:: fred's picks for the top cocktails of 2022 ::

At the end of 2010, someone asked what my favorite drink of the year was, and I lacked an answer at first for there were so many good options to chose from. My choices were influenced by two factors – tastiness and uniqueness; it had to be both memorable and worth repeating. In the past years, I did one post for drinks that I had out at bars and one post for drinks that I had at home; however, as I found myself going out less due to my work schedule and other factors, I cut it down to one post a few years ago. Each month here was selected for when the drink post appeared and not when it was enjoyed (unlike my real time Instagram account, I have a two week delay here before it goes live to give myself an ample window to write). Without further ado, here is the thirteenth annual installment of my best drinks for the year with a runner up or two listed.

January: The theme for the month is love, and both of these recipes saw some action getting remixed at Drink this past year. For a winner, Love & Murder as Nicholas Bennett's oddball Chartreuse-Campari Daiquiri of sorts at Porchlight in New York City named after a Broadway play. For a runner up, Death & Co.'s Clover Club riff, Love Bug by Sam Penton, took things in an agave and pineapple direction that was a crowd pleaser.

February: The theme here seems to be Manhattan riffs, and they were rather close. I guess for a winner, The End is Nigh communicated by Cure's Neal Bodenheimer in Lift Your Spirits had a great bitter backbone of Amaro Sibilla to bolster the Bonal. I did get a lot of traction at work from the Little Italy-esque Last American Hero that I sourced on Reddit's cocktail forum from an user I only know by their handle 1000YearOldStreet. March: Both of March's drinks got a bit of play at Drink this year. When a guest asked for a Holland Razor Blade, I knew how to make one but had never made one before; researching that drink from Charles H. Baker's adventures led me to the NYC update called the Mexican Razor Blade that swapped the Genever for tequila or mezcal and added in some vegetal touches. For a runner up, I enjoyed the Knight from David Embury as his Sidecar with Chartreuse that turned out to work superbly with other spirits besides Cognac.

April: April was the first challenging month, but I decided upon Kelsey Chase's Ground Control to Major Tom on Backbar's space-themed menu. For runners up were two NYC drinks: Joaquin Simo's Charming Man at Pouring Ribbons akin to a mezcal Negroni and Al Sotack's Dial 'M' at Death & Co. that got me thinking about maple syrup (see yesterday's year end wrap up). May: May was also a difficult choice, but I narrowed it down to the theme of Boston drinks. I gave the top nod to the one that I had where it was invented, namely Brian Callahan's Smoking Section at Coquette that utilized an elegant and complex Armagnac that I went out and purchased for home. The other two were Ryan Lotz's Fernet Flip at the Hawthorne that mollified the Fernet with two other herbal liqueurs and The Accent created at Backbar and influenced by a Ran Duan drink at the Baldwin Bar.

June: I rather enjoyed the London recipe Mind Maps created by Will Meredith at Lyaness and based off notes he found in certain blended Scotches. For runner up, I went old school with Robert Vermeire's Yellow Parrot; I had a collection of Drink regulars who came to me for absinthe-laden drinks, and this was a great one I pulled out from 1922 that held up. Moreover, for name alone, I need to acknowledge the Pineapple Death Squad. July: With my mint patch at its peak and with my copy of The Bartender's Manifesto in hand, I selected the tropical-Scotch mint Julep Riki Tiki Tavi for July. The runner up was Tom Richter's Post Modern given the fascination with sloe gin at Drink (regulars requested the Charlie Chaplin all the time) and my interest in the Modern and Ted Haigh's sloe gin-free riff the Modernista this past year.

August: Despite it being rather warm, I opted for a dark spirits stirred number called The Upstart by Jim Betz at Eleven Madison Park since dark rum, rye, sherry, and Cynar can do no wrong. For a runner up, Jon Mateer's The African Queen at TPC Sawgrass in St. Augusteen was a complex and herbal Old Fashioned; it reminded me of Death & Co. recipes from their new book; during my trip to Ireland, Jon was one of the fellow bartenders on the adventure, and I learned that he had spent some time at one of the Death & Co. outposts. September: The Brown Bittered Stirred read as an orange-tinged Little Italy, and this recipe from Jason Schiffer at 320 Main did not disappoint. Also getting a nod for the month was Backbar's Hummingbird off of their bird-themed menu with its chocolate-floral notes on top of a funky rum Daiquiri.

October: The Roaring 50s from Declan McGuirk at the American Bar in London was an elegant stirred tequila drink. For runners up, I went with two older Drink recipes: John Gertsen's Caesar Cardini now on the menu at the Wig Shop, and the Andrew Square bitter Manhattan variation that I found in the "Drinks of Drink" notebook. November: For top honors this month, I opted for the Dark in the Corner by Turk Dietrich from the new Cure: New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix'Em book as a Cognac nightcap. For honorary nods, two drinks from Portland need to be mentioned: the mezcal-based In Absentia at Teardrop Lounge and the rum-mezcal Vieux Carre Piano Hands by Mike Treffehn at Rum Bar.

December: Another challenging month, but the smoky whisky nightcap with an orange finish of Coffee & Cigarettes by Chad Austin was quite enjoyable. Andrew Rice's Don't Give Up the Shift mezcal riff at Attaboy called All Hands on Deck and Matt Robold's Cognac-rum Obstructed Vieux were two stirred numbers that were worthy of mention.

Kindred Cocktails: As a side note to yesterday's list of drinks that I created and was proud of, the top 5 drinks that I did not mention before but were highly rated on the Kindred Cocktails database by scoring plus number of folks who rated it there were: The Drink of Insignificance as my hybrid of Cure's The Drink of Laughter and Forgetting and the Red Hook. Broadway Nights as cross of David Embury's Knight with a rye-mezcal Manhattan. Fleur Carre as a request at Drink for a flowery De La Louisiane. Vaquero which worked both as an Old Fashioned as well as an up drink of an herbal rye-mezcal concept (the idea progressed into the Devil's Highway and other recipes). And Songs My Mother Taught Me as a mezcal take on Brick & Mortar's Khartoum crossed with Backbar's Scarecrow.

Overall, it was a good year of cocktailing with the exception that I did not spend much time at other folks' bars across town. Mathematically, I was able to cut down my list of 300-something drinks this year to 12 best drinks of the month, 17 runners up, and 1 honorable mention for name. Good luck to all of your imbibings in 2023!