Everything we pour with.
The two books every DadTails cocktail comes out of, the home bar we actually use, and the kit from each week’s episode. Pour along.
The Field Notes
One email a week: the new episode before it’s public, and the cocktail from the show.
As an Amazon Associate, DadTails earns from qualifying purchases.
We only list what is actually on our bar. Check current price on Amazon.
The two books.
Every cocktail on DadTails comes out of one of these two. If you buy nothing else on this page, buy these — they outlast any single kit, and they’re the reason we can riff instead of following recipes.
Cocktail Codex
Day, Fauchald & Kaplan — Death & Co.
Its argument is that there are only six root cocktails, and that nearly everything else is a riff on one of them. Once that clicks you stop memorising recipes and start recognising shapes — which is why a Paper Plane suddenly makes sense as a sour, not as four random ingredients.
It’s the book that changed how we talk about drinks on the show. When Ryan says “this is just a daiquiri wearing a coat,” that’s the Codex talking.
Meehan’s Bartender Manual
Jim Meehan — PDT
The one that stays on the counter. Where the Codex teaches you to think, Meehan tells you what to actually do — technique, ratios, ice, glassware, and the history behind why a drink is built the way it is. It’s the book you open mid-pour when something isn’t working.
The Codex gives you the map, Meehan gives you the manual. Between them there’s almost nothing we make on the show that you can’t reverse-engineer at home.
The tools that never change.
The kit changes every Thursday. This part doesn’t. Starting from nothing, buy these four and you can make most of what we pour on the show.
Hawthorne strainer
The spring does the work and it fits any Boston tin. Cheapest thing on this page and the one you’ll use every single time.
Get the strainer on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonDouble jigger
Equal parts only works if the parts are actually equal. This is the difference between a Paper Plane and a sour mess.
Get the jigger on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonShaker tins
Two tins, no glass to shatter on your counter at 9pm. This is what actual bars use.
Get the tins on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonCoupes
Served up, no ice. A Paper Plane in a pint glass is a sad thing to look at.
Get the coupes on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonThe kits.
One cocktail per episode, and everything it takes to build it. Newest at the top — older kits stay up, because the drinks don’t expire.
The Sharpie Mustache
Episode drops Thursday, September 24
Equal parts — three-quarters of an ounce each — of gin, rye whiskey, Meletti amaro and Bonal. A little bitters. Stirred with ice, strained, finished with an orange peel.
Four spirits and nothing to cut them, so the stir is doing all the work: it chills and dilutes, and that is the only water this drink gets. Meletti brings the sweetness, Bonal — a bitter aperitif from the French Alps — brings the earth and the spice. Created by Chris Elford at Amor y Amargo in New York. As for the name — the episode explains it.
Add the whole kit to your cart Check current prices on AmazonJapanese jigger
Four spirits at three-quarters of an ounce each. Equal parts only works if the parts are actually equal.
Get the jigger on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonHawthorne strainer
Holds the ice back on the way out of the mixing glass.
Get the strainer on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonThe stirred kit
A stirred drink wants a heavy mixing glass and a long weighted bar spoon rather than tins, and a wide strip of orange peel with not much pith. As with Ep 4, we pour this one with what is on our own table and have not linked a specific set — the tools in the home bar above cover everything else on this page.
The gin, rye, Meletti and Bonal are a liquor-store run, not an Amazon one. Ryan pours Union Horse rye on the episode.
The Silent Order
Episode drops Thursday, September 17
Two ounces of green Chartreuse, half an ounce of fresh lime, half an ounce of water, and seven sweet basil leaves. Shaken — not muddled — then double strained and served up in a coupe.
Green Chartreuse is still made by Carthusian monks, an order that keeps silence — which is where the name comes from. It runs 110 proof and carries something like 130 plants, so it does not need help; the lime and the water are there to open it up rather than to cover it. The basil goes in whole and gets shaken, not muddled. Muddling tears the leaves and turns the whole glass green and bitter — shaking bruises them just enough to give up the top note and nothing else.
Add the whole kit to your cart Check current prices on AmazonCitrus squeezer
Half an ounce of lime against two ounces of Chartreuse is a small margin. Bottled juice will read as sour instead of bright.
Get the squeezer on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonJapanese jigger
This one is built on halves, not equal parts. You need a jigger that actually marks a half ounce rather than guessing at it.
Get the jigger on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonShaker tins
The shake is doing two jobs here — waking the lime up and bruising the basil. Tins give you room for the leaves to move.
