As I’ve worked my way though cocktails, my tastes have changed and expanded. One preference that has remained true from my initial dive to today is pears. I adore their flavor and versatility - they can pair with floral notes in one drink than turn around and shine in a strong whisky cocktail. They shine especially when they’re in season in the fall, and I got so lucky this year as my parents have a pear tree that yielded probably 6 large boxes of delicious fruit. I let them ripen in the box in the garage (they can last an impressively long time whole), then juiced them. Some of the puree went to immediate cocktail consumption while some was put away into the freezer for later use.

If you don’t have a juicer, you can always peel pears, lightly simmer them, then puree them with a bit of water in the blender and strain out any chunks. Of course you can also use store-brought pear juice for an easier option. Regardless, this cocktail will be a cozy, warming bouquet of fall flavors.

I decided to play with Scotch in this cocktail, and chose an intriguing bottle of Monkey Shoulder that I stumbled upon at Trader Joe’s. Monkey Shoulder is a blended malt Scotch that’s not smoky but rather mellow and smooth with notes of fruit and vanilla (a nice alternative to a bourbon). It’s an affordable price point and a great Scotch for mixing, particularly in this cocktail.

I also knew I wanted to incorporate sherry, which I’ve grown incredibly partial to the more I learned about cocktails. While I occasionally use vermouth, I often find it to have too much funk or sweetness for my tastes. Sherry, on the other hand, adds just the right amount of complexity and offers a spectrum of varieties depending on the flavors I’m looking to compliment. I used Amontillado sherry in this cocktail - a medium dry variety with rich nutty notes. If you’re looking for a great one on a budget, check out Trader Joe’s (they have three varieties for $4.95 each).

While the sherry would have been delicious as is, I tried my hand at infusing it with cloves. This allowed me to add clove flavor without watering down the cocktail or adding more sugar. Clove worked beautifully with the palate of the Amontillado, and I’ve enjoyed trying the infusion in other cocktails as well.

Finally, I added a bar spoon of maple syrup to round out the cocktail and give it an impeccably smooth mouthfeel. The resulting cocktail starts with spiced ripe pear and finishes with the malty richness of the Scotch. It’s fantastic for the season and would serve as a delicious addition to a Thanksgiving dinner!

The Orchard’s Splendor

2 oz Scotch whisky
3 oz pear juice
0.5 oz clove-infused Amontillado sherry*
1 bar spoon maple syrup
Dehydrated pear slice, for garnish

Shake liquid ingredients with ice until chilled, then strain into a rocks class over a large ice cube. Garnish with a dehydrated pear slice and enjoy under a cozy blanket.

* To infuse sherry, add 1 tsp of cloves and 1 cup of Amontillado sherry to a jar and allow to steep for 24 hours. Strain and keep infusion in the fridge.

Thanks to Belen Aquino for the stunning cocktail photography.

After first setting eyes on a Smoking Gun at Apogee Lounge, one of the most imaginative bars in Chicago, I knew I'd eventually need to add one to my arsenal of mixology toys. Quite conveniently, the maker Breville reached out and offered to provide me with one in exchange for participating in a virtual holiday "mix-off" along with 9 other influential bartenders and mixologists. Getting the opportunity to play with a new medium made me want to take my cocktail creation in a completely different direction from anything I'd done before.

I selected Japanese whiskey and sherry to form the backbone of my cocktail. Both are ingredients that are praised in modern cocktails yet I had only tried them when going out for drinks. I quickly found that Japanese whiskeys come in quite a range of prices and flavor notes but Kikori Whiskey seemed like a particularly intriguing option to mix with. Made entirely from rice and aged in sherry casks, Kikori feels like a mash-up of the best attributes of saké and more traditional whiskey. It's a wonderfully unique addition to the world of whiskey and features a floral aroma with a caramel smooth finish.

I also learned that sherries come in many varieties, each of which boast a unique flavor profile. Sherry is defined as Spanish fortified wine crafted in the region surrounding the city of Jerez de la Frontera (the word "sherry" stems from "Jerez"). Within that category, the wines vary from very dry to sweetened and have undergone different degrees of aging and oxidization. I chose the Manzanilla variety which falls on the drier end of the spectrum and was named with the Spanish word for chamomile tea due to flavor similarities.

I played up the floral notes in the whiskey and manzanilla sherry with fragrant fresh-squeezed Meyer lemon juice and a wildflower honey syrup. The honey syrup balanced the dryness of the sherry, and the Meyer lemon juice tied the other ingredients together with a touch of pleasant acidity.

The coolest thing about using the Smoking Gun in creating a cocktail is that you can fill it with a number of different wood chips, dried herbs or dehydrated fruit. This allows you to enhance the drink's flavors by engaging the sense of smell and truly takes the cocktail to the next level. I used applewood chips and dried chamomile flowers to smoke this drink. The applewood chips created a sweeter, fruity smoke and were a perfect match for the floral sweetness of chamomile. As a sidenote, I highly recommend getting dried chamomile flowers in bulk instead of buying it in teabag form - it's cheaper, more flavorful and lovely for garnishing!

The resulting cocktail is a bouquet of flavors unlike any I've enjoyed before - it starts out with a bit of floral dryness, transitions to the creamy smoothness of the honey and whiskey and finishes with a touch of sweet smoke.

Faraway Plains

2 oz Kikori Japanese Rice Whiskey
0.5 oz Manzanilla Sherry
0.5 oz wildflower honey syrup*
0.25 oz fresh Meyer lemon juice
Dried chamomile and applewood chips, for smoke
Fresh chamomile flowers, for garnish

Add first four ingredients to a mixing glass over ice and stir until chilled. Cover mixing glass with a julep strainer so only the spout is exposed. Insert the tube of the smoke gun through the mixing glass spout. Place a light covering of applewood chips and dried chamomile in the burn chamber of the smoke gun, ignite, and use the higher fan setting to fill the mixing glass with smoke. Once filled, remove the smoke gun tube from the mixing glass, change the orientation of the julep strainer so the handle covers the spout and allow for the cocktail to infuse with smoke for several minutes. Give the mixing glass a swirl and strain the contents into a Japanese tea cup or punch glass. Garnish with fresh chamomile flowers.

* To make wildflower honey syrup, add 1:1 parts wildflower honey and almost boiling water to a leak-proof glass jar and shake until honey is dissolved. Open jar to allow syrup to cool and store excess in the fridge for up to 1 month.

Thanks to Belen Aquino for the stunning cocktail photography and Breville for the Smoking Gun.