Now I am a pretty good cook– but like most of us I read recipes to get inspired. Good recipes are like good books, they're hard to put down. I particularly like recipes so magical that they transport me to exciting locations, rich with possibility. These are the recipes that excite me. These are the recipes I turn to on special occasions. But I'll tell you something. IRL, I don't always use recipes.

There are all sorts of reasons why I don't use recipes everyday. Sometimes I make a dish so many times that a recipe is just redundant. Other times I feel like getting my creative game on so I follow my instincts, just to see how good they are.

None of that means I think recipes are irrelevant IRL (in real life). If I thought that there would be very little room for this blog, any of the other blogs I read or even the 8 shelves of cookbooks that tower over each end of the desk where I peck away at this keyboard.

There are exceptions however. Too many to go into. Baking is often an exception. I usually follow pastry recipes or make only small (logical??) adaptations to them. I can't make good ice cream to save my life, unless I follow a recipe word for word and then make it twice. I blame that strict bugaboo known as science. It's always lurking– just hoping I lose the logarithm or invert the integers.

But cocktails can be an exception too. I often turn to my bartenders guide IRL even when making something as simple and familiar as a Manhattan. And I'm not sure why.

When I think of Fall, I think of the rich hues of the changing leaves, the smell of smoke in the air and the warm tones of late harvest fruit. All these colors and textures of Autumn also make me want to snuggle up to the warm toasty spice flavors of the season. So it’s no accident that the season’s signature fruits like apples, persimmons and pumpkins, pair so beautifully with cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg.

As much as I love these combinations layered into a rich flaky crust– let’s not forget that they can be shaken and stirred just as easily as baked and braised.

That’s right, these flavors are naturals for cool weather cocktails because they pair perfectly with the warm caramel tones and deep smokey palates of bourbon, whiskey and even rum.

So to honor the season I have a trio of warming cocktails inspired by the some of the tastes we associate with Autumn. 

Quick, what’s a DAIQUIRI?

Did you answer a mountain range in Cuba? Well according the legend, in the late 1890s an American engineer came up with the now-famous rum drink while entertaining guests at his place in the aforementioned mountain range. It was a time when everyone in Cuba could really use a good stiff drink. You see, the Americans forcibly removed control of the island from Spain and tensions were running high. The war that ensued was the Spanish-American War. It's not America's most memorable war. Fortunately the cocktail lasted longer than the war.

But what about that story? Could an American in Cuba really have been the first one to think of putting rum and lime together? Well, that doesn’t seem likely. Rum and lime belong together. In fact rum had been considered the ‘milk of Cuba’ long before American miners landed there. Besides, British sailors in the Caribbean were given a ration of lime to combat scurvy. I am sure more than one of them thought to mix that lime with the local liquor!

But it does seem plausible that the Daiquiri caught on in Cuba. I can buy that part of the story. Thanks to a bar called El Floridito, Havana became a Daiquiri Mecca– because legendary barman Constantino Ribalaigua elevated this simple concoction to perfection with his intuitively deft balance of sweet rum and sour lime. A simple but splendiferous combination!