Cocktail

The Caipirinha is Brazil's most popular cocktail. The drink is traditionally made with limes, but Amber uses tangerines instead.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Fonda San Miguel: Thirty Years of Food and Art, by Tom Gilliland, Miguel Ravago, and Virginia B. Wood. . This traditional wine punch presents the opportunity to turn robust jug wine and fresh seasonal fruits into a festive party drink. The recipe includes a mix of firm fruits (such as seedless grapes, apple slices, pear slices) and soft fruits (like strawberries, peaches, and kiwi). The soft fruits are added to the glasses at serving time.

Here, the word "perfect" refers not to the quality of the cocktail (though we do love this version), but to the equal amounts of sweet and dry vermouth used to make it.

This drink was featured as a Cocktail of the Month. Click here to learn more about the Manhattan and for two more great recipes.

Cocktail historian David Wondrich prefers his martinis this way—that is, with equal parts gin and vermouth, as they were served circa 1910. To achieve the right flavor balance, he suggests using a high-proof, full-bodied gin—such as Tanqueray—that can stand up to the vermouth. For the sake of historical accuracy, he also recommends straining the drink into a chilled cocktail coupe (a stemmed glass with a wide, shallow bowl), because the martini glass as we know it didn't come on the scene until the 1920s.

This drink was featured as a Cocktail of the Month. The original Martini, which is made with sweet Italian vermouth, sugar syrup, and orange bitters, lost out to the type made with just dry French vermouth, but it is still an excellent drink. This recipe, adapted from the estimable The Old Waldorf Astoria Bar Book (1935) by Albert Stevens Crockett, calls for Old Tom Gin, which is sweeter than dry gin. Since Old Tom isn't easy to find nowadays, we've substituted a combination of dry gin and simple syrup.

Toast St. Patrick's Day with our drink that combines the quintessential Irish spirit with a classic American cocktail. Serve it on the rocks to better balance the Irish whiskey's peaty note. If you prefer it a bit drier, make the vermouth portion half sweet and half dry.

Ginger beer is a staple in Jamaica, and the best is homemade (it's easy to do, as you'll see in this recipe). Resist the temptation to use commercial ginger beer for this drink — it's too sweet.

The Piña Colada was born in Puerto Rico in the 1950s. Give this version an extra dose of the tropics with a stylish shredded-coconut rim (see below).

Gin is big in the British Virgin Islands, as you might imagine. Here, it's combined with local soursop juice and curaçao. The name is a reference to the shade of the Caribbean Sea.

A Caribbean spin on the 150-year-old classic, this version infuses pineapple into Pisco (a South American brandy) and uses fresh grapefruit and lime peels for added brightness.

A colonial twist on the ubiquitous — and potent — rum punch.

A drink that can also stand in for dessert.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Jamie Oliver's book Happy Days with the Naked Chef. For Oliver's Valentine's Day tips, click here. This great little cocktail was made by the barman after my mate Ben and I started working at Monte's.

A rich, aromatic (and potent) version of hot buttered rum.

Editor's note: This recipe was created by Erika Lenkert, author of the book, The Last-Minute Party Girl: Fashionable, Fearless, and Foolishly Simple Entertaining. For Lenkert's tips on throwing a last-minute New Year's Eve party, click here. I adore this cocktail recipe because it's refreshing, pretty, and has subtly mint and cucumber flavors that will keep everyone guessing at exactly what's in it. You can dress it up for an evening fete by straining it and serving it up with edible gold or silver flecks as it is done here, or dress it down by throwing everything — mint, cucumber slices, and all — into a serving pitcher. Best of all, you can skip squeezing limes all day by using limeade concentrate. Shhhh. It'll be our secret.

Pamplemousse is the French word for grapefruit, which is one of the main ingredients in this vodka drink.

This drink was featured as a Cocktail of the Month. Click here to learn more about eggnog.