Get Into the Spirit(s) of Autumn: What to Drink This Season

As the weather turns, so should your bar order

The Fostering the Banana, with Appleton Estate Reserve Rum, banana liqueur, burnt-sugar syrup, and black-walnut bitters. Courtesy of Datz Restaurant Group

With a few exceptions—an easy-breezy gin and tonic, or a Yuletide eggnog—most of us don’t really think of booze as being seasonal. If you’re a vodka fan, you’re probably a vodka fan in searing heat and snowfall alike, and a drink’s a drink, right?

Many bartenders would beg to differ. With spirits as with food (or beer and wine, for that matter, which I’ll get to in my next column), warmer weather welcomes lighter, brighter textures and flavors, while cooler temperatures call for heavier, headier stuff. Now that fall has fallen and winter’s on its way, I asked a couple of industry pros what they’re thinking about drinking now.

Aged Rum

“This might sound strange,” says Jon Griffiths, beverage director of the Datz Restaurant Group in Tampa, Florida, “but one of my biggest go-to spirits in the fall is aged rum.” Though the sugarcane spirit has earned a reputation as “a summery, beachy-type spirit for tiki drinks or mojitos,” it becomes something else entirely with prolonged time in the barrel.