Kamikazi

I forgot how delicious a Kamikazi is when made with quality vodka. Three ounces of vodka, in such large proportion to the other ingredients, really makes the vodka you choose a main feature of the drink. I enjoyed sipping a Divine Clarity Kamikazi with it's 100-percent potato vodka. This is a really clean vodka that is still produced in small batches. You can find it in Virginia ABC stores now, but if you can't get MurLarkey spirits, make sure you use a good vodka. That will keep this drink from sliding back to the pre-craft era of the 90's when bad cocktails were the norm.

• 3 oz. vodka (Divine Clarity used)
• 1/2 tsp. lime juice
• 1/2 tsp. triple sec
• lime wedge

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the lime wedge. 

Slippery Nipple

I imagine that before there was the shot that was popularized in the 90s, this cocktail must have existed. It is harder to make than the shot, though, because it requires floating Bailey's on top of cold Sambuca. This works, though if you use the back of a spoon resting in the Sambuca. And if you chill the Sambuca in the refrigerator, it will be more dense than if you add water from shaking or stirring. (Don't do that.)

Rose's grenadine--and I'm sorry to say that there is a lot of chintzy 90s appeal to this cocktail that can only be replicated with chintzy 90s ingredients--is the only option to make the nipple tip. It sinks to the bottom of the glass, giving you a clear breast shape above it, coated with a creamy skin-colored float of Bailey's.

• 2 oz. Sambuca
• 1 oz. Bailey's Irish Cream 
• dash Rose's grenadine

Pour chilled (refrigerated) Sambuca into a cocktail glass and float the Bailey's on top by pouring over the back of a spoon. Drop the dash of grenadine in the center. 

Halley's Comfort

This drink is pretty gross. It doesn't surprise me to find bad Southern Comfort and peach schnapps cocktail in the New York Bartender's Guide published back in 1997, but it surprises me with just how bad this one is.

The Halley's Comfort is just too sweet. It would be one thing if the Southern Comfort, a peach liqueur, were the sweet part and a stronger whiskey was used. But the worst part is that in stead there's equal parts of peach schnapps. The best you can do is squeeze that lemon wedge into the drink as soon as possible and hope that the acid balances all that peach liqueur.

• 2 oz. Southern Comfort
• 2 oz. peach schnapps
• sparkling water
• lemon slice

Pour liqueurs into a Collins glass full of ice. Top with sparkling water and stir gently. Add lemon slice as a garnish. 

Sea Breeze

This drink takes me back to the 90's. A simple tropical cocktail needs only a few fruits juices that, when combined, give the illusion that you didn't just get this from the cash bar at your little cousin's wedding. Crack open a can of grapefruit juice and a can of cranberry (canberry?) and mix with vodka in a highball glass.

To upscale this drink some, use fresh squeezed grapefruit juice and Absolut Ruby Red vodka. This makes for a juicier and far more complex cocktail that still keeps its 40-proof strength vodka. Absolut flavored vodkas are as strong as plain vodka.

• 2 oz. vodka (Absolut Ruby Red used)
• 3 oz. grapefruit juice
• 3 oz. cranberry juice
• grapfruit slice

Build drink in a highball glass with vodka and ice then top with equal parts of both juices and stir. Garnish with a grapefruit slice.