7 Cocktail Recipes Inspired by Literature

Enjoy a beer poured into a cold stein and take a minute to consider: "An eye glass, what is an eye glass, it is water. A splendid specimen, what is it when it is little and tender so that there are parts."

Mix 1 part rum, 3 parts ginger beer, a splash of grapefruit juice, garnish with citrus. Serve at your dinner party, or sip alone while writing fiction and refusing to become Judith Shakespeare.

Mix 2 parts coffee liqueur, 3 parts cream, 5 parts vodka. Serve on ice. Wax nostalgic about California in the '60s. Remember that time you went to a Doors recording session?

Mix 1 part gin, 3 parts San Pellegrino Limonata, garnish with lemon. Serve on ice while watching the Entertainment or enjoy just after a tennis match.

Whisk 2 egg yolks and add 1/4 sugar. Heat 1 cup milk, a clove, and a healthy dash of cinnamon over the stove. Temper the eggs (add half the warm milk to the eggs and mix, then add it all back to the other half of the milk). Cook on low heat until it all thickens, then add 1 cup cream and let cool. Serve with a heavy hand of brandy. Enjoy while browsing McSweeney's.

Recipe: Mix 2 parts Prosecco, 1 part peach purée. Sip while soaking in the bathtub and listening to the old bray of your heart.

1 part vodka, 1 part grapefruit juice, 3 parts cranberry. Serve on ice in a salt-rimmed glass. And go after that marlin, damn it.