Meet The Writers / LeNell Smothers

Inspired by Mae West, I created a cocktail containing ample aphrodisiacs: goji, pomegranate, cayenne and cocoa. Mae supposedly was not a big drinker, but you can find her lapping it up in the movie Night After Night. With this in mind, I decided to make a fizz. A fizz always includes something bubbly, and when that bubbly is Champagne, it becomes a "diamond fizz."

The common ingredients in a fizz are citrus juice, a sweetener, a sparkling ingredient (like soda or Champagne) and a spirit. Fizzes often contain egg, but they don't have to. A "silver fizz" includes egg white. A "gold fizz" includes the yolk. I decided to make a "royal fizz," with the addition of the whole egg.

For a touch of sweetness, I added Pama pomegranate liqueur, since pomegranates were the fruit of Aphrodite. Either pink or yellow grapefruit work, as long as the juice is freshly squeezed. Besides being one of my favorites, Four Roses Single Barrel 100-proof bourbon seemed fortified enough for a strong-willed woman like Mae, while maintaining a touch of romance with its rose emblem.

I chose a saucer for this cocktail instead of a tall glass or a flute. The many legends of the Champagne saucer being fashioned after various women's breasts add to the romance of this drink. To go along with the diamond reference, I added a sugared rim for a little sparkle and tingle. Like Mae, I'm no angel.

Find the recipe for this romantic cocktail after the jump.

I'm still having a blast with Crosby Gaige's "Cocktail Guide and Ladies Companion." Now that I'm all in love and treated like a queen by a most amazing man, my single girlfriends won't let me gripe about anything. No matter what I say, I hear, "Well, at least you've got a great guy." This is usually followed by how they wish they could find one. In essence, their hearts are weary from men who "love 'em and leave 'em."

With Valentine's Day around the corner, I figured I wouldn't get too sappy with cocktails topped with rose petals and Champagne; Gaige's Lovum and Leavum cocktail can be found on page 93 in the chapter "The Old Gin Mill." This chapter also includes classics such as the Pegu Club cocktail made with lime juice, gin, curaçao, orange and Angostura bitters that Ms. Audrey Saunders and company named their bar after.

Ever been bitten by the bug that has you up at 3 a.m. bidding on random books and ephemera on auction websites? Once I bid on a copy of Crosby Gaige's Cocktail Guide and Ladies Companion published in 1941 that a friend had listed on e-bay, only to get a message scolding me that he already had a copy set aside for me. This addiction to collecting old books and cocktail gear can be particularly dangerous when you have friends who share the collection illness with you.

Not only did my friend give me this book, he came over with a dinner menu inspired by Mr. Gaige and made cocktails all night. I love the names of the drinks in the Ladies Companion, including "Euthanasia," "Quickie Cocktail," "Psychopathia Sexualis," and "Let's Slide Downstairs" just to name a few. He even includes a few simple canapé recipes to keep you going, such as "Virginia": ground ham, chutney, and grated melted cheese on toast.

Need a sexy cocktail to help get your mojo going a few weeks before Valentine's Day? Try the Enchantress from "The American Barkeeper," written by Charles B. Campbell in 1867.

Mr. Campbell made a name for himself behind the stick in England and back in the U.S., mainly in San Francisco. So far, this is the only book that we've found this cocktail in, but let me know if you dig up any mentions earlier than this one in 1867. We assume this is a creation by Mr. Campbell himself.

Master mixologists Dale Degroff and David Wondrich introduced me to this cocktail at an event sponsored by the Museum of the American Cocktail. It includes a base of Cognac and port. Cognac, a grape-based brandy from the French region bearing the same name, was extremely popular when Campbell published this book. The two styles specified in this recipe are VS, designating a younger brandy, and VSOP, which shows a bit more age.

The French call the before-dinner drink an apéritif and the after-dinner version a digestif. The Italians say aperitivo and digestivo. In English, we call them aperitives and digestives. No matter what language you prefer, attempting to define a hard difference between the two can leave you scratching your head.

Aperitives are meant to stimulate your appetite, with the root of the word going back to a Latin base meaning "to open." These drinks are supposed to get your stomach ready for food. The exact origin of a drink before dinner is unknown. Commercial production of vermouths in Italy popularized the drink before dinner, often served with finger foods such as nuts and olives.

You may find ouzo before dinner in Greece, pastis served in France or sherry in Spain. The Italians love to serve bitter liqueurs known as amari before dinner. Campari and Aperol are wonderful examples.