A Macabre Mixology of Ultimate Wines & Cocktails to Pair with Your Favourite Basic Horror Author, from Stoker to Shelley

Final November I acquired a pleasant and thought-provoking e-mail from a reader (thanks once more for writing, Paul!) who had a query about one in every of my previous blogposts, “7 Issues to do When Studying a Ghost or Horror Story.” The seventh and ultimate tip was to create an inspiring environment – what Ambrose Bierce referred to as “the appropriate environment” – and among the many examples I offered was having fun with a stimulating beverage that may have a thematic connection to the author or work, parenthetically including: “port for James, sherry for Dickens, Scotch for Stevenson, Claret for Stoker, espresso for Bierce, Earl Gray for Lovecraft, and inexperienced tea for Le Fanu – however not an excessive amount of.”

My correspondent favored the concept however puzzled concerning the connections: a pair made sense, however most have been obscure and he was curious how I made a decision which beverage suited which creator. This led us to throwing out extra concepts for different basic horror writers whom I hadn’t listed, or developing with different pairings or enhancements for those I had so flippantly thrown on the market.

It raised a enjoyable and intriguing concept: what drink would pair finest with the basic horrors whom we examine on this web site? Which spirit or wine matches their persona or fiction finest, and – if a spirit – what sort of cocktail would possibly pair nicely with their work?

Clearly, dozens of prospects existed, and I’m not suggesting that the next record is remotely definitive, however over the Christmas vacation I got here up with suggestions for a few of our best-loved authors. So, the subsequent time you’ve a laid-back night and need to match one in every of our luminaries with a libation, we invite you to seek the advice of the next alphabetical information to macabre mixology.

_________________________________________

RATIONALE: In fact, “Bitter Bierce” ought to have a bitter drink – and what higher than the identical thick, oily campfire espresso that he and his fellow troopers discovered a lot pleasure in (particularly when tobacco was uncommon and meals rations have been virtually inedible).

4 oz. sturdy, dark-roast stovetop espresso, 2 oz. Jack Daniels Strait Rye Whiskey, 1 tsp. brown sugar, 1 oz. heavy whipping cream. Pour whiskey right into a mug, cowl with espresso, stir in brown sugar and cream   

RATIONALE: Finest remembered for his mystical horror – incessantly set within the wilderness of Canada, the Alps, the Danube River, North Africa, or Scandinavia – Blackwood’s usually stream-of-consciousness prose is finest consumed with a receptive thoughts loosened up by a stiff, warming cocktail.

We advocate Canada’s basic blended drink, caribou, which – like Blackwood – is concurrently, deceptively heat and sharp, coaxing you into obeying its beckoning name (just like the siren music of the Wendigo) till its already too late to show round.

2 oz. Canadian whiskey (rec. Caribou Crossing Single Barrel), 1 oz. of cabernet, ¼ oz. Canadian maple syrup, shaken with ice, strained right into a whiskey glass, and garnished with a cinnamon stick and rosemary sprig

RATIONALE: In fact, it is just becoming that the chronicler of The King in Yellow be loved within the firm of a garish, yellow drink. All the higher if it’s a basic, French liquer – like chartreuse – to recall Chambers’ heavy Parisian affect and his frequent depictions of the town’s decadent, bohemian counterculture.

1 oz. blanco tequila, 1/2 oz. yellow Chartreuse, 1/2 oz. Jägermeister, 1 sprint easy syrup, 1 complete egg, nutmeg. Shake all moist components with ice, very vigorously, till the shaker turns into frosted on the surface. Pressure right into a cocktail glass and mud with nutmeg.

RATIONALE: Though Crawford was born in the US, he spent a lot of his life in Italy, the place he’s nonetheless remembered warmly. As such, we advocate studying his tales – a lot of which have romantic undertones – with the luxuriant, Italian almond liqueur, amaretto. And what higher concoction to honor the author of the basic vampire story, “For the Blood is the Life,” than the vampire cocktail.

4 oz. vodka, 2 oz. amaretto (rec. Gozio or Luxardo), 2 oz. orange juice, 6 oz. membership soda, 2 cups raspberries, ¼ cup sugar. Mix the raspberries in a meals processor, pushing the pulp by way of a mesh strainer and discarding the seeds. Mix the puree and sugar in a small saucepan on medium warmth, stirring incessantly for 10 minutes, till thickened. Chill.

