Once again, it’s dessert drink time at Drinkhacker. This one’s inspired by the eponymous cookie.

Nilla Wafer
1 1/2 oz. vodka
1/2 oz. white chocolate liqueur (I use Godiva White)
1/2 oz. Navan vanilla liqueur
1/4 oz. Damiana liqueur (a Mexican herbal liqueur)

Shake with ice in a cocktail shaker and strain into a cocktail glass. Rim the glass with sugar beforehand if you’re feeling ambitious.

Try adding 1/2 oz. of creme de banana liqueur for an additional twist.

Sloe Gin Fizzes were the first cocktail I mastered, but it’s been years since I’ve had one. No reason why, really. Sloe gin, a liqueur flavored with sloe berries, the fruit of the blackthorn tree, has hardly seen the renaissance that other spirits have in recent years. There hasn’t exactly been a clamoring for the stuff in the market.

Well, Plymouth (which I’m on record as stating, unequivocally, makes the best gin on the market) is trying to change that by introducing a premium sloe gin, perhaps the first of its kind. Plymouth threw a swanky party for its new bottling last night at Bourbon & Branch here in San Francisco, and I was fortunate enough to try the spirit along with a number of cocktails made with it.

First, a bit more about sloe gin: It’s made by steeping sloe berries in gin (Plymouth gin, of course), and watered down to 52 proof. 26 percent alcohol makes it a pretty standard liqueur rather than a true gin, so plan accordingly. Served straight, it’s quite tart, really too sour to enjoy on its own, but in cocktails it really shines.

Sloe gin’s natural habitat is the Sloe Gin Fizz, and in its preparation here (with fresh lemon juice, simple syrup, fresh egg white, and a splash of club soda) it was a real delight, creamy, with a good mix of sweet and sour. In a good cocktail, sloe gin tastes a lot like cranberry, and in The Wibble (recipe below), you get the essence of sloe gin at its best. This concoction, which includes grapefruit juice and blackberry liqueur, is like a Cosmo on steroids. Really good.

Amazingly, the addition of sloe gin to gin and Campari made the “Sloegronie” impressively drinkable, still quite bitter, but much better than a real Negroni. Finally, I finished up the night with Plymouth’s Southside (pictured, because it was so cool looking), which actually didn’t include sloe gin at all. Essentially a Mojito with gin instead of rum, I was impressed with how much more interesting this now-tired drink could be. Sub in lemon for lime and add a shot of sloe gin and you’ve got a Sloe Gin Genie (pictured at top, next to the bottle). I’ll give it a try when I get a bottle of my own to play with.

Plymouth Sloe Gin isn’t quite yet available in the U.S. yet, but keep an eye out for it. (If it’s sold at the same price here as it is in Britain, it’ll run about $35 a bottle.)

The Wibble
1 oz. Plymouth Gin
1 oz. Plymouth Sloe Gin
1 oz. freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
1/4 oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/8 oz. simple syrup
1/8 oz. Wild Blackberry Liqueur (Creme de Mure)

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Here’s the recipe that launched this blog, reprinted here from my personal blog, just for kicks and the sake of completeness.

The Appletini, iPhone Edition (aka The iPhonetini, The iPhone Martini)
2 oz. vodka
1/2 oz. Apple Pucker Schnapps
1/2 oz. Goldschlager
1/4 oz. Cointreau (or Triple Sec)

Combine in a shaker with ice. Shake well and strain into a chilled cocktail glass, optionally rimmed with sugar. Garnish with your old cell phone (or an apple wedge).

It actually tastes pretty good: Apple and cinnamon are a natural fit. The off-white color recalls many an Apple gizmo (though not, of course, the iPhone itself), and the little touch of gold reminds you exactly what you’re paying for. (Oh, and if you like a stronger apple flavor, add a bit more Apple Pucker.)

Here’s a spin on the Casino recipe that I love so much, adding St. Germain (which I also love so much) to give it an extra dimension of taste.

The Downtown Casino
2 oz. vodka
1/2 oz. Maraschino liqueur
1/2 oz. St. Germain liqueur
1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice

Shake all the ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a brandied cherry.

Use less Maraschino and lemon juice if you find either flavor too strong, and sub in gin for vodka at your pleasure.

The red bottle and fancy writing make Ecstasy instantly appealing… but what is this “liqueur” that’s bottled at a whopping 70 proof and includes caffeine?

Clearly marketed at the Red Bull & Vodka crowd, Ecstasy is a spirit (basically diluted grain alcohol) for the LiLo/Paris/Britney crowd, spiked with caffeine, ginseng, taurine, and other stimulants designed to help you dance-slash-party after a long day of sleeping and shopping instead of mellowing out after a long day of work.

Ecstasy describes the spirit as having “the predominant flavors of pomegranate and citrus with notes of apple,” and by that I assume they mean “bubble gum.” Seriously, this is Bubblicious distilled into a bottle, and infused with stimulants and booze. Drinking it straight tastes a little like chewing Bubble Yum with a gushy vodka center. Again, imagine the target audience.

