I had a mango. This is what I came up with. Use as ripe a mango as you can. Add sugar as needed if it isn’t sweet enough.

The Shrubb Rush
1 mango, chopped
2 pineapple spears, chopped
6 oz. pineapple juice
6 oz. rum (I used Jamaican Sea Wynde)
1/2 oz. Creole Shrubb (or other orange liqueur)

Put all items into a blender, fill with ice. Blend until (relatively) smooth. Makes 4-6 drinks.

Just goofing around with dessert drinks again. Here’s a way to sort-of emulate the venerable White Russian even if you don’t have Half & Half on hand… and maybe even improve on it. (I suppose you could always use coffee liqueur if you’re a stickler for accuracy.)

The White Prussian
1 oz. vodka
3/4 oz. white chocolate liqueur (like Godiva’s)
1/2 oz. Licor 43
1/2 oz. Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur)

Add ingredients to a rocks glass filled with ice and stir. Optionally, drizzle chocolate syrup on top. (Alternately can be shaken with ice and strained into a cocktail glass.)

I’d take a picture but it looks like a glass of milk with ice and a little chocolate syrup in it.

The idea for this cocktail came to me out of the blue. It’s indeed quite delicious.

The St. Ignatius
1 oz. St. Germain liqueur
1 oz. white dessert wine (Sauternes, Tokaji, Moscato, or premium American botrytis-affected wine like Violetta)

Shake with ice and strain into a coupe.

I actually used Donnafugata’s Passito di Pantelleria Ben Ryé dessert wine (made from dried Zibibbo grapes) here. It tastes a lot like Tokaji and blended splendidly with the St. Germain. You can read about Donnafugata’s red wine here. The wine ($38 for 375ml), incidentally, is great on is own as well.

The drink is the best of both worlds, and it works as both an aperitif and digestif. As for St. Ignatius, he was the founder of the Jesuits, and the man has nothing at all to do with this drink.

Try one of these if you’re a fan of bitter drinks like the Negroni.

The Thorny Toad
2 oz. Irish whiskey
1 oz. Punt e Mes
splash Absinthe
3 dashes Angostura bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Adapted from the Blackthorn Cocktail, from the classic Savoy Cocktail Book.

Here’s the official cocktail for my 2007 holiday party, inspired by the La Real at Solstice in San Francisco.

The Joost Sparkler
1 oz. silver tequila
3/4 oz. pomegranate liqueur
3/4 oz. lychee liqueur
1/2 oz. triple sec

Shake in a cocktail shaker with ice, strain into a champagne flute. Fill remainder with Champagne.

I’m planning it as a pitcher drink, making eight at a time (sans the Champagne), then pouring them as needed to avoid spending all night mixing drinks (which is common at my parties).

Oh, and St. Germain works in lieu of the lychee liqueur, too.

Cheers, and happy holidays! It’s a very refreshing, festive drink!

Need a pick-me-up to go with all those Thanksgiving leftovers? Try this — utterly holiday appropriate — little concoction.

The Turkey Trot
1 1/4 oz. bourbon
3/4 oz. cranberry juice
1/4 oz. Licor 43

Shake with ice in a cocktail shaker, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with a cranberry.

Add more bourbon for something a little less sweet, more stout.

Photo: Eric Meyerson.

There are as many recipes for Cosmos on the web as there are people to drink them. Here’s my take on creating a Cosmo that goes down easy and allows for plenty of creative tinkering if you like. SPOILER: Secret ingredients ahead!

Drinkhacker’s Perfect Cosmopolitan
1 1/4 oz. vodka
1 oz. cranberry juice
1/2 oz. triple sec
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice (fresh is essential)
1/4 oz. Chambord

Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cranberry, lemon or lime twist, or nothing at all.

Chambord makes the drink: A splash of raspberry is just what you need to cut through that sometimes harsh cranberry flavor with some sweetness, plus it keeps the pinkness in the drink. Try it and I promise you’ll get no complaints!

If you want to have fun with it, substitute whatever you’d like for the vodka, particularly any of the fruit-flavored vodkas. Orange vodka is a common choice, but blueberry works well, too. (The photo shows one I made with 267 Vodka Cranberry, as previously reviewed.)

Sorry, chocolate haters, here’s another nice little dessert drink.

The Chocolate Brownie
1 oz. vodka
1 oz. chocolate liqueur (I use Godiva)
1/2 oz. walnut liqueur (I use Nocello)
1/4 oz. Licor 43
1/4 oz. butterscotch liqueur

Add all ingredients with ice to a cocktail shaker, strain into a coupe glass.

Tastes just like a brownie. You’ve got chocolate, walnuts, vanilla, and a little butterscotch kick.

If you haven’t tried St. Germain’s Elderflower liqueur yet, run, don’t walk, to your nearest liquor store and buy a bottle. Or rather, ask them to order you a bottle, because chances are it won’t be on hand. I lucked out and found some last week and have been enjoying experimental cocktails with it ever since. It’s got a strong taste of lychee, but also peach, apricot, and other fruits plus herbal notes, which makes it more intriguing than Soho lychee liqueur.

Here’s my favorite concoction to date:

Grand Elderflower Cocktail
2 oz. vodka
1 oz. St. Germain elderflower liqueur
1/2 oz. dry vermouth
dash Grand Marnier

Shake with ice in a cocktail shaker. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange wheel.

Be careful. These go down easy but will knock you out in short order.

To make a simple Elderflower Martini just mix 2 oz. vodka with 1 oz. St. Germain and shake. Simple, and also delicious.

Here’s a fun holiday cocktail, courtesy of Blue Ice Vodka, which I’ll be reviewing in the near future.

Pumpkin Pie Martini
1 oz. vodka
1/4 oz. Da Vinci Pumpkin Pie Syrup

Rim a cocktail glass with cinnamon sugar. Shake ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and strain into glass. Garnish with an orange wheel.

I forgot the garnish. Also, you can find the Pumpkin Pie Syrup at Barista Pro Shop.

The flavor is very clean, not chemically, and quite a lot like pumpkin pie. Don’t skip the cinnamon sugar rim; it really makes the cocktail!