Then shake vodka and amaretto with ice, stir in orange juice and membership soda, and pour into iced glasses. Fill a syringe with the raspberry puree, then place this within the glass, “injecting” the puree and stirring it with the syringe earlier than ingesting.

RATIONALE: As befits the creator of “A Story of Two Cities,” now we have two suggestions, one for “the perfect of instances” and one for “the worst of instances.” For days of a lot, we level you in the direction of Dickens’ the drink which shines in his favourite Christmas punch: a basic, British, ruby port. For days of need, we advise Demon Gin – the scourge of the slums of the London metropolis.

1 bottle of dry pink wine, 1 bottle of ruby port (rec. Taylor Fladgate Nice Ruby Porto), ½ cup sugar, 1 thumb-sized piece of chopped ginger root, ¼ teaspoon every of cinnamon, allspice, and mace, 30 complete cloves, 5 oranges, 2 lemons, and cinnamon sticks. Stud the oranges and one of many lemons with cloves, and bake at 350 levels for 75 minutes, then place on the backside of the punch bowl.

In a small saucepan, carry 1 cup of water to a boil, including the spices and ginger, simmering till the liquid is decreased by half. Convey the wine to a boil in one other pan, then add sugar, stirring gently, then scale back warmth and permit to simmer for ten minutes. Stir in spice mix and take away from warmth. Cowl this with a towel and permit to take a seat for twenty-four hours.

Then slice and juice the oranges and lemon into the spiced wine. Pressure this combination, then add the port, stirring this over medium warmth till it “smokes.” Take away from warmth and add to punch bowl, garnishing with lemon wheels from the second lemon. Serve in mugs with cinnamon sticks.

4 oz. dry London gin (rec. Sipsmith), 1 oz. contemporary lime juice, membership soda, 1 lime. Shake gin and lime juice with ice, straining right into a Collins glass over ice, filling with membership soda, and garnishing with lime wheels.   

RATIONALE: Whereas studying the action-packed, macho works of Sir Arthur, it is sensible to maintain this straightforward however sturdy: a beneficiant pour of a very good, single malt scotch, loved neat. Ideally this needs to be a very smoky-tasting scotch, evocative of wafting tobacco wreaths, and logs snapping on the fireplace.

Launched to rejoice its two hundredth anniversary, this bottle was particularly designed to imitate Lagavulin’s model throughout the Eighties (the kind which, in fact, Watson might have set down on the cluttered sideboard in 221B Baker Road when he took board there in 1881). It smells of honey and orange, smoked cod, chocolate, and earth, and tastes of campfire smoke, cinnamon, darkish chocolate, mint, and fried potato skins.

If you wish to think about what Doyle or any of his immortal characters might have loved in a very good, peaty Scotch, search for this throwback bottle – ideally loved with a very good cigar or pipe, and a bowl of smoked almonds.

RATIONALE: For the consummate Irish author of fantasy, nothing however good, previous Irish whiskey will do. That is additionally in honor of one in every of his most iconic characters, Joseph Jorkens, the obese, lazy (however well-traveled and engaging) story-teller, who wiles away his days at his London membership, buying and selling wild tales from all around the world in trade for whiskey and soda.

Jorkens was the protagonist in over 150 tales, and continues to be famend because the narrator of entertaining however implausible tales of science fiction, bizarre fiction, and fantasy – usually ending with Jorkens barely lacking his likelihood to realize wealth and fame, by way of no fault of his personal.

4 oz. Slane Irish whiskey, membership soda, orange slice. Pour whiskey over ice in a Collins glass, cowl with membership soda, garnish with an orange slice.  

RATIONALE: For an creator primarily related to darkish tales of the stormy seas – gloomy our bodies of water animated by the tentacles of man-eating octopi, big squid, and proto-Lovecraftian hybrids – the pure pairing is a sea-faring man’s go-to spirit: a darkish, spiced rum.

2 oz. darkish spiced rum (rec. Kraken Black Spiced Rum), ½ oz. contemporary lime juice, 3 oz. chilled ginger beer, 1 lime wheel, 1 candied ginger slice. Shake rum and lime juice with ice, pour over ice into an ice-filled Collins glass, pour ginger beer over all, garnish with lime wheel and candied ginger pice.

The creator of “Nutcracker and the King of Mice” could be very happy to be memorialized by ingesting a variation of the favored nutcracker cocktail that depends on a darkish, spiced rum extra closely than the normal tequila and vodka.

