients

• 2 oz Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva Rum
• 1/2 oz Monin Guava Syrup
• 2 dashes Yerba Madre Enlighten Mint
• 1 splash Fee Brothers Rhubarb Bitters
• 3/4 oz Lime juice

Method

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake hard for 15 seconds. Strain into a chilled glass. Garnish with a liquid-nitrogen frozen mint leaf.

Save She's a 10 to your Velvet Shelf account

How the judging went

Round one went to Jon's Take a Hike, though Justin Sylvester singled out Marc's Dirty Cha Cha as a strong start and Melissa Brooke praised Vanessa for serving her drink in stemware. Round two was the drama. Marc's smoking device turned up missing a piece, the judges stopped the clock to swap it for a cloche, and he still landed his smoke bubbles nearly every time. Jon's Home Is Where the Heart Is won the round on the strength of its Scotch trick, and the judges sent Marc home in what they called a hard call, telling him the cocktail itself was great.

The final came down to a split. Melissa Brooke felt Jon's foam and Jon's cocktail tasted like two different drinks. Justin Sylvester loved exactly that about it. Lance Bass called it the best foam he had ever had and asked for a Florida recount before Joey read the result. Jon took the $10,000, and Vanessa's She's a 10 earned the kind of praise you actually want to hear about a daiquiri: everyone at the table said they could drink several.

Three techniques worth stealing from episode one

The smoky Scotch barspoon in Jon's smoked drink is the smartest thing on the show. A barspoon of Islay whisky inside the glass makes the smoke on the nose feel like it belongs to the drink instead of sitting on top of it. Try it in any smoked old fashioned.

Flash-freezing herbs turns a garnish into a texture. Vanessa froze mint leaves and they came out crisp, almost like chips. It works with basil and shiso too. Serve them on the side if you want the crunch to survive more than a minute.

Chill the glass, not just the drink. Jon's glass was frosted with liquid nitrogen, but twenty minutes in a home freezer gets a rocks glass cold enough to keep a foam-topped drink tight through the last sip.

Save the whole episode to your shelf

Every recipe above has its own save link, the same kind we drop in the comments on Instagram. Tap it, sign in, and the cocktail lands in your favorites with the ingredients checked against your bar. Missing the yuzu syrup or the peach bitters? The Barkeep will tell you what to swap. Cocktail Wars airs Tuesdays at 10 on E!, and we will be doing this every week.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who won the first episode of Cocktail Wars?

Jon Schott, a bartender from Virginia who works in Washington, DC, won the Cocktail Wars premiere and the $10,000 prize. He took all three rounds: the hot cocktail first impression, the smoked cocktail skills challenge, and the cold-as-an-ingredient final with his layered rum sour, Staycation.

Who are the judges on Cocktail Wars?

Cocktail Wars is hosted and judged by Joey Fatone and Lance Bass, with master mixologist Melissa Brooke as the resident cocktail expert. Each episode adds a guest judge; the premiere featured E! host Justin Sylvester. The show airs Tuesdays at 10 on E!.

What spirits were used on the Cocktail Wars premiere?

The premiere used Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 and Tennessee Apple for the hot cocktail round, Woodford Reserve Double Oaked for the smoked cocktail challenge, and Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva rum for the final cold cocktail round.

Why do smoked cocktails work better cold?

Smoke compounds bind to alcohol, and cold liquid holds aroma longer than warm liquid, so a chilled drink keeps its smoky character through the last sip. Smoke the finished, chilled cocktail under a cloche for 30 seconds or more, and keep the torch flame small so the wood smolders instead of scorching.