A true Edwardian dream drink, this Champagne Cobbler has sloe gin, raspberry cordial and dry sparkling wine, garnished with little scoops of raspberry sorbet and vanilla ice cream and raspberries and/or currants! It’s named after the fancy hotel where Anne gives a reading of The Highwayman (published in 1906, and included in the 1985 CBC film, not the book!).

This is a drink to honor dear Matthew Cuthbert, the sweetest man in the history of Canadian literature! Though the Cuthberts don’t drink much (they’re not completely teetotal, Marilla makes currant wine), I picture this kind of drink being a special treat for Matthew after a long day. Anachronistically inspired by the Snakebite and Black and given a smoky note to reference Matthew’s fondness for smoking a pipe, I layered raspberry cordial, sloe gin, and peaty Scotch, then added cider and floated Guinness on top! Candied ginger and blackberries seem a charming garnish-treat for this one. 

I had to include a drink inspired by the scene where Anne breaks a slate over Gilbert Blythe’s head for calling her “Carrots” because of her red hair… I made a savory, smoky, carrot sour that will be a perfect late summer-into-fall transition drink. Peaty and blended Scotches are layered with Avonlea Fair syrup, carrot juice, lemon, and celery bitters, which is all shaken with egg white for texture. Flaky salt and freshly ground black pepper make for a perfect garnish.

In honor of a spelling bee wherein Anne wins by correctly spelling chrysanthemum, I basically made a delicious iced tea beverage. Chilled chrysanthemum tea, Avonlea Fair syrup (with parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme!), raspberry cordial, lime juice, and celery bitters make for an herbal, tart, cooling drink that makes you feel like you’re walking through a field of cut hay! And a measure of blended Scotch won’t go amiss here, if you want to fortify it!

Cordials fall into two categories: homemade or commercially produced liqueurs that we see during the period we’re looking at, or the English-style non-alcoholic fruit syrups that typically contain juice (such as Rose’s Lime Juice Cordial). I wanted to do something non-alcoholic for this month (and to roll into a very close-to-my-heart theme for August), so I am choosing to make a more English-style cordial with the unbeatable combination of raspberry and lemon.

Inspired by blackberry "brandy" recipes in old household manuals, as well as the French liqueur crème de mûre, this is my attempt to capture the fleeting experience of drinking a berry-packed Port Cobbler on a summer’s day. Ruby port (and other complementary fortified wines like strawberry-infused vermouth, if you like) is infused with fresh blueberries and blackberries, sweetened, and fortified with Old Tom gin or genever.

Ratafias originated in western Europe as a mistelle-like liqueur made with the pits of stone fruit. But the genre expanded to be made with all sorts of things–a range of fruits, nuts (like nocino!), spices, roots, herbs, seeds, and flowers. And dozens of these recipes can be found in pre-Civil War household manuals. I loved the idea of making a “mocha” ratafia, combining recipes for coffee- and cacao-based examples. 

Dating to the late seventeenth century in England, Cherry Bounce is a homemade liqueur made with tart cherries, sugar, spices, and spirit. I make two different versions: rye with vanilla bean and brandy with warming spices. Both are positively ambrosial and a beautiful taste of summer on a cold winter’s night.

A fair few of the recipes I came across in this month’s research involved muddling strawberries, but this is the only one that properly read as a cobbler, complete with the heavy wine component in the base (originally ruby port), with Cognac in a supporting role. The 1920s Parisian book it comes from has lots of Campari in it, so I threw in a little for dimension. Reminiscent of our Torino Cobbler.

There were a couple of great fizz recipes I came across for this month’s theme. The first is the Crushed Strawberry Fizz, a simple gin fizz with muddled strawberry that was popular at the St. Nicholas Hotel, NYC, in the 1880s. Then there’s the eponymous Elsie Ferguson Fizz (named for the star of stage and screen) from the 1910s (gin, lemon, strawberry, grenadine, cream, soda). I replaced the grenadine with strawberry syrup and added egg white and a little strawberry vermouth.

I was a little surprised at how many spirit-forward drinks I found that called for strawberry syrup or liqueur. Gin and Cognac were by far the most common bases for these drinks and many of them called for vermouth. And several of the books I found these drinks in have lots of Campari-laced recipes (including the Café Royal book, from which I took the drink’s name). So I turned this into a kind of subtly strawberry Negroni! It’s delicious and would lend itself nicely to batching for a summer soirée.

I found several sours that called for strawberry syrup or liqueur in my research; some called for gin, others for whiskey, but a few of them called for rum, which I liked the sound of! There were a bunch of supporting characters, too (anisette, red Curaçao, raspberry liqueur, pineapple, orange) so I kind of made something up inspired by all of this as well as the Siesta, Strawberry Daiquiris and the Gigantic drink Sea, Sex, and Sun. The result is absolutely delicious and triply strawberry-y!

Katie Stipe came up with this one in 2006 at Julie Reiner’s Flatiron Lounge in New York. Her original idea was to use the Hemingway Daiquiri template and plug tequila in for the rum and Campari in for maraschino. The result is utterly delicious. This was often on the brunch menu at Fort Defiance and was a perennial favorite.

A modern take on the 20th Century (gin, Lillet, crème de cacao, lemon), this drink cuts out the quinquina and subs tequila in for gin, serving the drink in an absinthe-rinsed glass. Jim Meehan invented this one at Pegu Club in 2007 under Audrey Saunders’ guidance. Perhaps true to the adage “what grows together goes together,” chocolate and agave spirits are happy bedfellows, as is the case here.

Joaquín Simó’s smoky, bittersweet smash-hit is still incredibly popular, perhaps even more so since mezcal’s star has risen so high since its inception in 2011. Another Death & Co. creation, it followed the Paper Plane (2008) as a modern classic that drew on the equal-parts structure of the Last Word and the Corpse Reviver No. 2.

Phil Ward’s new-school take on the Old-Fashioned originated at Death & Co. in 2007 and has become a worldwide superstar in the years since. The appearance of reposado tequila and inclusion of a small measure of mezcal illustrate the changing awareness around agave spirits and its austere presentation appealed to a whole new subset of drinker. The flamed orange twist is very of its time.

Originally published in 1939 in Charles H. Baker, Jr.’s Gentleman’s Companion, this drink was invented in Havana–either by Wil P. Taylor or Eddie Woelke, who worked for the Hotel Nacional and Casino Nacional respectively. I was inspired by Juyoung Kang’s spec (which I learned about through doing a story on it for Punch), but I put my own spin on it by choosing to use lemon instead of lime.

This is a bonus recipe this month, as it doesn’t fit neatly into any of our prescribed categories. I took inspiration from two drinks: the Golden Glove, a blended orange-inflected Daiquiri from El Floridita in the 1930s, and the Derby Daiquiri, also orangey and dating from the late 1950s, it was an entry into the Rums of Puerto Rico competition. From these, I created a creamsicle-esque rum sour that’s a great addition to our recipe collection this month.

This is the drink that represents the properly-tiki contingent within this month’s recipe collection. Dating to the late 1940s, this rum sour features tiki favorite falernum, as well as orange liqueur; Trader Vic’s book actually calls for Cointreau, but many modern bartenders use Curaçao. I added a touch of simple syrup as well as Angostura, which has a great conversation with the spices in the falernum.

By all accounts, this drink was first published in a RonRico rum recipe pamphlet. Presaging the Swampwater’s combination of green Chartreuse, pineapple, and lime, this complex rum sour also features crème de cacao. I added vanilla syrup and fresh mint for our Club version, and I also have a tequila-based version on Gigantic’s spring menu with yellow Chartreuse called Fun in Acapulco!