1 ½ oz. darkish spiced rum (rec. Kraken), 1 oz. amaretto (rec. Gozio or Luxardo), 1 oz. cream liqueur, nutmeg. Shake rum, amaretto, and liqueur with ice till shaker turns into frost on the surface. Pressure into a relaxing rocks glass. Mud with nutmeg to style.

RATIONALE: When he returned from a twenty-year snooze within the Catskill Mountains, Irving’s Rip Van Winkle blamed the spell introduced on by the intoxicating hollands he was supplied by Henry Hudson’s ghostly bowlers.

1 oz. jenever (rec. Sons of Liberty True Born Gin), 1 oz. Lillet Rosé, 3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters, tonic water, grapefruit twist. Pour the jenever, Lillet, and bitters over ice in a highball, stir, cowl with tonic water, and garnish with the grapefruit twist.

RATIONALE: Apart from his horror, Jacobs was subsequent best-known for his prolific maritime writings: eccentric tales of hapless sailors and the ocean which frequently had both fairly darkish or fairly humorous endings.

Rum, the favourite drink of British Jack Tars, ought to give the suitable taste to even his landlocked tales of terror (though not a number of of his supernatural tales – “Captain Rogers,” “Over the Facet,” “In Mid-Atlantic,” “The Misplaced Ship,” and many others. – have a salty plot). Thankfully, one other fan of Jacobs has tailored a cocktail in his honor – one packing a tremendous punch – sturdy sufficient to go muster within the service provider mariner mess – led by Jamaican rum.

2 oz. Jamaican-style rum (rec. Smith & Cross), 1 oz. orange brandy, 2 oz. pineapple juice, membership soda. Shake the rum, brandy, and juice with ice, pressure right into a Collins glass stuffed with ice, and canopy with membership soda (…or skip the soda and add one other as soon as every of the rum and brandy for a fair boozier profile)

RATIONALE: In my analysis, I couldn’t discover any proof that Henry James had a favourite drink, however one spirit instantly got here to my thoughts after I considered him sitting in an English backyard gossiping with previous, aristocratic girls: the late queen’s beloved Pimm’s.

A bit fruity, a bit spicy, a bit good, and a bit naughty, it appears excellent for Henry James. And the cocktail we advocate may come straight out of “The Flip of the Screw” – particularly Benjamin Britten’s operatic adaptation, with its many Edenic references, sharp eroticism, and apple motifs (see the music: “Malo”): the Forbidden Fruit.

1 ½ oz. apple brandy, 1 oz. Pimm’s No. 1, ½ oz. contemporary lemon juice, 1 tsp. easy syrup, 2 dashes Angostura bitters, 2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters, ginger beer, lemon wheel. Shake brandy, Pimm’s, lemon juice, easy syrup, and each bitters with ice, pressure into an ice-filled Collins glass, prime with ginger beer, and garnish with lemon wheel.

RATIONALE: Any imagined gathering of tweedy Cambridge dons settling in beside a snapping, winter hearth with wind flapping in opposition to the shutters and moaning within the chimney would appear incomplete with out a trio of decanters on the facet desk and cordial glasses in each hand.

The decanters have three hues: one golden-amber (the sherry), one golden-brown (the brandy), and one the identical deep ruby-red as lately shed arterial blood – the port. I can’t see M. R. James – as he sits in entrance, reciting his newest ghost story – having fun with brandy an excessive amount of. The sherry, maybe, although I may see him being uninspired by its dry, nutty reservation.

Port, nonetheless – nicely, port is the very factor – and its macabre colour, indulgent taste, and potent kick appear to be the proper assistant to fortify him throughout his recitations – whilst a prop to be slowly and knowingly sipped at inopportune moments of excessive rigidity, or unwholesome gore, throughout the storytelling.  

Operated since 1692 (the 12 months of the Salem witch trials – excellent to pair with “The Ash-Tree”) this bottle, which is a steal at underneath $20, is aged for 2 years in oak vats and is thought for its wealthy, blackberry-jam nostril with hints of oak and chocolate, and for a wealthy taste of darkish fruits and spice. Drink it in a cordial glass with some bitter, darkish chocolate and a bowl of roasted nuts to the facet.    

So whenever you chill with “The Phantom Rickshaw” or “On the Finish of Passage,” sip a very good G-and-T as you think about the sinister ambient sounds of the subcontinental jungle at twilight.

