As one of the drunkest, most unruly holidays of the year (I’d place it in second to Slope Day for campus-wide debauchery) approaches, I thought I should try out some holiday-themed drinks. You never know when you might have to whip up a Halloween party for some friends at the last minute (pregaming at my house anyone?).

On a recent trip to the liquor store, a friend and I discovered a great fall-themed alcohol: Hiram Walker Pumpkin Spice Liqueur ($7.69 for one liter at Northside). A liqueur is a sweet alcoholic beverage that generally has a lower alcohol content than liquor (Bailey’s Irish Cream, for example); this pumpkin spice liqueur is 30 proof.

I’m going to mix up my column this week and not do a blind taste test. Instead, I want to suggest a few drinks made with sake, a versatile drink that can be served cold, warm or hot, or traditionally in shallow cups (similar to shot glasses).

You may think of sake as rice wine, but the beverage is actually more complex than that. Sake is a Japanese alcohol made of rice that resembles wine in its concentration of alcohol (anywhere from 12 to 25% alcohol) but is produced more like beer. Wine is made from a single fermentation of plant juices, while sake is made from multiple fermentations of rice.

Sake drinking in the United States has led to the creation of several new drinks, beyond the “traditional” sake bomb. A few suggestions:

This column comes with a warning from a close friend of The Sun: this drink is “almost too delicious.” He speaks from experience, having spent a recent night downing delicious spiced rum and local cider drinks.

Apple cider is one of my favorite drinks anyway, so I tend to gorge on Cornell orchard’s fantastic product. Cider is a type of apple juice that’s made (traditionally) from apples with lower sugar content and more acidity. In the U.K., cider usually refers to an alcoholic beverage. In the U.S., we aren’t so lucky, so we have to add our own. Spiked cider recipes vary in number of ingredients and difficulty, but I prefer simpler methods. Instead of mixing rum (or whiskey), cider and spices, just add spiced rum.

“My favorite vodka drink is vodka.” Another Sun editor made it clear to me that she would drink any of this week’s taste test drinks any night of the week. What kind of mixology editor would I be if I disagreed? Nonetheless, one brand had to surpass its competitors.

This week’s drink was conceived at every Sunnie’s favorite late night spot in Ithaca: ShortStop. In between holding orange, cranberry and pomegranate juices, as well as debating cola and VitaminWater as mixers, I decided to create my own drink. This may not have been the best idea, as a few people felt the drink tasted like cough syrup.

After last week’s Mint Juleps turned Bourbon and Coke debacle, I chose what seemed like a simple, relatively universal drink: Planter’s Punch.

Wikipedia (a great source for drink recipes and ideas, I’ve recently discovered) claims that planter’s punch isn’t a specific drink, but rather a genre of drinks that includes rum, fruit flavors and soda water.

The International Bartender’s Association uses this standard recipe, however:

6 parts dark rum

3 parts fresh lemon juice

1 part Grenadine syrup

Soda water.

Pour all ingredients into shaker filled with ice. Shake well. Pour into highball with ice. Top up with Soda water. Stir gently. Garnish with lemon and orange slices.

In typical college student fashion, we were a little less official:

3 parts dark rum

September is Be Kind to Editors and Writers Month, International Square Dance Month, National Bed Check Month, National Chicken Month, National Mind Mapping Month, National Rice Month and National Papaya Month. More importantly, however, September is National Bourbon Month.

In my quest to choose a bourbon drink, I thought mint juleps sounded fun — and appropriately Southern.

There is no standard mint julep recipe. I realized that when every website I went to had a different idea of how to make one. Some included water; some included simple syrup; all included bourbon, ice, sugar and mint.

In preparation for this week’s taste test, I made four mint juleps with four kinds of bourbon.

Do you refuse to pay more than $12 for a handle of vodka? Are you a Grey Goose aficionado? Or are you just not sure how important using expensive alcohol in drinks is? We’ve been wondering as well, so some of us at The Sun decided to graciously sacrifice our taste buds — and sobriety — to compare different brands of alcohol in the same drink.

For our first try, we’re starting with one of my favorite drinks: tequila sunrises. It’s not a drink that many people think of immediately, but I love to order them. The flavor of the orange juice compliments the tequila well. I’ve had several friends start drinking tequila sunrises after watching me order them regularly. Try it for a change.