Shriner Cocktail

I get it. This drink is supposed to look like the color of the hats that Shriners wear when they meet at their club or are out raising money for charity. If you've seen them you know what I mean. It doesn't imply that they especially like sloe gin.

Sloe gin is responsible for the color and spice flavor of this cocktail. I used Catoctin Creek 1757 brandy for a more American style brandy with lots of richness. The amount of bitters seems a little auspicious, like it is part of a secret ceremony.

• 2 oz. brandy (Catoctin Creek 1757 Reserve used)
• 1 oz. sloe gin
• 1/2 tsp. bar sugar
• 3 dashes Angostura bitters
• lemon peel

 Combine all ingredients except lemon peel in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon. 

Opening

The Opening is really just an easy drink to make for someone who is not used to the bite of whiskey. I was hoping that it would be an "opening" to a series of complimentary whiskey drinks I could make, but it turns out that this one is too sweet as the recipe is written. It comes off a little like candy and less like a cocktail.

Carpano Antica Formula does great work in keeping a bitter edge to this drink, and I wanted to add bitters as well just to make it more interesting. Look, with Canadian whisky, you already have the most drinkable whiskey on hand, 1/2 ounce of grenadine is overkill. But this might just be your opening to Manhattan drinking.

• 2 oz. Canadian whisky
• 1 oz. sweet vermouth
• 1/2 oz. grenadine (1/4 oz. recommended)

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Allegheny

This is another one of those blackberry brandy and bourbon cocktails that I love. The Allegheny is similar to the Black Dog, an Old Fashioned glass serving with identical ingredients in different proportions. This cocktail is more like a bourbon sour with blackberry flavor. That flavor comes from my homemade blackberry brandy (American brandy infused with real blackberries) and a tsp. of blackberry preserves. Here's how to make the cocktail the way I made it. If you have store bought blackberry brandy, omit steps involving blackberry preserves. Your brandy will be sweet enough not to need the preserves.

• 1 1/2 oz. bourbon
• 1 oz. dry vermouth
• 1 tbsp. blackberry flavored brandy
• (seedless blackberry preserves optional)
• 2 tsp. lemon juice
• lemon twist

Muddle blackberry preserves in a shaker with bourbon, blackberry brandy, vermouth and lemon juice until it dissolves completely. Add ice and shake. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon twist.

Belmont Stakes

I can't explain how long I've been preparing to make this cocktail and thinking about it: how to display it, how to acquire the spirits, which spirits to use... It's been about a month of ruminating; meanwhile the Preakness and Kentucky Derby have already been held. I am excited that the Belmont Stakes (the drink) is a rum cocktail, so it has little to do with southern whiskey.

The Belmont Stakes (the race) is held outside New York at the Belmont racetrack for almost a century. The cocktail that has its namesake is like most other New York cocktails in that it is pink or red. (See Cosmopolitan, Manhattan, New York Sour, New York Cocktail or, The New Yorker) The pink color comes from strawberry syrup and grenadine. For this cocktail I chose to make my own strawberry liqueur: the recipe follows below.

Boil 8-10 large cored and sliced strawberries in a cup of water until the berries are soft and the water has cooked down (about 5 minutes.) Cut heat and add 1/2 cup of fine white sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Using a potato ricer, mash the strawberries until they are pulverized and their juice is extracted. Allow the mixture to cool. Add 1 cup of 100-proof vodka or light rum and stir until evenly combined. Using a fine strainer, remove the strawberry pulp and preserve the liquor and sugar mixture in a clean saleable bottle.

Now the recipe for the cocktail:

• 2 oz. vodka 
• 1 oz. gold rum (Lyon Bijou Batch used)
• 1/2 oz. strawberry liqueur (homemade liqueur used)
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 tsp. grenadine 
• orange slice
• lime wedge
• strawberry

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

Bolero

Bolero is a kind of slower, rhythmic Latin dance music. This cocktail with the same name is a slow sipper. I was surprised how much Laird's Apple Brandy stands out as the dominant flavor. And it really did taste like apples and sweet vermouth. This drink was spicy, boozy and light.

• 2 oz. light rum
• 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth (Lacuesta special edition used)
• 1/2 oz. apple brandy or applejack (Laird's Apple Brandy used)
• dash Angostura bitters

 Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir until chilled and strain over fresh ice in an Old Fashioned glass.

Beachcomber's Gold

I'm not sure how a "perfect" rum Martini rates as a beach drink. The rum, however, makes it a more likely candidate for grass hut bar drinking. I really enjoyed this drink for its smoothness and round flavor. It really struck me as a wine cocktail despite the rum base. This, I think, is because of the softer notes of Lacuesta vermouths.

• 2 oz. light rum
• 1/2 oz. dry vermouth
• 1/2 oz. sweet sweet vermouth

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir until chilled and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Habitant Cocktail

I've been wanting to try this drink ever since I got a bottle of Knob Creek smoked maple bourbon. Products like this didn't exist when the drink was invented, so maple syrup as a sweetener distinguished this one from a Whiskey Sour made with sugar. I thought that the intense smoky maple of Knob Creek would help it along, though.

I was right. An extra ounce of bourbon also helps the balance between the ounce of lemon juice and just two ounces of whiskey. Two to one proportions of whiskey seemed too small to keep the drink from tasting tart. So of you want to try the original recipe just use the two ounces of whiskey and keep everything else the same, including garnishes.

Canadian whiskey is required, though; as this is a Canadian cocktail. For some reason the maple syrup and whiskey are supposed to represent being a inhabitant of Canada.

• 2 oz. Canadian whiskey
• 1 oz. Knob Creek smoked maple bourbon (recommended)
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. maple syrup
• cherry
• orange slice

Combine whiskey, maple syrup and lemon juice in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with cherry and orange slice.