Sweet tooths, rejoice. Someone has indeed taken a pie, liquefied it, added a little alcohol, and bottled it for sale. Behold Travis Hasse’s Apple Pie Liqueur and Cherry Pie Liqueur, both of which are absolutely crazy.

Travis Hasse’s Apple Pie Liqueur is a hazy gold color. Flavored with apple and cinnamon and a few other spices, what you mainly get from a sip of this spirit is a rush of sugary sweetness. It’s possibly sweeter than any other spirit I’ve ever tasted, although the aroma and flavor are, once you push past the sugar, relatively authentic apple pie representations. But the sweetness is such a killer that it’s hard to palate on its own — in a small dose with a cocktail or, as the label suggests, atop ice cream, you might be better off. 40 proof. C+

Travis Hasse’s Cherry Pie Liqueur is a somewhat different animal. Less alcoholic (30 proof) and less sweet, it’s a cherry liqueur with a touch of vanilla added. A little less “pie” like on the nose, it still smells pretty good. On the tongue, though, it comes across as medicinal. It’s not syrupy in texture, thank God, but one gets the feeling that if you melted down some Sucrets you would get a similar liqueur… complete with the same amount of alcohol. C

$17 each / drinkpie.com

Thatcher’s is making some of the most interesting liqueurs on the market: All organic, each sold with a little charitable sharing of its profits, and all intensely flavored spirits designed for modern cocktails. (Prior reviews are here and here.)

The company is adding three new flavors to its lineup in the coming weeks. We got samples of each. All are 30 proof.

Thatcher’s Blood Orange Liqueur is surprisingly maroon/red in color, but the flavor is considerably more orange in tone. It’s not overdone, like many a triple sec, which will slap you in its face with its tart citrus character, instead offering a smooth orange and raspberry spirit with a little cherry on the tongue. Easy to drink, and a good choice for a cocktail where you want a little color and nuance along with the orange flavor. A-

Thatcher’s Yumberry Liqueur is made from a new superfruit you’re probably going to start hearing a lot about this year. (Acai is so yesterday.) Hailing from China, it looks like lychee but smells like fruit punch. The taste veers toward mild strawberry, though there’s a touch of cloying cough syrup character in the finish that keeps it from being a masterpiece. Pink in color. Cute. Try it in a Cosmo. B

Thatcher’s Coffeehouse Liqueur you can smell from a mile away, made from a blend of organic coffees selected for balance and character. It’s lighter in color and body than most coffee liqueurs I’ve tried, and considerably sweeter. This makes it extremely easygoing on its own, a liqueur to choose if you want to drop a little natural coffee flavor into your cocktail without overpowering it. B+

each $20 / thatchersorganic.com

Immediate bummer: Upon pouring a bit of Solerno into your glass, Solerno turns out not to be bright red like the bottle’s appearance — and blood orange juice — would indicate (the glass is tinted, ya see) but rather nearly clear, like Cointreau, just with a slight yellow tinge.

Solerno is indeed just a spin on a triple sec, made in Italy from sweet blood oranges instead of the usual Valencias and such.

And Solerno is really quite good: Big kick of orange and clearly of the blood variety, but awfully sweet. This would be a great addition to any cocktail where sugar plays a role (in fact, you might throttle back the sweetness in your recipe if you sub this in for any triple sec), but it’s a little too sugary on its own as a digestif. And at 80 proof, it runs hot, too.

Overall, a very good liqueur, and worth a try for any orange enthusiast. Love the bottle, too.

A- / $35 / grantusa.com

There is one known use for Herbsaint, and it’s a big one: In the classic Sazerac cocktail, in which the glass is washed with Herbsaint before rye, sugar, and Peychaud’s bitters are added.

Now Sazerac (the company) is relaunching the venerable spirit with its original 1934 recipe, called Herbsaint Original.

Neither the standard Herbsaint nor Herbsaint Original contain wormwood, so while they both carry a strong anise/licorice flavor, neither is a real absinthe. Nonetheless the liqueur was caught up in anti-absinthe hysteria in the 1930s, and the company was forced to remove the word “absinthe” from its labeling.

I was expecting minimal difference between Herbsaint Original and standard Herbsaint, but boy was I wrong. Poured neat, these are night and day against each other: Herbsaint is electric green and a little scary in its artificial coloring, while Herbsaint Original is a deeper greenish brown (though it too includes artificial coloring). The flavors are different, too: Herbsaint is known for a sharp licorice character and a heavy alcoholic finish, but Original is deeper and richer, still clearly licorice, but less sweet and, surprisingly, less boozy, despite being 100 proof to the standard version’s 90 proof.

One surprise: Herbsaint standard actually performed better in the Sazerac cocktail. While the tastes were similar, Herbsaint Original just weighed things down too much.

Both versions will continue to be sold.

A- / $35 / sazerac.com

From the Jalisco highlands, 1921 is a line of 100 percent agave tequilas… plus a tequila liqueur. I tasted them all while trying to figure out what the symbolism of “1921″ was… and failed. The line is unusual in that the agave undergoes a double fermentation process, said to offer more smoothness and a wider spectrum of flavors than other tequilas. True? Here’s how they stack up. All 80 proof except the liqueur.

