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The second most common juice used in cocktails. This citrus juice is about 6% acid; 4% from citric and 2% from malic, with small amounts of succinic acid (this is what gives it a little bloody taste). Lime juice should be used the day it is squeezed, some like it freshly squeezed and others like it a few hours old.

The general term for the Carribean-based nonalcoholic syrup. Falernum is a sweet syrup commonly used in tropical drinks and usually flavored with almond, ginger, cloves, vanilla, allspice and lime. You can make it yourself, it takes a few days. Combine 1/3 cup toasted almonds with 1/2 cup for light rum. Seal and let sit for 2 days. Add the zest of 8 limes (no pith) and 30 whole cloves, stir and let sit for another day. Juice 4 limes and strain the juice into a sauce pot. Add 2/3 cups water and 1/2 cup sugar and cook until the sugar is dissolved. Let the syrup cool then combine it with the almond/rum infusion. Stir to combine then strain all through a cheesecloth or coffee filter. Add alcohol as a preservative and turn it into Velvet Falernum.

A brand of triple sec produced in France. It is drunk as an aperitif, degestif, and used in cocktails like the margarita; 40% ABV.

A subset of aged (dark) rums that specifically come from Jamaica. These rums are highly regarded for their unusual pot-still funk, necessary for certain classic cocktails.

Also referred to as silver or white, light rums are unaged, aged in steel, or aged in oak and have had their color filtered out, and usually have a sweeter and lighter taste than darker rum varieties. The name refers to these rums lighter or clear color.

A concentrated aromatic bitters made in Trinidad from water, ethanol, gentian and other herbs and spices; used in many classic cocktails like the Manhattan.

A major producer of the French liqueur pastis, an anise-flavored liqueur. A successor of Absinthe, it was produced under that moniker until it was banned in france in the early 1900s. Henri Pernod, then focused its efforts on the lower-alcohol, wormwoodless, anise-flavored Pernod.

In cocktails, cherries are sweetened in a brine, like maraschino cherries (marr-ə-SKEE-noh) or in brandy, like brandied cherries. They are usually used as a garnish, muddled into the cocktail, or used simple for their sweetened brine.