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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.

We drove up a little after midnight and joined the party at boulder lake, and were treated to some great lights!

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.

We cooked a ham with pineapple glaze for Christmas, so went for pineapple-adjacent flavors for sides… and cocktails of course!

This is a Mai Tai with a passion fruit foam. A friend had something like this in Maui, and I’ve been thinking of it ever since! Why not Christmas? I found this recipe published by a restaurant on Maui called Monkeypod.

• 1 oz Old Lahaina light rum
• 1 oz orgeat or almond syrup
• 1 oz Marie Brizard orange Curaçao
• ¾ oz lime juice
• 1 oz Old Lahaina dark rum
• 1 splash honey-liliko'i (passion fruit) foam
• ½ pineapple slice

Shake the lime juice, orgeat, curaçao, and light rum with ice, then strain into an ice-filled rocks glass. Float the dark rum. Top with the honey-liliko'i foam, and garnish with the pineapple.

For the foam:

• ½ oz honey
• 1 oz passion fruit purée
• 1 oz simple syrup
• 1 oz egg white
• 1 ½ oz water

Mix ingredients well and put in a nitrous-oxide infuser to half capacity. Use 4 charges for a liter-sized infuser. If you do not have access to an infuser, you can blend the ingredients on high speed until foamy.

You can probably tell that I’m still working through some aquafaba… here’s the maguey Sour, a delightful mezcal-based sour. The smokiness of the mezcal works nicely in contrast to the Benedictine and citrus.

• 2 oz Del Maguey Chichicapa mezcal
• ½ oz Bénédictine
• ¾ oz lemon juice
• ½ oz orgeat or almond syrup
• 1 egg white
• 1 pinch grated nutmeg
• 1 orange twist

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add all of the remaining ingredients except the nutmeg and orange and shake well. Strain into an ice-filled rocks glass and garnish with the grated nutmeg and orange twist.

The Pisco Sour is such a classic, and I’m always pleased with its simplicity. Plus, when you nail the bitters decoration it makes you feel really fancy! Here’s my go to recipe, which I originally got from Speakeasy. I subbed aquafaba for the egg white and skipped the nutmeg.

• 2 oz Barsol Pisco Quebranta brandy
• ¾ oz lime juice
• ¾ oz simple syrup
• 1 egg white
• 4 drops Angostura bitters
• grated nutmeg

Pour the brandy, juice, syrup, and egg white into a mixing glass. Shake very hard without ice for a few seconds. Add ice and shake vigorously for up to 30 seconds. Strain into a coupe. Decorate by carefully adding 4 drops of bitters and dragging a toothpick in a circle through them.

Here’s a nice winter warmer that I had at a restaurant and recreated at home. The falernum and allspice lend great spice flavors, and both take some of the edge off the burn of the aquavit. If you’re making this I’d suggest going light on the agave and adding to taste. The recipe below is very drinkable but ever-so-slightly on the sweet side.

• 2 oz aquavit
• ¾ oz lemon juice
• ¼ oz agave (or honey)
• ¼ oz John. D. Taylor's Velvet Falernum
• ¼ oz St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram

Shake with ice, strain into a coupe, and garnish with a lemon twist.