#drinks

2 ounces rye whiskey 1/4 ounce Fernet Branca 1/4 ounce simple syrup 2 dashes Angostura bitters

Gin Whisper 2oz Gin .25oz Simple Syrup .24oz St. Germain Muddled Mint 1 egg white

To fully enjoy drinking whiskey, you first need to know some of the basics about the spirit itself

To fully enjoy drinking whiskey, you first need to know some of the basics about the spirit itself

Winter Warmth Syrup 1 1/2 cups water 1 cup raw, demerara or turbinado sugar (granulated will do just fine if you do not have them) 1/2 apple, peeled, cored, and diced 1/2 pear, peeled, cored, and diced 12 walnut halves 3 cinnamon sticks, broken up 6 whole

Winter Warmth Syrup 1 1/2 cups water 1 cup raw, demerara or turbinado sugar (granulated will do just fine if you do not have them) 1/2 apple, peeled, cored, and diced 1/2 pear, peeled, cored, and diced 12 walnut halves 3 cinnamon sticks, broken up 6 whole

1 1/2 ounces Campari 1/2 ounce Tanqueray gin 1/4 ounce Cynar 1/4 ounce Fernet Branca 1 ounce Dolin Blanc Vermouth 15 drops orange bitters (Fee's, Regan's, or a mix) 3 orange twists

We who like to mix drinks at home do it for many reasons: First, it's cheaper than drinking out. Second, it's fun to mix your own drinks at home. Third, it's even more fun to mix drinks for other people at home

2 sugar cubes 6 dashes Peychaud's bitters 3 ounces rye, such as Rittenhouse 100 proof 2 dashes Pernod Absinthe 4 ounces Crispin Original Cider Ice Lemon peel, optional

3 tablespoons gold rum 2 tablespoons brandy 1 1/2 tablespoons apple cider 1 teaspoon pure maple syrup (preferably Grade B) 3/4 teaspoon fresh lemon juice Ice cubes 2 thin apple slices

Note: The most important part of a Bloody Mary is the tomato juice. Use a high quality juice, preferably not from concentrate. No need to use your best vodka here. Bottom shelf stuff will do fine. You can replace the celery salt rim with a salt and pepper rim if you prefer. Every ingredient should be adjusted to suit your own personal taste. I love horseradish. You might not.

Add another drink to this list: the Sidecar. As with most cocktails, the origins of the drink are hazy (be suspicious of those who state with certainty when or where the Sidecar was first mixed), but this entrancing mixture of brandy, lemon juice and orange liqueur started making the rounds in the most fashionable watering holes in London and Paris during the 1920s. Very simple in structure, the Sidecar is complex enough in flavor to satisfy even the most jaded palates, but not so over-the-top with mixological gewgaws as to frighten away the casual tippler.

This recipe uses the International Bartenders Association's ratios of tequila, cointreau, and citrus juice, which makes a pretty strong margarita. Feel free to add extra syrup or to water it down some to suit your own tastes. To make short work of your lemons and limes, read our citrus juicer review here.

But an old-school daiquiri is an exercise in purity, as beautiful in its unadorned simplicity as a well-made martini or Manhattan. Of course, "well made" is a big factor here, as well: to fully realize the daiquiri's inherent beauty, be sure to measure your ingredients; free-pouring, while easier and cooler-looking than eyeballing a measuring cup, frequently leaves you with an odd-tasting drink. And while you can mix the daiquiri with different rums or in one of its fruit-enhanced variations, the use of fresh lime juice is absolutely essential; those little green plastic limes and day-glo bottles of Rose's should stay as far from your daiquiri as possible.

The Martinez cocktail may be a predecessor to the martini, but these drinks could hardly be less alike to the modern palate. The Martinez starts with equal parts gin and sweet vermouth, and this alone distinguishes it in two ways from the modern martini. You then add a teaspoon of maraschino liqueur and either Angostura or orange bitters.

While enjoyable at any time of year, the crisply bitter Negroni seems particularly well-suited to springtime imbibing. Composed of only three ingredients measured in equal amounts, a Negroni is also remarkably difficult to foul up (though I won't way it hasn't happened) even by novice bartenders.

This isn't a Negroni. It is, however, the Negroni's long-lost autumnal cousin. First noted in print in 1927 in a slender volume called Barflies and Cocktails, and forgotten almost ever since, the Boulevardier takes the same Negroni formula--a good dose of gin brushed up with equal parts Campari and sweet vermouth--and gives it a twist by substituting whiskey for the gin.

