As I thought about different drinks I wanted to feature in this column this week, I seemed to only have untimely thoughts. Halloween-themed or politically-inspired drinks have come and gone; Thanksgiving-inspired or end-of-semester celebratory drinks are too far in the future. And thus I came back to an old theme of mine, an issue I return to regularly: what goes into popular drinks that I hear people order at bars ­— some of which I have even tried? Jokes about drinking Sex on the Beaches are all too common around vacation time, but how many people even know what the main liquor in that drink is?

Sex on the Beach

1 oz vodka

1/2 oz peach schnapps

1 oz orange juice (can substitute pineapple

juice)

1 oz cranberry juice.

Mix ingredients in a highball glass with ice.

And a drink I’ve never liked, since I hate tomato juice, but always admired the name of:

Bloody Mary

3 oz vodka

6 oz tomato juice

1 oz lemon juice

Worchestershire Sauce

Tabasco

salt and pepper

Put a small dash of Tabasco, Worchestershire Sauce, salt and pepper in a highball glass with ice. Stir in vodka, tomato juice and lemon juice. Add a celery stalk for a garnish, if you want a cooler look.

A pair of drinks that are sometimes the same, sometimes not, depending on whom you ask:

Gin Fizz/Tom Collins

1 1/2 oz gin

1 oz lemon juice

1/2 oz gomme syrup*

2 1/2 oz soda water

Shake with ice and strain into highball glass.

You can substitute one teaspoon powdered sugar for the gomme syrup, which is a sugar water mixture with a natural gum emulsifier, or use sour mix instead of the lemon juice and syrup/sugar. The drink is sometimes called a Tom Collins after a brand named Old Tom Gin.

And yet another pair, the first of which I greatly misunderstood:

Black Russian

1 1/2 ounces

vodka

3/4 ounce coffee

liqueur

Pour over (crushed) ice in an old-fashioned glass.

White Russian

2 1/2 ounces vodka

1 ounce coffee liqueur

1 1/2 ounces cream

Pour coffee liqueur and vodka over ice in an old-fashioned glass. Slowly mix in cream. (Some people like to shake the cream first to thicken it.)

I haven’t come across many drinks that don’t vary from recipe book to recipe book. In case you were wondering how I landed on these styles, these are the recipes used by the International Bartenders Association.