Paddy drinks Modern Irish whiskey cocktails

Seeking to elevate the once lowly term, "Paddy Drinks"--a shorthand for any cocktail featuring whiskey--the crew from New York's the Dead Rabbit (The Dead Rabbit Mixology & Mayhem) shakes up striking concoctions to highlight the Irish spirit's "gloriously subtle and distinctive" traits. What follows is a brief collection of classic quaffs, an extensive batch of inventions, and fresh syrups and liquor infusions that raise the bar from everyday to aspirational. Understanding flavor profiles is key to the process, and adherence to a specific brand of whiskey for each recipe is crucial. Accordingly, an extensive list of flavor and aroma characteristics for specific brands is provided (Redbreast 12 smells of raisin and Christmas cake, and tastes of bitter chocolate, for instance), as well as charts that detail the flavors imparted by various casks (aging in a zinfandel barrel results in hints of butterscotch). Years of tinkering led to their Irish coffee recipe, featuring Sumatra Mandheling filtered coffee, while newer creations put evocatively named spins on other whiskey favorites--such as the boulevardier-inspired Psycho Killer, with banana and chocolate liqueurs. It comes down to trust for other flavor explosions like the Stun Grenade, with its carrot-infused rum and sumac syrup. A working-class liquor reaches rarefied heights in this top-shelf guide. Agent: Marilyn Allen, Allen O'Shea Literary. (Feb.)