2 oz. Bombay Sapphire gin, tonic water, lime wedge. Pour gin into an ice-filled Collins glass, cowl with tonic water, stir, garnish with lime wedge.

RATIONALE: Whereas I used to be tempted to say “inexperienced tea” for the creator of “Inexperienced Tea,” there’s a completely happy medium for the enduring Irish author who additionally explicitly extoled the advantages of Irish whiskey in “Unusual Disturbances in Aungier Road.”

½ oz. Irish whiskey (rec. Slane), ½ oz. peach schnapps, ½ ouncesbitter combine, Sprite, lime wedge. Shake Slane, schnapps, and bitter combine with ice. Pour into cordial glass, and canopy with Sprite, garnishing with a lime wedge.

RATIONALE: Any night time on the opera should embrace a flute of champagne – higher but (particularly if there’s a rumored ghost watching within the wings), a champagne cocktail darkened to a macabre crimson by pink vermouth. And, as you may think, simply such a cocktail exists: one brimming with class however brooding with horny hazard.

1 oz. candy, pink vermouth, 1 oz. Campari, dry champagne (rec. Campo Viejo Cava Brut Reserva), orange peel. Stir the vermouth and Campari right into a rocks glass half-filled with ice, cowl with champagne, and garnish with an orange strip.

Within the story, an alcoholic tramp is implied to be the pal, and ends with the usually grandmotherly sentence “Now will you be good?” We assume that this armchair Anglophile who by no means crossed the Atlantic would have advisable a cup of Earl Gray and to keep away from the affect of daemon liquor.

Nevertheless, when you study something from Lovecraft, it needs to be that he isn’t to be taken severely or allowed to dampen anybody’s sincere pleasure – so let’s tamper along with his steaming cuppa and produce a bit of excellent humor to American horror’s worst sourpuss. We advocate a sizzling toddy from Yankee Journal – a stunning, quarterly publication about New England journey and tradition which my father and I subscribe to, and which proudly Yankee Lovecraft ought to have cherished however most likely would have discovered degenerate by some means.

1 bag Earl Gray tea, 1 cup simmering water, 1 ½ ounceswhiskey (rec. Newport Brewing & Distilling’s Sea Fog single-malt whiskey from Lovecraft’s native Rhode Island), 1 TB lemon juice, 1 TB honey, lemon wedge and cinnamon stick. Steep the tea within the water for a couple of minute, add whiskey, lemon juice, and honey, stir, and garnish with lemon wedge and cinnamon stick.

The odd identify is a fair longer story: it comes from an eponymous garden recreation that Machen invented, named in flip after a D-shaped part of his garden.

3 bottles of candy (“the sweeter the higher”), golden white wine comparable to Sauternes, Graves, or Barsac (maybe one in every of every), and ½ a bottle of gin (rec. a really juniper-forward London Dry Gin — Sipsmith, Beefeater, or Tanqueray). Pour over ice in a punch bowl and serve in rocks glasses or punch glasses. Think about garnishing with lemon wheels and/or mint leaves so as to add complexity.

When studying de Maupassant’s wild tales of madness, ardour, and creativeness, it’s finest to take your self again to a Moulin Rouge mind set with an absinthe drip.

1 ½ oz. absinthe (rec. Pernod), 1 sugar dice, chilled water. Pour the absinthe right into a cordial glass and set a slotted, absinthe spoon (or any small wire strainer) over the brim with the sugar dice balanced on it. Utilizing a small spoon, eyedropper, or straw, drip chilled ice water (between 4 and 6 oz) over the sugar till it has totally dissolved into the drink under, turning the clear, brownish absinthe a cloudy, pale inexperienced.

RATIONALE: By this level, after scrolling previous Mary E. Braddon, Rhoda Broughton, Amelia B. Edwards, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Mary Louisa Molesworth you’re most likely questioning “okay, already! Inform me about these mistresses of the Victorian ghost story.” Alongside the likes of Margaret Oliphant and Charlotte Riddell these good women have been the powerhouse behind one in every of Gothic fiction’s most under-appreciated but influential sub-genres: the Victorian English, literary ghost story.

Whereas male authors (e.g., Le Fanu, Dickens, Ache, Capes, Wells Jacobs, James, Collins, and the Benson brothers) additionally contributed skillfully to the shape, feminine authors tended to have a strong grip on making a ghost story emotionally compelling and genuine, with their obvious mastery of pathos, loss, and concern.

