Just made a penicillin with a splash of banana liqueur - it's not really perceptible as banana but makes it rounder, fuller.

When I make a paper plane I like double bourbon but also replace some of the Aperol with Campari - less sweet and extra bitter is better.

What small changes do you always make to a standard recipe?

Idk that it counts as small changes but if you check my post here in this community, I have been perfecting my own take on the old fashioned. I fell in love with bourbon this year and the first cocktail I really enjoyed with it is the old fashioned. To summarize, I use more cherries than normal and instead of orange peel, I use a lot of lime juice and a whole slice of lime. 🤌 so good!

Switching Campari for Aperol, or the other way around, is the main change I do. I like the bitterness of Campari, but my wife usually prefers Aperol, so it is an easy way to make the same cocktail work for the 2 of us!

I also usually bump the lemon/lime quantity a bit, as I rather the cocktail be on the sour side. But it might also be because the citrus we get here are not that great...