Bee's Knees riff.

This is a bit of a play on an improved whiskey cocktail, with a little extra jazz.

“The potion is a rich honey color and swirls lazily around, regardless of how it's handled. It can be found in any sort of vessel, though it is usually found in glass jars. The eye of a shapeshifter drifts along the potion's bottom, making it a daunting beverage for the average taverngoer to order. It has an extremely strong alcoholic taste with a hint of caramel. Due to its magical nature, the alcohol within this potion affects a creature twice as much as the alcohol within a nonmagical beverage.” -The Griffons Saddlebag

I recently attended a Calvados event at Equal Measure here in Boston. Before the event began, beverage director Jackson Cannon came over and mentioned that last night at Eastern Standard next door, there was a request for the Espionage that was created there in 2012. When the staff was unsure of the recipe, they found it here on this blog and were able to fulfill the request. Later that night, I decided to riff on the Espionage which had a quinoa vodka base to create the Sabotage with the mezcal-rhum agricole combination that worked well for me in other drinks.

Created with influence from the "Boston Bog" and various mule cocktails to incorporate the cranberry liqueur. The vanilla note in the Żubrówka takes some of the edge off, while the Boston Bittahs rounds out the palate. The name was partly inspired by the "Hoarse and Boggy."

Jolly Jane named after Jane Toppan, an 1890s serial killer that I learned about during a Cutty Sark-sponsored Boston Crime Tour that I helped to organize via my role as an officer of the Boston chapter of the USBG (bartenders' guild). I was inspired by writing up The Manhatta for the blog earlier that day with the Punt e Mes and Lustau East India Solera Sherry combination. I opted for Amaro Ciociaro which added an elegance to this Scotch drink (as a tribute to the day's sponsor) that Aperol and Campari did not provide in previous iterations.

Bernheim's variation (year unknown) on the Kentucky Buck using wheat whiskey rather than bourbon. The Kentucky Buck was created by Erick Castro at Bourbon & Branch in San Francisco in 2008.