That's one reason why, every year, hundreds of spirits and cocktail aficionados from around the world converge in the swampy heat of New Orleans for Tales of the Cocktail, a five-day conference celebrating everything shaken and stirred. Now in its fifth year, Tales of the Cocktail is currently in full swing, and countless tipplers--myself included--are scouring the French Quarter, asking bartenders at venerable watering holes such as the Carousel Bar, the Napoleon House and Tujaque's to mix up a perfect Sazerac.

Perfectly suited for a hot afternoon or evening, the Ramos Fizz holds special appeal as a breakfast or brunch drink. I'll be in New Orleans in two weeks for Tales of the Cocktail, and I expect to get on the outside of several of these during the week. But for a drink this good, it's best to start warming up now—who's with me?

With a formula almost as old as the republic, the mint julep is a product of an era in which things were done much slower. Somewhat labor-intensive to properly make, a good mint julep can't be rushed, and cranking them out by the hundreds using prepared mixes and flavored syrups can only result in sadness.

It's Friday afternoon, and if you're lucky you've got about 60 hours before you have to think or speak for anybody else again. Time for the Whiskey Sour--the comfortable T-shirt of drinks.

Spawned from the rum-soaked genius mind of "Trader Vic" Bergeron, the mai tai is one of the most regal refreshments in the exotic-drink universe. Originally made with 17-year-old Jamaican rum, imported French orgeat, Dutch curaçao and fresh-squeezed lime juice, the mai tai quickly became a phenomenon; it also quickly became perverted. Hordes of Trader Vic-wannabes took wild stabs at recreating Bergeron's long-secret recipe, and the result is what we all-too-often experience now: a sweet, murky drink filled with assorted fruit juices and syrups, with little resemblance to the original swoon-worthy concoction.

The Planter's Punch flowed out of the rum-rich Caribbean well over a century ago, and its origins date back centuries. Originally a simple combination of a full-flavored rum with lime juice, sugar, some form of spice and plenty of ice, the Planter's Punch morphed over the decades into elaborate concoctions containing pineapple juice, grenadine, several types of rum and so on, and the drink is the common ancestor of all those tiki drinks and punches that are once again in vogue.

The Cosmopolitan is a cultural touchstone because once upon a time, Dale DeGroff got one into the hands of Madonna at the Rainbow Room and it became the drink to be seen with. Then HBO and SJP, of course, made the drink ubiquitous and clichéd.

The Tom Collins dates back more than a century and a half, but its welcoming crispness keeps it fresh always. So established in the libational world, the Tom Collins even has its own eponymous glass (tall, with plenty of room for ice). Over the years, the drink has faced some challenges--bottles of Holland House Collins Mix in my parents' liquor cabinet spring to mind. Was squeezing a lemon really so difficult? But successfully navigating its course from horse-and-carriage days to the digital age, the Tom Collins is built for survival. Keep some lemons and soda water on-hand this weekend and knock together a Collins in between grilling stints.

Cooper Brothers Cocktail 1½ oz bourbon ½ oz St-Germain elderflower liqueur ¼ oz Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur Stir, stir, stir with ice and then strain into a stemmed cocktail glass. Twist a piece of orange peel over the top of the drink. Garnish with a fresh orange twist.

Pick up rosemary, cucumbers, and lemons to concoct this grown-up lemonade that will keep you cool on a hot day.

Like any other drink, it is only as good as its worst ingredient. Fortunately, the basic margarita only has three: tequila, triple sec and lime juice. Choose a spirit made of 100% agave, stock your bar with a solid orange-flavored liqueur, squeeze fresh lime juice—think of how strong your forearms will get!—and nail the proportions and you'll have a wonderfully balanced sweet, tangy, slightly earthy (that's the 100% agave) drink to sip this Cinco de Mayo and throughout the summer.

The renewed appeal of the Old Fashioned comes as no surprise, Knox says. If anything, this most simple of cocktails makes perfect sense in an increasingly Byzantine world. "Cocktails are getting so complicated," he says, with bartenders using smoke guns, centrifuge-separated juices and barrel-aging behind the bar. "Sometimes you need to step back, and just have a simple, strong drink. You can really appreciate something like that."

During the 20th Century, various bad ideas encrusted the Old Fashioned. Here we will strip off those barnacles to expose the amazingly simple and sublime drink beneath.

During the 20th Century, various bad ideas encrusted the Old Fashioned. Here we will strip off those barnacles to expose the amazingly simple and sublime drink beneath.

"if you want to try it at home (and if you do let me know about it), it's one part eggnog, three parts sake. Drink up!"

It would take 142.85 cups of Coffee (Brewed) to put [me] down.

Vanilla vodka and ginger ale. This will knock you on your ass like an alcoholic ninja.

"Man, it took me FOREVER to figure out how to layer a drink so that all the layers don’t just mix together into some brain-lookin’ thing!"

For my girlfriend. It uses *real* chocolate.