The Simple Way To Make A Restaurant-Worthy Screwdriver Cocktail

When you think of restaurant-quality food and drink, you may picture things you can't find anywhere else. With just two ingredients and a simple trick, cocktail enthusiasts can make a classic drink that's worthy of a fine dining establishment.

That classic drink is a screwdriver — a cocktail that takes only orange juice and vodka to make. In a world where dozens of different types of cocktails are recognized, the screwdriver is arguably one of the most simple and accessible to both novice and experienced cocktail drinkers.

To make this easy drink restaurant-worthy, it's important to use fresh orange juice and the reasoning is simple: By using freshly squeezed orange juice, cocktail drinkers get more of the natural flavor of oranges as opposed to added sugars and preservatives that go into well-known store-bought brands. Those who want a really smooth-textured screwdriver with fresh orange juice can also strain out the pulp.

A juicer makes it easy to make fresh orange juice, but squeezing oranges can also be done by hand with little effort. By lightly tapping the oranges on the counter, halving them, and squeezing them, fresh orange juice can be obtained in a matter of minutes.

The origins of the screwdriver are varied, but one famous story details oil rig workers who used screwdrivers to mix sweet orange juice into vodka. The cocktail was famously a favorite of writer Truman Capote and is also favored by Martha Stewart. The famous TV personality has plenty of tips for making incredible cocktails, and two are especially important for screwdrivers: Fresh juice and good vodka.

As noted above and reinforced by Stewart, fresh juices like orange juice are free of the unhealthy additives found in store-bought juices and drink mixes. She also recommends using seasonal ingredients, so depending on the season, amateur mixologists and party hosts can make screwdrivers with navel oranges during the winter, blood oranges in the spring, and valencia oranges in the fall depending on local availability and taste preferences.

As for the vodka, there are many varieties to choose from when making a screwdriver, but Stewart recommends quality alcohol to make a quality cocktail. Stewart uses top-shelf vodka in her favorite drink, the lemon drop martini, and higher-quality vodka is often recommended in drinks because it has a smoother finish due to its distillation process. With a high-end vodka and a handful of oranges, anyone can turn both into a high-quality screwdriver that might become the talk of your next party.