Puerto Plata

What a delicious cocktail! The Puerto Plata is a surprisingly refreshing, and an inspired recipe that takes you out of the norm of tropical drinks and transports your taste buds to the Puerto Rico's tourist district. The interplay of orgeat and banana is brilliant for a vodka drink. This iteration, however, does not feature fake flavors: only real stuff like Liber & Co. orgeat and MurLarkey banana whiskey will do.

And I'm pleased that this is one time where MurLarkey Banana whiskey can be used without modifying the recipe at all. Orgeat that is rich and nutty will sweeten the whiskey and give the banana flavor something to stick to. The vodka is there only to boost the alcohol without overwhelming with flavor.

• 1 1/2 oz. vodka (Smirnoff #57 used)
• 1/2 oz. banana liqueur (MurLarkey banana whiskey used)
• 1/2 oz. orgeat (Liber & Co. used)
• 1 tsp. lemon juice

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

Moonshine Margarita

It's not a stretch to use moonshine in place of tequila in a cocktail. Bootleg boys of Virginia have been doing it since they've been making their own spirits in makeshift stills in the Virginia highlands. Done right, a Margarita will not suffer for having no tequila. You might even like it better, depending on the quality of the tequila you usually enjoy.

I want to point out that Climax Moonshine is a great pot still spirit made with a medley of corn, barley, and sugar. It is easy to drink chilled, but it isn't neutral like Belle Isle's moonshine. It is a white whiskey, filtered no more than twice, with character--the pinnacle of Virginia's spirit.

• 2 oz. white whiskey or moonshine (Climax used)
• 3/4 oz. triple sec
• 1 tsp. sugar syrup
• 1 oz. lime juice
• kosher salt for rim

 Rim an Old Fashioned glass with salt by pouring the salt on a flat saucer and wetting the rim of the glass with lime juice. Dip the glass into the bed of salt. Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime slice.

Danish Manhattan

Okay! I get it. Peter Heering was a Danish liqueur producer (though now his cherry liqueur is made in Sweeden). So I understand the temptation to take a whiskey cocktail and name it a Manhattan even though there is no vermouth and no bitters. The concept is good, but it doesn't taste too much like a Manhattan after all is said and done.

Seagrams 7 Crown is so mellow and Cherry Herring is so sweet, I am unable to find that bite we usually associate with a Manhattan. In keeping with the cherry theme, there's a bit of kirsch here, which does provide a little alcoholic traction, that trenchant fruit brandy flavor that is usually associated with grapa. It's not a bad drink, but maybe a little bit unnecessary. And if I'm feeling that about the name, then maybe a new name is all the Danish Manhattan needs--and maybe some cherry bitters!

• 1 1/2 oz. blended whiskey (Seagram's 7 Crown used)
• 1/4 oz. kirschwasser (Kammer Kirsch used)
• 1/4 oz. Cherry Heering

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

Windward Passage

On first look, this cocktail seems a little like a variation on the Tradewinds that includes Slivovitz. It really is its own thing, however; especially when you consider it being served up with pineapple juice, kirsch, and creme de cassis.  The Windward Passage, nevertheless, is a well balanced tropical drink that deserves more attention.

First, it's balance: there's not a lot of sugar here, and grapefruit juice takes it in a tart direction. Yet you can count on the small proportion of creme de cassis and the outsized gob of pineapple juice to soften the acidity and alcohol presence. That again is helped by the kirsch, which really makes it easier to taste the alcohol through the large juice components.

Then, there's the look--foamy pink without using an egg white or grenadine. You can get away with using that pale canned grapefruit juice here if you like and it will still look nice. (I almost always use fresh squeezed so I can garnish with a slice of grapefruit.)

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Vitae platinum used)
• 2 oz. grapefruit juice
• 3 oz. pineapple juice
• 1 tsp. kirsch (Kammer Kirsch used)
• 1 tsp. creme de cassis (G.E, Massenez used)

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

Tom Neuberger's Toddy

Contrary to popular belief, a Toddy is not a hot drink (that's the Hot Toddy). It is actually mixture of spirits, water, honey and lemon that is used as a curative. Tom Neuberger's Toddy is the kind of cure you need on a hot day.

