This delicious drink is made with an easy-to-find sugar cane based spirit, Cachaca, that unlike rum, which is made from cane molasses & pulps, is made from pure cane juice. I usually find Brazilian Cachaca in the rum section of my local liquor store. This is a very powerful cocktail and easy to drink which makes it dangerous. Stop and see how you feel after two. If you drink more than three, you’ll hate me in the morning.

Here we go –

• 3 oz Cachaca
• 1 lime (cut into 8 wedges – half, then quarter each half)
• 2 tsp sugar
• ½ oz lemon or limejuice (if needed)

In a bar glass, muddle the sugar and lime wedges until almost paste-like, add small amounts of the juice if the lime wedge/sugar mix becomes too gummy. Add a couple handfuls of ice and the Cachaca. Shake till cold and mixed well. Pour everything into a short or old-fashioned glass and add a stir stick. Perfect with some of that bossa nova or mambo I talk about over on our music page.

Picked this on up in the July/August issue of Imbibe magazine and mixed one. I liked what I tasted and searched my old bar bibles to see if I could read more about it. I turned up a recipe online calling for greater quantities of the lemon juice and Benedictine (the Imbibe recipe called for a ½ oz each) and liked it even more. There doesn’t seem to be a start date on this drink but the online Cocktail Chronicles traces its origin back farther than the 1930’s –

Here we go –

• 2 oz rye
• ¾ oz Benedictine liqueur
• ¾ oz lemon juice

Shake with cracked ice in a shaker till ice cold then strain up into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon wedge.

Here we go –

• 2 oz aged rum (I’m a huge fan of The Appleton Estate Extra 12 year)
• 1 oz sweet vermouth
• ½ tsp maraschino liqueur (I use a full tsp; I like the taste)
• 1-2 dashes of orange bitters

Mix above ingredients with plenty of ice in a glass pitcher or mixing glass. Stir till icy cold. Strain up into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with an orange peel twist.

Created by bartender Misty Kalkofen at the Green Street Bar in Cambridge, MA, this Applejack cocktail is yet another reason you simply must have a bottle of this versatile apple spirit on your home bar. The cold frothiness combining with the warm flavors of apple, maple and the herbal Benedictine, make this a sure fire hit for your next cold weather cocktail get-together. This is a sweater-weather drink and one just right for drinking before a hearty winter supper.

Here we go –

• 1 ½ oz Applejack
• ¾ oz Benedictine
• ½ oz maple syrup
• 1 fresh egg (just try it)

Shake in a shaker with plenty of ice till frothy and ice-cold. Strain up into a cocktail glass and garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon or nutmeg.

A variation on the traditional daiquiri, I find this drink a bit more complicated on the taste buds (which ain’t always a good thing, but it’s fun here). With the addition of sweet vermouth, and more importantly in my opinion, the kiss of crème de cacao, the drink elevates itself to more than just a warm weather sipper. If you search for it, you’ll find the extremely slight chocolate wash from the crème de cacao combining with the vermouth almost indescribable, yet sensually apparent. I made my first one just a few days ago, and all who joined me outside on an oddly mild January day fell in love with it.

Here we go –

• 1 ½ oz light rum
• ½ oz fresh lime juice
• ½ oz sweet vermouth
• 1 tsp grenadine
• 2 tsp crème de cacao

Shake above ingredients in a shaker till cold and strain into a cold cocktail glass. Garnish with a thin lime wheel.

Here we go –

• 2 ounces gin
• 1 ounce dry vermouth
• 3 dashes Crème de Yvette (you can substitute w/ Crème de Violette)
• 1-2 dash(es) bitters

Shake contents with ice in shaker ‘til cold. Serve up in a cocktail glass.

Here we go –

• 2 ounces gin
• 1 egg white
• 3+ dashes Maraschino liqueur
• 2-3 dashes lemon juice

Shake above ingredients with cracked ice in shaker ‘til frothy & cold. Serve up in a cocktail glass with maraschino cherry as garnish.

Here we go –

• 2 ounces gin
• 1 ounce dry vermouth
• 2-3 dashes of lime juice

Shake ingredients gently in an ice-filled shaker ‘til terribly cold. Serve up in a cocktail glass with an olive for garnish.

Here we go –

• 1 ½ ounces bourbon
• 1 ½ ounces sweet vermouth
• 2-3 dashes of orange bitters

Shake everything with ice ‘til cold. Serve up in a cocktail glass. Cherry garnish optional.

Here we go –

• 1 ½ ounces brandy
• 1 ½ ounces sweet vermouth
• 1-2 dashes bitters
• 3 dashes grenadine

Shake in a shaker with ice ‘til cold. Serve up in a cocktail glass.