Their tales brim with spirituality, loneliness, and helplessness, usually knowledgeable by their very own social place: most have been both single, widowed, or in unhealthy marriages, and wrote to place meals of their stomachs as a lot as to vent their frustrations.

They epitomized the concept that a literary ghost is an emblem of an unacknowledged actuality who can solely be exorcised by way of confrontation, grief, and acceptance – concepts which didn’t happen as readily to male authors who roughly loved their stations in life and averted confronting the ugly underbelly of their industrialized society.

It wasn’t till the flip of the century that drinks like whiskey, rum, gin, or champagne turned widespread on center class sideboards, particularly for girls. So, to honor these mistresses of the craft, I current two real, Victorian cocktails made with good brandy, which pair fantastically with a chilly winter’s night time spent studying “The Outdated Nurse’s Story,” “The Open Door,” or “The Chilly Embrace” by the sunshine of a guttering candle.

2 oz. cognac brandy (rec. Philbert Uncommon Cask Sherry End Cognac), 2 oz. spiced rum (rec. Kraken Black Spiced Rum), 1 TB powdered sugar, complete milk, cinnamon stick, nutmeg. Vigorously stir rum, cognac, and sugar collectively in a snifter. Cowl with boiling milk, garnish with cinnamon stick, and mud with nutmeg.

4 oz. apple brandy (rec. St. George Spirits Apple Brandy), 1 TB powdered sugar, baked apple wedge, lemon wheel, cinnamon stick, nutmeg, boiling water. Pour brandy right into a snifter, add powdered sugar, cowl with boiling water, stir, garnish with baked apple wedge, lemon wheel, and cinnamon stick, and mud with nutmeg

And what higher cocktail to pair along with her tales – a lot of which (“Man-Measurement in Marble,” “John Charrington’s Wedding ceremony,” “From the Useless,” “Within the Darkish,” and many others., and many others.) contain vengeful, resurrected corpses – than a zombie. Deceptively tropical and fruity, but notorious for its highly effective kick, it’s excellent for a cathartic woman’s night time in.

1 ½ oz. darkish rum, 1 ½ oz. gold rum, 1 ½ ounces151-proof rum, ¾ oz. lime juice, ½ oz. grapefruit juice, ½ ouncesFalernum, 1 tsp. Pernod absinthe, 1 sprint Angostura bitters, orange slice, cherry. Shake all liquid components with ice – very nicely. Pressure right into a Collins glass stuffed with ice, and garnish with the cherry and orange slice.  

RATIONALE: Whereas I don’t know what Onions drank, I do know that he shared his hey-day – the Edwardian Period by way of the Roaring Twenties – with the renaissance of my favourite spirit, gin.

Moreover, what higher technique to rejoice his peculiar surname (which he selected to pronounce oh-NY-ons, by the best way) than with a dry gin Gibson – one other Edwardian phenomenon – full with a garnish of pearl onions.  

2 oz. dry gin (rec. St. George Terroir or Plymouth), 2 oz. dry vermouth, pearl onion. Shake gin and vermouth with ice, pressure into a relaxing cocktail glass, and garnish with a pearl onion.

Nevertheless, as a life-long aficionado of Frasier (who drank Harveys Bristol Cream sherry, by the best way) and a real sherry fanatic, I couldn’t go up the chance to advocate this under-appreciated aperitif (though, fortunately, it’s apparently having fun with a renaissance amongst Millennials) in honor of Poe’s immortal basic, “The Cask of Amontillado.”

A great, previous Amontillado will style contemporary, dry, and nutty with a posh vary of candy, spicy, and umami flavors: caramel, tobacco, hazelnuts, oak, figs, leather-based, pastries, butter, and toast.

Splurge on a tremendous bottle of Amontillado – (this runs $80, however for a extra inexpensive choice with comparable complexity and style, you can begin out with a $15 GONZALEZ BYPASS VINA 12 YEAR AMONTILLADO). It’s completely scrumptious: a contemporary and sweetly spicy nostril is adopted by caramel, candy potato, oak, baking spices, vanilla, and butter, all wrapped up in a really dry, hazelnut end.

Pour your self a complete white wine glass of the stuff (normally I’d advocate a copita or a cordial glass, however when you’re studying Poe, we should be a bit extra indulgent) and sip it with a bowl of oily, inexperienced olives and a bowl of dried dates at your facet.