1921 Tequila Blanco is where we should see the most proof of 1921’s claims, and true to the marketing material, there does seem to be something unique about this unaged blanco. It’s a very creamy tequila, with minimal to no bite at all. Fans of the shoot-and-grimace method of drinking tequila should look no further, since this one goes down so easily. The flavor is a bit strange, though, with cantaloupe, salt, and, a bit further down the list, agave notes. Not unpleasant, but unusual to say the least. B+ / $40

1921 Tequila Reposado spends an indeterminate amount of time in oak, but it’s obviously not long. The very pale color offers much of the same character as the Blanco, plus some spicy, Bourbon-like character from contact with charred wood. This makes this tequila more interesting than the Blanco, but also gives it a bit of bite. I like it better; I figure most tequila fans will find it delicious, too. A- / $45

1921 Tequila Reserva Especial Anejo used to just be called Reserva Especial because it was aged for just eight months. Now it’s been relaunched as Reserva Especial Anejo, as it spends a full year in casks, giving it the official legal status to be called “anejo” on the label. Overall it takes the Reposado’s formula and adds more of that spiciness. The color isn’t dramatically darker, but it’s clearly smoothed out just a bit more with vanilla, wood, and other whiskey-like notes, leaving, as so many anejos do, the taste of agave behind. Very palatable, but a toss-up vs. the Reposado. A- / $50

1921 Crema de Tequila combines tequila and a touch of coffee to create a 30-proof sort of Bailey’s a la Mexico. Quite sweet and milky, it’s a dulce de leche kind of experience, with a little peppery kick to it, some cinnamon, and the barest hint of tequila. Cream liqueurs are all over the place now, and this one is a fine entry to that crowded field, and if your tastes run toward tequila rather than whiskey, you’ll probably find it’s a good alternative to the usual fare out there. Pricey, though. B+ / $30

tequila1921.com

I’m calling it now: This will be the “it” cocktail of 2010. Very simple to make, nicely bittersweet, beautiful to look at, and easy to drink, especially as an aperitif.

Aperol Spritz
1 1/2 oz. Aperol liqueur
2 oz. Prosecco
splash of club soda

Build in a tall glass over ice and stir gently.

Prosecco works best, but pretty much any sparkling wine can be used in this recipe. Delish.

For this year’s holiday party I’m eschewing the individually-made cocktail for a punch, and even bought a punch bowl just for the occasion. If you have the luxury of attending my pad this weekend, well, here’s why you’ll be stumbling home later instead of driving.

Glen Park Punch
1/2 bottle white Lillet
1 bottle vodka
1 bottle St. Germain elderflower liqueur
1 1/2 cups orange juice
juice of one lemon
1 bottle Prosecco or other sparkling wine
orange slices for garnish or floating in the punch bowl

Combine all ingredients in a punch bowl, stir, and chill with an ice block. Be ready to make more. Serves about 20.

Made from coca leaves. Wow, OK. Not quite sure how to even begin with this one.

Agwa de Bolivia (“crafted in Amsterdam”) is one hell of a liqueur, a mouthwash green monster that’s pungent with menthol character and greener than Scope — and, yes, made with real coca leaf. (Hey, don’t get too excited. So is Coca-Cola.)

Powerfully minty, I imagine this is what you’d get if you dissolved a bunch of Hall’s menthol cough drops in 60 proof alcohol, and added in plenty of artificial coloring to make it look psychedelic.

Agwa suggests you drink no more than three shots of this stuff in one sitting. I think that actual number might be somewhat lower.

D+ / $35 / agwabuzz.com

While straight-up Combier is a clear, pure-orange liqueur, the “Royal” version adds a spin. The boozemasters at Combier start with the top-notch triple sec, then add cognac and (their words) “arguably the most famous of all French hygienic liqueurs in the 19th century, Elixir de Combier (which includes ingredients such as aloe, nutmeg, myrrh, cardamom, cinnamon, and saffron).”

Myrrh? You’re soaking in it, folks!

The result is this light-gold liqueur meant to compete with the intricacy of Grand Marnier and its ilk, which also use cognac as a base. Created in 1834, it’s quite a different animal than Marnier — or regular Combier (which is bizarrely more expensive than this version), for that matter. The herbs (must be the aloe…) are incredibly strong, giving Royal Combier an incredibly fragrant character that demolishes the orange character of the spirit. The mouthfeel is quite oily, reminding me quite a bit of Strega.

I will enjoy playing with this liqueur in margaritas and other orange-inflected cocktails, but I found Royal Combier a bit too much on its own.

A hefty 76 proof.

B+ / $37 / combierusa.com

Reportedly a recipe that dates back to 1632, Combier (which makes an outstanding orange liqueur) is now producing this complicated cherry spirit, a pinkish-red liqueur popular, they say, in the court of Louis XIV.

It’s easy to see why the royals enjoyed it: Combier Rouge is unlike your typical cherry liqueur (such as Peter Heering), lighter both in color and flavor, and considerably more complicated, too.  Cherries are certainly the most lively note here, but their sweetness is compounded by additional ingredients that suggest rose petals and wood notes. (Combier suggests pepper and licorice — enigmatic characteristics that are there if you go hunting.)

A blend of three types of cherries, 100 percent natural ingredients, and no added sugar, this is a delicious alternative to more traditional cherry infusions that merits attention.

34 proof.

A- / $27 / combierusa.com