Here’s Maggie Smith, from Death & Co. As written, I found it a little sweet, so I made a variant after with dark rum, no honey syrup, and added aquafaba, that I found to be, personally, more palatable.

• 1 ounce pisco
• 1 ounce white rum
• ½ ounce orange liqueur
• ¾ ounce lime juice
• ¼ ounce orgeat
• 1 teaspoon honey syrup

This one is from PDT’s cocktail book. Of the “all-alcohol” drinks I’ve made, this has ended up being one of the more approachable ones. It has an aggressive nose from the Fernet, but a lot of the taste’s edge is tempered by the Grand Marnier. It’s still a heavy hitter, but I liked it a lot!

• 2 oz Linie Aquavit
• ¾ oz Grand Marnier
• ½ oz Nonino Quintessentia Amaro
• Fernet Branca rinse

Stir with ice and strain into a Fernet Branca-rinsed glass.

• 1 ½ oz mezcal Cupreata
• ¾ oz sloe gin
• ¾ oz Cynar

Stir with ice and strain into a Nick & Nora glass.

On the tin, it seems like this would be way too much, between the aggressive smokiness of the mezcal and the herbal bitterness of the Cynar, but the fruit in the slow gin is enough to balance all that out. It’s still pretty spirit-forward, but super palatable.

This is lovely, and pretty much right what it says on the tin. Delicious! The smokiness of the mezcal goes nicely with the flamed orange twist.

• 1 oz mezcal
• 1 oz sweet vermouth
• 1 oz Campari
• flamed orange twist garnish

Stir with ice, strain into the glass, then flame the orange twist over the cocktail and discard the orange.

This is one I saw linked on a punch article that @rbwells posted last week, from Daisuke Ito. It’s simple, elegant, and the scotch balances nicely with Bénédictine. I would have this again!

• 1 oz scotch
• 1/2 oz Bénédictine
• 1/2 oz lemon juice

This quantity was good in a Nick and Nora, but I’d double it for a coupe next time.

Keeping up with my little chartreuse theme, here is my all-time favorite equal-parts cocktail.

• 1oz London dry gin
• 1oz green chartreuse
• 1oz maraschino liqueur
• 1oz lime juice

Seriously, so good! Tart, complex, refreshing; it really has it all.

Here’s a nice, simple, boozy one from Death & Co:

• 2oz Rittenhouse bonded rye
• 1/2oz Laird’s bonded apple brandy
• 1/2oz Yellow Chartreuse

The rye ends up being the least present ingredient even though it’s by far the highest volume one; I get much more apple and herbal chartreuse from it.

This started out as a Sother Teague recipe and got progressively further off base as I persisted through a series of substitutions 😂

• 1 ½ oz Amaro Montenegro
• ½ oz overproof Jamaican rum
• ½ oz aquafaba
• ½ oz Cane Sugar Syrup
• ½ oz mango nectar
• ½ oz lemon juice
• 2 dashes Bitter Queens Thai Spice bitters

That’s how it was written. Well, I didn’t have amaro but did have a related herbal liquor, I used more normal rum instead of overproof rum, Demerara syrup instead of cane syrup, passion fruit instead of mango, Sichuan bitters instead of Thai… but overall everything was in the right ballpark and ended up being surprisingly balanced while still quite refreshing.

I built a pedal board to use in my band (lake effect is in the band name); it’s basically a box with a slot to route power out of, and to the velcro’d down pedals on top.

It was my first time using a dremel to engrave, and I’m happy with how that turned out! I traced the characters from a print out, then engraved the outline, then the fill, then painted the inside.

The wood is stained cedar with a couple of coats of poly. The main body was put together with pocket hole joinery.

This one is from a great cocktail spot in NYC called Little Branch. It’s two strong liquors, but the apple brandy with a touch of simple combine to make it a pretty approachable aperitif.

• 1 oz Rittenhouse bottled-in-bond rye
• 1 oz Laird’s bottled-in-bond apple brandy
• ¼ oz simple syrup

Shake with ice, strain into a Nick & Nora glass, and garnish with an orange twist.

Another one from Smuggler’s Cove; you can probably tell that I’m trying to use up my pineapple juice! This one is unique among the recipes in that book in that it features Aquavit, a Scandinavian liquor that is close to gin, but typically infused with caraway and dill. The dill notes are especially pronounced in the Gamle Ode Celebration Aquavit that I used, and come out especially strongly in the finish. Delightful in contrast to the juicy start!

• 1 ½ oz orange juice
• 1 ½ oz pineapple juice
• ½ oz lemon juice
• ¼ oz Demerara Syrup
• ¼ oz Orgeat
• 1 ½ oz aquavit
• 1 lemon wedge

Shake with ice and strain into a glass filled with cracked ice. Garnish with a lemon wedge speared with a cocktail umbrella.

Here’s a nice one from Smuggler’s Cove, the Top Notch Volcano! It’s classic tiki flavors; the passion fruit and maraschino liqueur match really well. This recipe makes two; I went for serving over rocks instead of flash blending.

• 4 oz lime juice
• 4 oz pineapple juice
• 1 oz passion fruit purée
• 3 oz Smuggler's Cove Demerara Syrup
• 1 oz Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
• 4 oz blended lightly-aged rum
• 4 oz blended aged rum

Serves 4. Mix the ingredients without ice in two mixing tins. Split evenly between the tins, and add 12oz crushed ice to each.

Flash blend separately and add to a punch bowl. Serve on fire! Or, for the weaker of heart, garnish with sliced limes and oranges.