Our goal was to make a drink with bit­ters, which we found when repack­ing my col­lec­tion of minia­ture liquor bot­tles. With tonight’s drink, we killed the Coin­treau, which we used instead of the cura­cao in the orig­i­nal recipe. This is a great-tast­ing drink but a bit too sum­mery for a cool Decem­ber night.

For 2 serv­ings: 3 oz brandy, 1 1/2 oz lemon juice, 1 oz Coin­treau, 1/2 oz sim­ple syrup (much less than in the orig­i­nal recipe), 1 tsp bit­ters, 4 oz seltzer Shake all ingre­di­ents except the seltzer in a shak­er with ice. Strain into a glass and top with seltzer.