I noticed this description under a Hawaiian Room drink called the Okoolehao Sling–“A zingy sling of gin and juice in a real coconut”–and took it as a prompt. I wanted to create a fruity coconutty flash-blended drink with a gin base and I couldn’t be happier with the results! Though it does appear in tiki drinks, I see coconut as belonging more to the non-tiki tropical canon we’re (mostly) focusing on this month.

Call me old-fashioned, but I love Champagne for New Year’s. Is there anything more classic? Though I do like classic Collins-esque Champagne cocktails like the French 75 (especially the Cognac-based kind), a stirred, spirituous base topped with bubbles is more my speed. This one is somehow wintry and tropical all at once, and ever-so-festive.

There are several pre-Prohibition era drinks that bear the name “Blackthorn,” “Black Thorn” or “Blackthorne,” hence the numeral after the title. This version takes some of the ingredients from the English (gin and/or sloe gin) and Irish (Irish whiskey) versions and applies an equal parts structure. An optional barspoon of peaty Scotch makes this Manhattan cousin slightly smoky, if that’s your thing.

This aperitivo cocktail is a hybrid of a Negroni Sbagliato (bitter liqueur, sweet vermouth, prosecco) and a spritz (bitter liqueur, prosecco, soda). Fortified with a small measure of aged gin and winterized with a dose of citrus, it’ll have you embracing January’s chill with flavors of pine, citrus, and apple.

This is the “root cocktail” for this month’s programming, i.e. the drink that determined the core of our supply list. I came up with the original Tyrolean Negroni at Gigantic a couple years ago: super piney gin, Carpano Antica and a split measure of Braulio and Sfumato. This updated version comes together beautifully and does a great job of showcasing the blanc vermouth.

Sours are a perennial favorite, but there’s something extra special about them during the winter. This version of an amaro sour gives the drinker a choice between alternating sips of the sour and a shot of amaro, or pouring the amaro on top and drinking the two elements together. I channeled Emily Dickinson for the title.

When I was developing this drink for a potential slot on Gigantic’s 2020 spring menu (sadly reopening was postponed until 2021), I kept thinking of the nursery rhyme “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary,” because it’s all about spring flowers and honeybees. And because I’m about 500 years old. Anyway, this song is probably about Mary Tudor, but it may also be about Mary Stuart, commonly known as the Queen of Scots, who was eventually beheaded by her cousin Elizabeth I.