These days, there’s no shortage of stunt cocktails out there—drinks made with zany, unusual ingredients: Sweet peas! Bacon! Hen-of-the-woods mushroom garnish! Cotton candy! Rose foam! These exhibitionist drinks invariably scream, “Look at me!”

And, yes, while I’m often the first one at the bar to order a stunt cocktail, it’s not what I want to serve at a dinner party. For that, I want something elegant, understated, and most importantly, something that complements food. But not a complete introverted wallflower of a drink, either—I want something delicious and balanced, a drink that can hold its own.

Enter the Sparkling Ginger Daisy cocktail. This drink, with a hint of warm ginger and sprightly champagne, is what I want my guests sipping while the Macy*s Thanksgiving Day Parade is on, and the turkey is still roasting. And as everyone’s sampling my signature cornbread stuffing laced with rosemary, as well as my sweet potato casserole sprinkled with ginger and cinnamon, they’ll be washing it all down with these daisies.

The drink starts with equal parts crisp gin and zingy Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur. (I love this stuff. If you buy one new bottle of booze this holiday season, I say this is the one.) Add to this a splash of tart lemon juice for balance and grenadine for rosy, festive color, and top with the lightness of bubbles. Together, these flavors meld together into a sippable sparkler that becomes an easy guest at the dinner table.

It doesn’t scream, it doesn’t whisper. It’s a perfect conversationalist.

Kara Newman | Spice & Ice | Chronicle Books, 2009 | Makes 1 cocktail

A daisy is a classic juice-based cocktail sweetened with grenadine or a red liqueur, and often topped with sparkling wine. Here, the bright spice of ginger plays against a backdrop of bubbles for a festive holiday sparkler. And if you feel like gilding the lily, try one or both of the optional special touches below.—Kara Newman

Active time: 5 minutes Total time: 5 minutes

Sparkling Ginger Daisy Recipe

Directions

Want it? Click it.

Kara Newman | Spice & Ice | Chronicle Books, 2009 | Makes 1 cocktail

Rich with the flavors of orange and vanilla and the caramelized goodness of bourbon, this fall spice cordial recipe sits more on the spiced than spicy side of the spectrum. This sweet cordial pairs well with autumn pies and other desserts or makes a great sipper to enjoy fireside.—Kara Newman

Active time: 5 minutes | Total time: 20 minutes.

Fall Spice Cordial Recipe

Directions

Want it? Click it.

These days, if you love cocktails it’s assumed you also love the hit TV series “Mad Men,” which in turn assumes you love a good dry martini (gin, natch, not vodka), one of the ad world’s hallmark drinks sipped over and over throughout the series, most frequently in triplicate during long-gone expense-account lunches.

Okay, I’ll cop to the “Mad Men” season pass. But if I admit I don’t love a dry Sterling  Cooper martini, do I have to give back my cocktail credentials? Because I don’t. In fact, my taste veers straight to the other end of the flavor spectrum: I love a sweet, creamy, luxurious drink, the polar opposite of a “dry” anything.

Very uncool of me to admit to this, I know.

If a dry martini is a perfect aperitif, then the Fiery Almond is the equivalent of dessert. Think of it another way:  dry-roasted almonds versus a luscious slice of toasted pound cake crowned with melted chocolate sauce. The first coaxes the appetite, the latter satiates it.

The problem with sweet drinks is they sometimes can be cloying. But I’ve found that a hit of spice helps alleviate that and cuts the overall smack of sweetness. So I’ve added a chipotle-and-cocoa rim to this drink. On a spicy scale of 1 to 10, the heat in this dessert-like drink rates a big fat zero. That is, until you add the chipotle-cocoa rim. With this one easy but impressive touch, the spice level soars anywhere between a 7 and a sizzling 10!  I recommend using a two-to-one cocoa powder-to-chipotle ratio, but use the chipotle solo if you have the steely, unflinching swagger of Don Draper.

This libation will never see the inside of a Madison Avenue boardroom, but it’s perfect for sipping in front of the fire as autumn gives way to winter, or for capping off a great meal with a hint of sizzle and a touch of lingering sweetness. But my favorite: defiantly imbibing it in front of the tube while watching those martini-swilling characters on “Mad Men”—on TiVo, of course.—Kara Newman

The Fiery Almond
by Kara Newman
from Spice & Ice (Chronicle, 2009)
Makes 1 cocktail

convert Ingredients
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1/2 tablespoon chipotle powder
3/4 ounces amaretto
1/2 ounce Kahlua
1 ounce light cream

Want it? Click it.

Directions
1. To rim the glass: moisten the rim with amaretto. Combine cocoa and chipotle powder in a small dish or shallow bowl. Carefully dip the rim of the glass into the powder mix to coat.

2. In a bar shaker or kitchen tumbler, shake together the amaretto and Kahlua over ice; strain the mixture into an old-fashioned glass half-filled with ice.

3. Gently pour the cream over the back of a spoon to create a “float” on top of the fiery almond without disturbing the rest of the drink.

Like it hot? Visit the Kara’s blog,  Spice & Ice, and more.

Recipe © 2009 Kara Kewman. Photo © 2009 Antonis Achilleos. All rights reserved.