Speakeasy | Ten Speed Press, 2010 | Serves 1

As the title says, a classic. A smooth, sophisticated, satiating classic.–Renee Schettler Rossi

LC Necessity is the Mother of Invention Note: : We’re so uncouth, we didn’t even realize there was such a thing as a “mixing glass” until we set about to mix this drink for ourselves. And yet necessity truly is the mother of invention, especially when a cocktail is on the line. We think you’ll manage to jury-rig something, too.

Active time: 3 minutes | Total time: 3 minutes

Classic Manhattan Cocktail Recipe

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Paula Wolfert | The Food of Morocco | Ecco, 2011 | Serves 1

My friend Barbara Temsamani, who lives in Tangier, keeps this Moroccan formula for warding off colds and coughs taped to her refrigerator door. She taught her children to mix the spices and make the drink fresh three times a day for 1 to 2 days at the first sign of a cold. Drink hot, with honey added to taste.–Paula Wolfert

LC Behold, the Healing Power of Tea Note: Spices and herbs play critical roles in Moroccan cuisine—and, as it turns out, also in this soothing drink. The spices play differing roles, with aniseed imparting “a strong, warm, licorice flavor,”  in the words of Paula Wolfert, and fenugreek providing a taste that’s perhaps best described as “a little like burnt sugar or maple syrup.” But it’s not just flavor that these spices and other herbs impart to therapeutic teas and herbal infusions. Or aroma. As Wolfert explains, “Moroccans are great believers in medicinal herbal teas.” Behold, the healing power of herbs and spices. Here’s Wolfert’s cheat sheet:

• Absinth is the “winter tea of choice” for warmth and as an antispasmodic and digestive.
• Lemon verbena calms the nerves, helps digestion, and gives comfort from the pain of menstruation.
• Orange flower water mixed with milk and sugar helps children get to sleep.
• Marjoram is an excellent remedy for a cold or stomachache.

Active time: 5 minutes | Total time: 15 minutes.

Therapeutic Drink to Ward Off Colds Recipe

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Brian D. Murphy | See Mix Drink | Little, Brown & Company, 2011 | Makes 1

Believed to have been created by a bartender at the Brooks Club in London, England, the Black Velvet was born in 1891 while the country was in mourning for Queen Victoria’s late husband, Prince Albert. The bartender thought Champagne was too celebratory for the occasion, so he combined it with stout.

A Velvet, as opposed to a Black Velvet, is made with porter instead of stout.–Brian D. Murphy

LC So, Sooooo Smooth Note: While we extend our respects–albeit a century-late–to the somber origins of this cocktail, there’s no way we can contain our enthusiasm, our rapture, our over-the-moonness for it. Though it may seem an unlikely collision of sorts, it’s actually an inspired communion of effervescence and denseness, titillating and satiating, ladylike delicateness and handsome ruggedness. It’s so, sooooo smooth, it’s no surprise the cocktail takes the word “velvet” for its the title. And, like its namesake, the libation lends a sense of subdued sophistication to any celebration, whether the accompanying attire is your fanciest pants or your comfiest faded jeans. But don’t take our word for it. See, or rather, sip for yourself.

Indulge us, please, just a tad longer so we can inform you of the proper making of a Black Velvet. Tradition holds the stout goes into the glass first. This technique creates a rather dramatic presentation since the Champagne, due to the difference in densities, lingers atop the stout in an impressive, if ephemeral, subsequent layer. It’s only a matter of time until the boozes mingle. To extend the lifetime of the layers, pour the Champagne over the back of a spoon to prevent it from plunging headlong into the stout.

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

Black Velvet Cocktail Recipe

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John Besh | My New Orleans | Andrews McMeel, 2009 | Serves 12

Red wine and kirsch (a brandy made from cherries) make the base for this delicious holiday drink, laced with citrus and warming spices like cinnamon, cardamom, and black pepper. The spiced wine will keep overnight at room temperature. Reheat before serving.–John Besh

LC Tipsy Holidays Note: Your mother-in-law may frown upon you teetering around, a martini sloshing in your glass, every second of every family function during the holidays. But strolling about with a glass of genteel spiced wine? Sooooo much more socially acceptable…

Active time: 15 minutes | Total time: 15 minutes.