Get the tins on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonHawthorne strainer
The first strain. Holds the ice back.
Get the strainer on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonFine mesh strainer
The second strain, and on this one it is not optional — it is what catches the basil. Skip it and you are drinking the salad.
Get the mesh strainer on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonCoupes
Served up, no ice. The colour is half the drink.
Get the coupes on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonThe green Chartreuse itself is a liquor-store run, not an Amazon one — and the basil is a grocery run. Seven leaves, fresh.
The Hemingway Daiquiri
Episode drops Thursday, September 10
White or silver rum, maraschino liqueur, fresh grapefruit and fresh lime. No simple syrup at all. Shake hard, double strain, serve up.
Also called the Papa Doble. The story goes Hemingway asked for it drier and stronger than a standard daiquiri — less sugar meant he could have another one. The daiquiri is one of the six roots in the Codex, so this is the root itself, just dressed differently.
Add the whole kit to your cart Check current prices on AmazonCitrus squeezer
Grapefruit and lime, both fresh. This drink is mostly juice — bottled will taste like it.
Get the squeezer on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonJapanese jigger
There’s no sugar in this one to hide behind, so the ratios have to be honest.
Get the jigger on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonShaker tins
Ryan explains it on the episode: anything with citrus gets shaken, because shaking is what wakes the citrus up.
Get the tins on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonHawthorne strainer
The first strain. Holds the ice back.
Get the strainer on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonFine mesh strainer
The second strain. Catches pulp and ice shards — the whole difference between cloudy and clean.
Get the mesh strainer on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonThe Last of the Oaxacans
Episode drops Thursday, September 3
Equal parts mezcal, maraschino liqueur, green Chartreuse and fresh lime. Shake hard, double strain, serve up in a coupe.
A riff on The Last Word, which was built at the Detroit Athletic Club back in 1910. Swap the gin for mezcal and the whole drink turns smoky — that’s where the name comes from, since most mezcal is made in Oaxaca. Underneath it’s a sour, the same Codex shape as the Paper Plane, which is why the kit is nearly the same.
Add the whole kit to your cart Check current prices on AmazonCitrus squeezer
Equal parts means the lime has to be fresh. Bottled juice will flatten the Chartreuse and you’ll taste it immediately.
Get the squeezer on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonJapanese jigger
This is a four-way equal-parts drink. Get one of them wrong and the mezcal or the Chartreuse takes over the whole glass.
Get the jigger on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonShaker tins
Citrus gets shaken, never stirred. Shaking is what wakes the lime up and pulls the smoke and the herbs together.
Get the tins on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonHawthorne strainer
The first strain. Holds the ice back.
Get the strainer on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonFine mesh strainer
The second strain. Green Chartreuse is worth seeing clearly — pulp and ice shards turn it cloudy.
Get the mesh strainer on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonCoupes
Served up, no ice. The colour is half the drink.
Get the coupes on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonThe bottles — mezcal, Luxardo maraschino and green Chartreuse — are a liquor-store run, not an Amazon one. Ryan pours Montelobos Espadín on the episode.
The Boulevardier
Episode drops Thursday, August 27
Bourbon, Campari and sweet vermouth, stirred over ice — mixing glass, not a shaker — strained over a big cube, finished with an orange twist.
Named for a man strolling the boulevard because his day is done. Which is the whole point of this one.
Double jigger
A whiskey-forward build still needs the parts measured.
Get the jigger on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonCoupes
Or a rocks glass over the big cube — your call.
Get the coupes on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonThe stirred kit
A stirred drink wants a mixing glass and a bar spoon rather than tins, a julep strainer over a Hawthorne, and one big cube instead of several small ones. We pour this one with what is on our own table and have not linked a specific set — the four tools in the home bar above cover everything else on this page.
Ryan’s family actually takes these. That’s the whole endorsement.
The Paper Plane
Episode drops Thursday, August 20
Equal parts bourbon or rye, Amaro Nonino, Aperol and fresh lemon. Shake hard, double strain, serve up in a coupe.
A sour at heart — which is exactly the kind of thing the Codex makes obvious once you’ve read it.
Add the whole kit to your cart Check current prices on AmazonHawthorne strainer
Start here. The spring does the work and it fits any Boston tin.
Get the strainer on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonDouble jigger
Equal parts only works if the parts are actually equal.
Get the jigger on AmazonCheck current price on AmazonShaker tins
Two tins, nothing to shatter on the counter.
Get the tins on AmazonCheck current price on Amazon