As may be assumed from its title, the chief purpose of a Corpse Reviver #2 is to rouse the drinker back from the dead. It can certainly work a treat, the morning after a lively wake.
Corpse Reviver #2
Mai Tai
The classic Tiki cocktail, Mai Tai is all about rum. Bartenders have their favourite bespoke blends, up to 4 different rums, but whatever you use it has to be the good stuff and it should be Jamaican.
Margarita
There are numerous stories on how the Margarita originated. All we really know is it comes from Mexico in the 1940s and that you can get some really rough ones. Stay away from beach bars, tourist cafés, street sellers and anywhere else cheap. Go to a serious cocktail bar or make it yourself. Or just do yourself a favour; leave it for student holidays and hen parties.
Patxaran Sour
Another classic, created by George Mulholland with Patxaran, a herbal liqueur made from sloe berries in El País Basco and Navarra. Politely put, it is an acquired taste and could be pretty rough until we discovered the delightful Patxaran Gaizka, family-made in small runs in the Basque region since 1831.
Sidecar
If you fancy a cognac based cocktail, you cannot do much better than a Sidecar. It can be pretty dry so rimming the glass with a little sugar can take the edge off. The quantities given here, although maintaining the classic 2:1:1 ratio, are more than sufficient for the glass, allowing the excess to be served in a shot glass on the side, in other words, a Sidecar.
Toast & Marmalade Martini
The Marmalade Martini saw the light of dawn in 1930 in The Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddock, an American who came to the UK to escape Prohibition. It became the quintessential cocktail book of the time and is still required reference for any contemporary bartender.
White Lady
Harry Craddock, he of the Savoy Cocktail Book fame, claimed it as his own signature cocktail, and even buried one, in a shaker, in the wall of the Dorchester. However it appears that it had been around a good while before his time.