Hot Spiced Wine Recipe

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Claire Robinson | Five Ingredient Fix | Grand Central Life & Style, 2010 | Makes 4 cocktails

What makes this recipe really sing: Don’t skimp on the fresh cider here. When the cider is simmered and thickened, the flavor is intensely apple, and intensely autumn! Star anise and cinnamon stick will fill your house with a delicious aroma – you might want to quadruple this recipe and keep it warm on the stove throughout a cold winter evening with friends.

Toss a few slices of crisp apple and a squeeze of orange juice in the warm cider if you have it. For a true toddy, float a pat of butter on each drink and relax by the fire.–Claire Robinson

LC Tis the Season Note: Honestly? We’re not so smitten with cooler weather. Except, natch, as an excuse to luxuriate in beef oxtails, duck confit, hot toddies, and the like. So, a toast, to the arrival of a new season as a harbinger of lovely things. (Clink!)

Active time: 5 minutes | Total time: 15 minutes.

Apple Spiced Bourbon Toddies Recipe

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Elizabeth Mayhew | Serves 1

That drivel about necessity being the mother of invention? Phooey. We all know moms are the actual mothers of invention–at least uber savvy inventions like Witches Brew, a morning-after-Halloween hot chocolate recipe brouhaha’d up by Elizabeth Mayhew, a Manhattan mom of two, contributing editor to the “Today Show,” and editor-in-chief of Woman’s Day Magazine. Mayhew–who, mind you, doesn’t resemble the Wicked Witch of the West in the least– just sort of conjured the sweet notion one morning after trick-or-treating maybe six or so Halloweens ago. “I’d always done different things with the leftover Halloween candy, like chop it up and put it in cookies. But this was a sneaky way to get them to drink milk,” she explains. Sneaky, indeed. And it couldn’t be easier. She just warmed some milk, poured it into mugs, then let the kids plop the candy in. She even had the wherewithal to dub it something irresistible.

Hershey’s Miniatures work really well, notes Mayhew, who also found that Kit Kat and Twix bars make really excellent stirrers. (See? There’s that mother of invention again.) While Mom Mayhew is partial to peppermint patties, her kids are a little less discerning. “My son would put everything in there and it would be a disgusting mess,” she adds, with an audible grimace. Though it doesn’t sound so terrible to us, actually. Anyone else wishing they were a kid again? –Renee Schettler Rossi

LC Better Than Christmas Morning Note: Forget Christmas! Never was the morning after Halloween so enticing. Were we to indulge in this potation, which candy would we dunk in our moo juice? Depends on our Halloween haul, natch. But what we’re seeing in our crystal ball–well, actually, the shiny bottom of our large sauté pan, but close enough–is a gooey, nougaty, satisfying Snickers-flavored Witches’ Brew. We’re getting giddy just thinking about it. Although in all the excitement, don’t forget, if you’ll be sharing with wee ones in the house, just to be safe, strain your Baby Witches’ Brew before letting anyone take a sip, just to stave off any unpleasant surprises involving nuts or other choke-inducing chunks.

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

Witch’s Brew Hot Chocolate Recipe

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Ryan D’Agostino | Esquire’s Eat Like a Man | Chronicle, 2011 | Serves 1

Since there are only about a half-dozen true bartenders left in the world, with the rest barely capable of making anything other than vodka martinis, I decided that the only way I’d ever get a classic daiquiri, straight up, was to have the recipe printed on the back of my business card so I could hand it to the person behind the bar who might otherwise make it with strawberries or bananas, on the rocks or frozen.

Ever since I had the cards done, with a picture of the cocktail glass I want it served in, I’ve been getting exactly the daiquiri named after the Cuban town of Daiquiri, where, after the Spanish-American War, Americans came to run the mines, spending off-hours drinking local rum with local lime juice and local sugar.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was the first to mention it in print, in This Side of Paradise (1920), and Hemingway—who drank his daiquiris without sugar—wrote of the cocktail, “The frappéd part of the drink was like the wake of a ship and the clear part was the way the water looked when the bow cut it when you were in shallow water over marl bottom. That was almost the exact color.” A drink so perfect demands respect. And knowledge. So I have my cards. –John Mariani

LC One Man’s (Rather Pushy) Technique for Assuring the Perfect Drink Every Time Note: Just like John Mariani, you can have your cards, too. Just click on card below and print out  the business card-size recipe on sturdy paper–something waterproof would perhaps be wise–then trim it to size and tuck it in your wallet.