I tried Ecstasy straight (not great), with equal parts vodka (better), and in one of the most daring things I’ve ever consumed, mixed in equal parts with Jagermeister in a concoction Ecstasy calls the Exorcism (not as bad as you’d think; a bit like Blackjack gum). Still, no one in my generation is going to be knocking this stuff back on a nightly basis. But if the paparazzi are after you, well, by all means, get to it.

C / $30 (and up) / drinkecstasy.com

Vanilla is an essential part of any good dessert, and it’s equally essential as part of any good dessert cocktail. (Check out how often I use Licor 43 in my dessert drink recipes if you don’t believe me.)

The challenge is that there are very few vanilla-based spirits out there. The aforementioned Licor 43 is one (and an exceptionally good one), but now there’s another, newcomer Navan, bottled by the makers of Grand Marnier.

Head to head, the differences are pronounced. Despite having 42 other herbs in it, the Licor 43 has considerably more of a vanilla flavor and dessert-like kick, but more importantly it is much heavier, almost like a syrup. I can’t (and don’t recommend) drinking Licor 43 straight, but with a lot of melting ice, it’s palatable on its own. Navan is blended with Cognac and this character comes through, mellowing the vanilla and lending a more traditional spirit note to the liqueur. It’s easy to sip Navan on its own, but it’s even better on the rocks and, of course, in cocktails. (Also worth noting: Navan is a full 80 proof, while Licor 43 is 62 proof.)

In a complicated, chocolate cocktail, you’d have trouble picking a favorite between these two, though Navan is considerably more expensive. I’ll probably stick to 43 in most cocktails, but would experiment more with Navan in brandy-based drinks or non-dessert offerings.

A- / $37 /navanworld.com

We did a rare experiment tonight and put GranGala to blind test vs. the liqueur it’s designed to imitate: Grand Marnier.

This Italian liqueur even has the red ribbon and circular wax seal, just like Grand Marnier, and it promises it’s blended from “triple orange essence from the choicest oranges from Sicily.”

So, how’d it fare? All tasters agreed that they were “very different.” The Grand Marnier was deemed much more sugary-sweet, with the GranGala noted as more bittersweet. For my part, I found Grand Marnier a much more satisfying drink on its own, as the sweetness worked well for both aperitif and digestif. In a cocktail, however, I couldn’t really tell the difference, though one tester complained of an artificial sweetener taste in the drink.

So, the results? A tie: 2 testers each preferred GranGala and Grand Marnier. I like the real deal quite a bit more, but GG will work in a pinch.

B- / $19 / grangala.com

Inspired, so they say, by the cafe scene of 1920s Paris (it says so write on the bottle: “1920’s Paris”), the folks behind Alizé bring us this curious liqueur, a blend, again so they say, of coffee, vodka, cream, and vanilla. Sounds like four great tastes that go great together!

Café Bohême muscles into a market that used to be owned exclusively by Kahlua but which is now crowded with numerous coffee-flavored alternatives. (I’ve written before that I like the Starbucks branded liqueur the best of those I’ve tasted.)

But Café Bohême is a little different than most: The cream mellows out the coffee considerably to the point where it’s barely the focus of the drink. The vanilla is understated, too, leaving you with a smooth, lightly sweetened drink that’s easy to sip. In fact, one could say it’s almost watery.

Café Bohême is fine when consumed straight (chilled) or on the rocks, but it’s considerably better with a shot of vodka added to it to give it some kick. At 32 proof, it’s about on par with most bottles of wine. A shot gives you something a little stiffer (both Starbucks and Kahlua are 40 proof). I enjoyed the drink even more with a raspberry-flavored vodka, which gives it a nice chocolate cheesecake tone.

Nice little drink, though it’s likely to be the most expensive coffee-flavored liqueur on the shelf, which might make it a hard sell for many.

B+ / $22 / cafeboheme.com

The Healthberry
1 1/2 oz. vodka
1 oz. VeeV açai spirit
1/2 oz. Chambord
1 sugar cube

Put all ingredients in a shaker with ice, shake well, and strain into a cocktail glass.

It looks a lot like a Cosmopolitan, but the taste is quite different (letting the açai come through), and much stronger. Just one will do ya, promise!

Açai (pronounced ah-SAH-eee) is the superfood of the moment, so it was only a matter of time before it became a spirit. VeeV is the only açai spirit on the market, but there’s more to it than that.

Not quite a vodka and not quite a liqueur, VeeV is a 60-proof spirit that’s clear and will be widely seen as a flavored vodka (hence its categorization here). It’s distilled from wheat, then flavored with not just açai, but also prickly pear cactus, and acerola cherry.

Drank straight, it’s clearly less of a punch in the gut than a true, 80-proof vodka, and the fruity aroma smells distinct and pleasant. It’s the cherry that’s actually strongest, in the aroma and the initial flavor, but the hard-to-place açai comes through as more of an aftertaste. Açai on its own is a really powerful thing, bittersweet and overpowering to the point where few people can drink the juice unblended.

Here, it works, giving the cherry a sharpness and a uniqueness that, at first, comes across kind of like Maraschino liqueur, but finishes as something far different.

I had mixed luck using VeeV in cocktails. It demands something sweet or else the fruitiness doesn’t come across. Check out what I came up with here, or visit VeeV’s website for more ideas.

B+ / $35 / veevlife.com