The Bristol

By Josh Childs for Boston.com

Will Quackenbush, Highland Kitchen

Will is terrific and Highland is one of my all time favorites — plus, his description is so fitting for the season: “While I never really intended it to be a holiday cocktail per se, I really love recommending it during Festivus because it hits all the right notes. Spicy, warming, evocative, curative, a bit inebriating.... the name comes from the town in Vermont that my dad did his pharmacy residency in 1966. It’s kind of what I was after... a tonic that some druidic or early Enlightenment chemist would devise as a tonic for the winter solstice blues. A tribute to a guy standing behind the counter for the last 50 years listening to people’s comlaints about their aches and pains and doing his best to dispense cures that might abate them. Same church, different pew. Hope you like it.”

The Bristol : 2¼ ounces Bulleit Rye, ¾ ounce yellow Chartreuse, ¼ ounce St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram, 3 dashes Fee Brothers Aztec chocolate bitters, and orange peel garnish.