Stuff Boston

Stressed? We are too. The holiday season tends to fellate our motivation, sucking our cache of energy bone dry. Here at Stuff@Night, the pressures to give you a stellar cocktail issue were dog piled on top of the usual Christmas/Hanukkah/New Year’s freakout bonanzas and, frankly, all we could think about by January was getting soused.

So, we did.

And goddamn if we didn’t deserve it.

We noticed, in our quest to saturate our overworked brains with booze, that our tastes run a broad flavor gamut. Editorial director Erica Corsano adores the bubbly; staff writer Erin Souza likes it fruity or dirty or a little bit of both; creative director/lover-not-fighter Mike Diskin is obsessed with any and all things chain restaurant. And me? As the Liquid columnist who, to be honest, still learns as she goes, I like a little bit of everything, though I am currently harboring a night and day obsession with St. Germain and whiskey. Not together. Gross.

This variety, we noticed, gave us a hell of a range for a list of favorites, which we proudly, and drunkenly, present to you. Are they, drop for drop, the best libations in town, by cocktail elitist standards? Some of them. The rest range from simple pleasures to those creamy, dreamy dessert drinks that wouldn’t make the cut behind the bar at a Newbury Street trend vortex but are fantastically satisfying nonetheless, illustrating once and for all that just because it wasn’t created by a “master mixologist” doesn’t mean it sucks.

Boston’s little-of-this, little-of-that bar scene is an asset to its diverse population of drinkers, and we hope that this list of our alcoholic superlatives pays tribute to the local flavors, and the mad scientist bartenders who love to play around with them.

>>Click here for the slideshow<<