South Pacific

There's no liqueur that represents the Pacific Ocean in the way that Caribbean rum or Scotch represent the Atlantic. That opens the door to vodka (mainly) or brandy, which comes in handy as the brown spirit in exotic drinks.

I really like this cocktail. That may be because I like brandy and Martell cognac is the clean tasting spirit that a punch-like drink needs. But I also appreciate the need for vodka to control for color and also to keep the drink strong. It wouldn't do to just add more brown spirit in this instance when vodka can thin out the richness and keep the drink bright.

• 2 oz. brandy (Martell VS used)
• 1 oz. vodka (MurLarkey Divine Clarity used)
• 3 oz. pineapple juice
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1/4 oz. grenadine

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

Capri

Capri is a beautiful island on Italy's coast, full of high end shops and terraced houses. What the hell does this drink have to do with that. I could see using Galliano in this to make it Italian, but this is just a chocolate banana dessert drink.

On the bright side, you don't have to use a really sweet creme de bananes--the creme de cacao is sweet enough. MurLarkey makes a banana whiskey that is not sweet, has natural banana flavor, and a great whiskey taste that gives dessert drinks more traction.

• 1 oz. creme de cacao
• 1 oz. creme de bananes (MurLarkey banana whiskey used)
• 1 oz. half-and-half

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

Fish House Punch

The name is self-explanatory. It must be a house punch at a restaurant named Fish House, right? I was a little mystified by the ingredients. It teeters between a rich dark rum punch of colonial times and a fresh, bright summer punch for beach drinking.

In practice, when you add as much water as dark rum and basically make lemonade in the punch bowl, you are making a summer punch that is very drinkable and more than a little suggestive of summer peaches.

• 2 liters dark rum (Pampero used)
• 1 liter cognac (Martell VS used)
• 4 oz. peach brandy (Bird Dog peach whiskey used)
• 1 liter lemon juice
• 2 liters bottled spring water
•  peach slices

Add sugar, lemon juice, and spring water to a large punch bowl. Stir to dissolve the sugar, then add rum and brandies. Refrigerate at least an hour before serving. Then add large block ice and peach slices for garnishes.  

Pacific Pacifier

I think that as far as dessert drink names go, this cocktail acts exactly as advertising. There is no spirit that represents the Pacific Ocean, but anything tropical tasting, like banana and orange, will suffice. There's also the pacifier part of the name. It could just be calming, a nightcap for adults, but one can't help think of baby pacifiers and a baby's love of milk.

Here Cointreau is a must to prevent the cocktail from being overly sweet, which cheap triple sec will do. Then the drink calls for banana liqueur, and I thought that banana rum (which is just as sweet) would do fine. It did!

• 1 1/2 oz. Cointreau
• 1 oz. creme de bananes (Cruzan banana rum used)
• 1 oz. half-and-half

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

Frankenjack

This is one huge drink, and a strong one. This would seem appropriate--the name Frankenjack seems a bit threatening, like it's the name of some old world monster. And the portion size here is monstrous.

I used MurLarkey ImaGination gin, which was a good call because you can still taste some of the earthier botanicals through all that liqueur. Rivata vermouth was also pleasingly present alongside the cheap Jacquin's apricot brandy (I'm out of my homemade stuff.) And I opted for cheap, sugary triple sec over Cointreau or orange spirit because I figured that either would be wasted here.

The result was a surprisingly easy cocktail for drinking, despite the power of all the spirits. In addition, the dry vermouth cut through the liqueurs very nicely and made for a sweet, but not too sweet, rocks sipper.

• 2 oz. gin (MurLarkey ImaGination used)
• 1 oz. apricot brandy
• 1 oz. dry vermouth (Rivata used)
• 1 oz. triple sec
• maraschino cherry

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled Old Fashioned glass full of fresh ice. Garnish with the cherry. 

Jersey Lightning

I'm not a big fan of this drink. It is another example of an apple brandy cocktail that is completely unbalanced with lime juice and no sugar. It's as if the bartender decided that apple brandy was sweet enough to handle two ounces of lime juice, which it is not.

I get where it is going, though. Lightning implies a shockingly tart drink, and this one is. Jersey is the home state of Laird's distillery. That was why I had to use the last of my Apple Jack 86 (100% apple brandy) for this cocktail. Punt E Mes blew the drink out in the other direction, adding so much earthy bitterness. I broke down and added a half teaspoon of sugar syrup because I just couldn't take it.

Here is the recipe as it is printed with notes to help fix the problems that this cocktail has.

• 2 oz. apple brandy (Laird's Apple Jack 86 used)
• 1 oz. sweet vermouth (Martini and Rossi recommended, but Punt E Mes used)
• 2 oz. lime juice (1/2 tsp. sugar syrup recommended for balance)

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

Vodka Grasshopper

This is a simple recipe intended to strengthen the potency of the famous Grasshopper, but here vodka takes the place of the cream. I rather liked the change. While I would still consider the Vodka Grasshopper a dessert drink, it no longer resembles a scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream. If you make the drink according to the original recipe, be careful to have a large cocktail glass--its a whopping six ounces! It's also strong. Feel free to scale it down to your liking as I did.

• 2 oz. vodka
• 2 oz. green creme de menthe
• 2 oz. white creme de cacao

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