My first inclination was that adding equal parts spirits and water to a recipe will create something that tastes watered down, and that does happen to an extent. But that is just what you need when looking for a refreshing rocks sipper. All spirits and ice don't go over well when you are sipping in the sun, at least not for very long.

Another thing to consider is making any cold drink with honey means you get a lump of honey that doesn't dissolve into the cocktail like it does when the water is hot. It actually takes a lot of work and creates too much variation when mixing multiple drinks. Bartenders resort to a half-honey/ half-hot water solution that further dilutes the cocktail. You can do that or you can just use MurLarkey honey whiskey.

Either option is good. I enjoyed how much honey presence MurLarkey gave the drink without adding too much sweetness. There's only a twist of lemon in the drink, so it isn't so much a question of balance as it is about having honey represented alongside cinnamon, lemon and whiskey.

• 1 tsp. honey (or 1/2 oz. MurLarkey Honey whiskey)
• 2 oz. water
• 2 oz. blended whiskey (Seagram's 7 used)
• dash maraschino liqueur
• lemon twist
• cinnamon stick

 If using honey, add honey and water to a chilled Old Fashioned glass and stir until the honey dissolves. (For better results try a 1:1 ratio of honey and hot water syrup plus the 2 oz. of cold water.) If you have honey whiskey skip the first step and use the honey whiskey. Add blended whiskey and maraschino liqueur to the glass and fill with several ice cubes. Stir well before twisting the lemon peel over the drink and dropping it in. Garnish with the cinnamon stick. 

Tommy Latta

Is there any chance that this cocktail was named after the Scottish-born doctor who invented the saline solution drip method for the treatment of patients? If not, it is pure coincidence that this Manhattan variation is so easy to drink, I might consider enjoying it bedside from a drip straw.

All jokes aside, I felt that the cocktail itself was a conservative approach to a Perfect Manhattan, both in the ordinary selection of ingredients and its overall size: it was rather small for a cocktail and fit neatly in a cordial glass.

After trying it, however, I recognized that there was an excellent balance of acid and sweetness. The bite of the whiskey was diminished in part because of the sugar syrup and lemon juice and also because of my choice of whiskey. I still stand by an Irish or perhaps unpeated scotch whiskey, as I think that this is an old world kind of recipe designed to make early distilled spirits more palletable for new drinkers. That would also explain the small proportions. This is a great cocktail to be swallowed in one go after a toast, a practice far more common in the British Isles even to this day.

• 1 1/2 oz. blended whiskey (Proper Twelve Irish whiskey used)
• 1/2 tsp. dry vermouth
• 1/2 tsp. sweet vermouth
• several dashes lemon juice
• several dashes sugar syrup or to taste

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

Flavio's Special

As long as this drink was going to take a deep dive into orange flavors, I felt it was appropriate to complete the journey--by substituting MurLarkey's orange whiskey for the regular blended stuff. Flavio's Special already has orange liqueur and bitters, and I was correct that the taste from the whiskey, particularly the vanilla notes, could be enhanced by this local Virginia whiskey steeped in orange peels and vanilla.

Now the only question is who is Flavio? There are several restaurants and even a food critic and chef who share the same name, but I'm not sure that the title can be traced back to any one individual person or place. Names like these are lost to time, a particular bartender, guest or owner of an establishment who comes up with a Manhattan Variation that is a hit for a short while. What is more likely is that the name is intended to evoke an Italian theme that fits a restaurant, and the orange flavor is an echo of common Italian aperitifs. We may never know the full story, but we don't have to. Make this drink with orange whiskey or a mild blended whiskey and enjoy the spice and orange flavors rolling around your tongue.

One other thing of note: the recipe calls for Grand Marnier (which is French) but I made an equally acceptable substitute of Royal Combier, a competing orange cognac liqueur. With all of these substitutions, I have come a long way from the original recipe, but I think it is an improvement on a recipe that otherwise hews too closely to a standard Manhattan. 

• 1 1/2 oz. blended whiskey (MurLarkey orange whisky used)
• 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth (Cocchi Dopo Teatro used)
• 1/2 oz. Grand Marnier (Royal Combier used)
• dash orange bitters (Hella used)

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