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

The Foolproof Daiquiri Recipe

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South Beach Wine & Food Festival Cookbook | Clarkson Potter, 2010 | Serves 12

When I throw a party, I like to greet my guests with a fabulous drink like this—it makes them feel welcome. My friends love this cocktail because it’s fresh and light, which means it’s perfect for a party on the beach or a gathering in the garden.–Lee Brian Schrager

LC Not So Fuzzy Math Note: We’re word people, not numbers people. But even we found it easy peasy to mess around with the math of this recipe for a pitcher full of libations when the occasion demanded a single solitary cocktail. We also found it easy peasy to mess around with how heavy-handed to get with the cucumber and the gin. It’s a genteel, gentle-flavored sipper that’s starts out innocuously enough but with every sip becomes a little less innocent and a lot more potent in terms of flavor and force.

Active time: 10 minutes | Total time: 10 minutes

Lemon Cucumber Cocktail Recipe

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Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid | Hot Sour Salty Sweet | Artisan, 2000 | Serves 4

We confess, our favorite version of Southeast Asian coffee is this Vietnamese iced coffee, flavored with sweetened condensed milk. You’ll find it served in restaurants and also at street stalls. If you’re having Southeast Asian coffee first thing in the morning, you might want to drink it hot, with no ice. As the day warms up, the iced version becomes irresistible, on its own or to finish off a meal.–Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

LC Well Worth the Wait Note: Bear with us for a brief history lesson: Coffee came to southeast Asia during colonial times, introduced by the French and grown in the mountains of Indochina, er, Vietnam, as well as Laos and Cambodia. As Alford and Duguid describe it, the preferred cuppa is bracing, hot, thick, and smoky, brewed in an individual Vietnamese coffee filter stacked atop each cup or sturdy glass and designed to force boiling water to slowly, slowly drip through the grounds. Sweetened condensed milk, as the story goes, came into play because fresh milk was a little too perishable to be practical in this climate—either that or the French simply sneered at goat milk. Anyways, the cloyingly sweet tinned pantry staple worked like a charm, especially with the robust coffee mixed with chicory that was common in the colonies (not to mention New Orleans). You can see where we’re going with this. Just stir a little gooey sweet goodness into any strongly brewed iced coffee or espresso, regardless of whether it’s hot-brewed, cold-brewed, or Vietnamese-brewed, and succumb.

Active time: 5 minutesTotal time: 15 minutes

Vietnamese Iced Coffee Recipe

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Christopher Hirsheimer | Melissa Hamilton | Canal House Cooking N° 6 | Canal House 2011 | Makes 1

This cocktail, which we refer to as “Amante,” borrows elements from two great classics: a sugary rim from the sidebar and tequila from the margarita. Deliciously tart rhubarb and sweet orange juice stand in for limes. We stash the glasses in the freezer for a while so they get frosty. They won’t stay that way for very long once you take them out, but they look so beautiful and appealing while they do.

Rhubarb is known and relied on for its purgative powers—it’s a natural spring tonic. If you want to make this before or after the season, frozen rhubarb works just fine. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall turned us on to rhubarb syrup in his The River Cottage Year (Hodder & Stoughton, 2003). –Christopher Hirsheimer & Melissa Hamilton

LC Exponential Elixirs Note: Part of the beauty of this elegant—yes, elegant—rhubarb syrup recipe is that it yields an ample amount, far more than is required for a lone cocktail. So while we find the melding of rhubarb and tequila to be quite inspired, who’s to say you can’t also stir a little of that leftover syrup into sparkling wine? Or, for the kiddies, seltzer? Or, well, you tell us…

Active time: 10 minutes Total time: 1 hour, 30 minutes, not including chilling

Rhubarb and Tequila Cocktail Recipe

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