I was inspired by the Drambuie and banana liqueur combination in The Goodwill that I recently made. I swapped its rye and lemon for mezcal and lime, and accented the drink with Peychaud's Bitters. For a name, I was inspired by Backbar's cryptid menu, and I dubbed this the Lechuza after the shapeshifting witch of Mexico – a person-sized bird with a human face.

Published in Frank Meier's 1936 "The Artistry of Mixing Drinks"

Almaza means diamond in Arabic, but it is not clear if this is the inspiration for the name.

Out and about on travel.

Still "Banished" and out on "travel" at the IRS home of record.

After posting my Oaxacan Lady on Reddit during the day and making it for a guest later that night at the C-Side Bar, I decided to riff on the Montenegro-Benedictine combination when I got home from work. I crossed a Frisco (rye-Benedictine) with an M&M (mezcal-Montenegro) and named it after a store on St. Mark's Street in Manhattan that I was reminded of in the book St. Mark's is Dead. I used to buy clothes there in the 1990s back when the edgiest clothes in Boston could only be found at Allston Beat and a few other select places. I previously had mashed up the Frisco with the Alaska for the Call of the Wild which worked well, so I went ahead with the idea. I originally made this as equal parts rye & mezcal, but I think the 3:1 works better.

Out on travel for a month, with only the barest of necessities to make even a modestly reasonable cocktail.

Earned 2nd place in the Reddit Original Cocktail Competition, May 2025: Apricot and lemon.

I was inspired by the apricot-Sfumato combination in the Smooth Operator that I recently made. I swapped the Armagnac-rye duo for Scotch-apple brandy, dropped the Benedictine, and exchanged the two bitters for absinthe. Originally, I tried Peychaud's Bitters here since they generally work well with Scotch, apple brandy, and apricot, but the balance was just too dark especially with the Sfumato, so I replaced it with the brightening action of absinthe. For a name, I kept the Smooth Operator in mind and dubbed this the Mountebank which dictionaries define as "a person who deceives others, especially in order to trick them out of their money; a charlatan" and "a person who sells quack medicines from a platform."

Born out of a love for the Blackstrap and early 2000s versions of this beloved cocktail. Myself, finding neither hit quite right, started brainstorming. The blackstrap rum version of the cocktail was too molasses forward, and the early 2000s version lacked that molasses funk. Knowing that there was an improvement in there somewhere, I started developing through the Morgenthaler improvement method (See Morgenthaler's Amaretto Sour) . I settled on Coruba for its distinct funky banana note and molasses characteristics, Planteray Original Dark for its complexity and well-roundedness. I changed the simple syrup to a raw sugar syrup and reduced it's amount, and added a hint of fancy molasses syrup to bring out that rich, spicy bitterness. Then reduced the pineapple to not overshadow anything else. Next, to highlight the funkiness of the Jamaican rum, I added just a hint of Giffard's Banane du Brasil. Although, almost perfectly delicious, it still tasted a bit too artificial banana for me, and instead of the banana liqueur, I opted for a Cooked Banana infused Campari (recipe in notes). To me it was perfectly what I was searching for in a Jungle Bird.