1 oz. chartreuse (inexperienced or yellow), 1 oz. absinthe (rec. Pernod), 1 oz. dry gin (rec. Tanqueray), 1 oz. Lillet Blanc, 1 tsp. lemon juice, lemon twist. Shake liquid components with ice, pressure into a relaxing cocktail glass, garnish with lemon twist.

RATIONALE: The creator of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and “Treasure Island” was well-known for his tales about human duality, whether or not they be concerning the murderous philanthropist, Jekyll, or the lovable buccaneer Lengthy John Silver. His tales may simply as simply be set in foggy, craggy, sea-soaked, Scottish inlets or in fragrant, dreamy, sun-soaked, tropical paradises. As such, how may we probably keep away from making two suggestions?

A peaty Scotch whiskey to characterize the gloomy, shadow-side of life, and a brilliant, tropical rum to characterize the sunny glories to which we aspire. So, does such a cocktail exist? Sure: the Islay daiquiri.

1 oz. peated single malt scotch (rec: Lagavulin 8), 1 oz. pineapple rum, ¾ oz. contemporary lime juice, ½ oz. coconut oolong easy syrup*, 2 drops Bittermens tiki bitters, nutmeg. Shake all liquid components with ice, pressure right into a rocks glass stuffed with ice, then mud the highest with nutmeg.

*Steep 1/3 oz. of coconut-oolong tea in 1 cup of boiled water for 8 min., then pressure, instantly add 2 cups of brown sugar, stirring briskly till dissolved. Refrigerate till cool.

Now, claret is simply one other phrase for a strong pink wine from the Bordeaux area, or one with the same character (suppose Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon). However why would we go to Bordeaux for our pairing once we may trek throughout the Carpathian mountains and discover a juicy, pink providing from the beating coronary heart of Romania?   

A darkish pink, claret-style Romanian wine, this sensual bottle comes full with a blood-red label emblazoned with a gold cross to beat back revenants. Sturdy and adventurous, it’s wealthy nostril smells of pink currants, bitter cherries, and darkish chocolate, and it tastes of blackberry, plums, black cherries, oak, tobacco, darkish chocolate, with a leathery, smoky end.

Within the seductively Draculean phrases of its personal makers: “cabernet Sauvignon from Oprişor speaks extra about [this] place than one may render in phrases. It brings collectively days of curse – of horrible frost or warmth – with days wherein no sane conscious man would abandon the place. [It is] tumultuous, ardent, wealthy, clever, convincing, [and] bemusing.” One phrase appears to pop up in each assessment: daring. It’s a highly effective, charismatic wine – one that may work its will on you.

Pretentiously “unpretentious,” it’s troublesome for me to affiliate Wells’ tweedy science fiction with tremendous wines, aperitifs, or liqueurs, but he was too class aware within the different course to be paired with gin or beer. An imported, Yankee bourbon, nonetheless – the sort favored by his adventurous, American pal Stephen Crane and his New Yorker mistress, Deliberate Parenthood founder, Margaret Sanger – is a cheerful center floor.

Sure, considerably worldly with out being genteel, and considerably prole with out being widespread, bourbon is the proper mix of working class and mental for the contrarian Mr. Wells. And because it so occurs, H. G. Wells impressed two almost equivalent however barely distinctive bourbon-based Manhattan cocktails.

2 oz. bourbon (rec. Outdated Grand-Dad, Kentucky Straight Bourbon, bottled in bond), 1 oz. dry vermouth, ½ oz. Ricard, 2 dashes Angostura bitters, 1 Maraschino cherry. Shake all liquid components with ice and pressure right into a cocktail glass.

To make this an Invisible Man-hattan, merely skip the Ricard, change the dry vermouth to candy vermouth, and go for a extra rye-forward bourbon (rec. Rittenhouse Rye, bottled in bond)

2 oz. Irish whiskey (rec. Slane), ¼ oz. absinthe (rec. Pernod), ¼ ouncesaperitivo liqueur, ¼ oz. Maraschino liqueur, 1 tsp. crème de menthe, 1 lime peel. Shake whiskey, absinthe, and the liqueurs with ice. Pressure right into a cocktail glass, then slowly pour crème de menth over the again of a spoon held over the middle of the glass (permitting it to sink to the underside). Don’t stir, and serve with lime peel as a garnish.

…These are simply my concepts. Let me know what drinks you’d pair with these authors, or any whom I’ve not noted!