Dirty Shirley

Forty-five milliliters against 120 of soda is about the ceiling. Push to 60 and the vodka stops hiding behind the grenadine, which is the only thing here sweet enough to cover it. If yours tastes more like syrup than soda, that is the grenadine, not the spirit: pour 10 ml instead of 15.

A Shirley Temple, which is this glass minus the spirit. Build it the same way and nobody at the table feels short-changed. If you want it to look less like a kid's drink, serve it in a rocks glass over one big cube.

The neon red kind, honestly. A Luxardo cherry is a beautiful thing on a Manhattan, but here its dark almond flavor sits badly against the fizz and the dye. This is a drink about candy, and the candy cherry is the honest choice.

Effectively, yes. Jarred cocktail cherries sit in sugar syrup with almond flavoring and dye, so a spoonful of it is a second sweetener landing on top of the 15 ml you already poured. One cherry and whatever clings to it is fine. Tipping the jar is how this drink earned its reputation.

Cloudy lemonade works and tastes slightly more grown-up. Plain soda water leaves the glass thin and oddly sour, so add 5 ml more grenadine and a squeeze of lime if you go that route. Cola makes a different drink, and not a good one.

A classic Dirty Shirley calls for 45 ml (1.5 oz) Vodka, 15 ml (0.5 oz) Grenadine, 120 ml (4 oz) Lemon-lime soda. That single-serve spec scales cleanly — the recipe above converts it to oz and multiplies it for 2–4 drinks.

A Dirty Shirley is built directly in the glass over ice — no shaker required. Add the ingredients in order and give it a brief, gentle stir.