With peaches so plump and juicy this time of year we’re blending them into a summer cocktail.  This recipe for Cuban-style Peach Mojitos is peachy keen:

Ingredients
1 lime
1 Ontario peach, peeled and sliced
3 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup peach juice
3 oz white rum
2 cups ice, crushed
10 mint leaves
1/4 cup carbonated soda

Method
Squeeze juice from the lime into blender.
Add peach slices, sugar, juice and rum; blend until smooth.
Add crushed ice and pulse until combined. Pulse in mint leaves.
Pour into 2 chilled glasses. Add a splash of soda and garnish with peach slices and mint leaves.

Makes 2 servings.

After a long, cold winter, Montrealers don’t just desire to dine al fresco, we downright deserve it.

L’Autre Version’s stunning vine-covered terrace offers an urban oasis in the heart of Old Montreal. We dined on a duo of taratare ($17), featuring succulent ostrich and savoury smoked duck, followed by a melt-in-your-mouth filet of deer with Guinness cheddar potato puree on the side ($35). Challenged by the owner, we tried to determine the seven secret ingredients in the l’Aphrodesiaque cocktail. No one has ever done it (we guessed five), but if you do, your meal is free.

Now that’s what we call getting your just desserts.

L’Autre Version, 295 St-Paul St. E., Montreal, 514-871-9135, www.restoversion.com

Just in time for all those SATC 2 parties, a locally produced cocktail just for us gals.

Created by Montrealer Annick Major, Urb’nlili is a yummy new vodka beverage ($15.95/4 bottles) blended with plant extracts like ginkgo biloba, ginseng and guarana. The bottles are foxy and we love how each one is sweetened with all-natural fruit like lychee, lime or cranberry.

Cheers m’dears!

At SAQ Dépôt, Marché Central, 1001 rue du Marché Central, Montreal, 514- 383-9954, www.saq.com

To get us through the last leg of winter we need food, friends and firewater.

With its giant windows, cozy vibe and sinfully high-carb menu, we’ve found salvation at Le Chien Fumant. Do start with a fabulous French 75 cocktail ($8), made from brandy, sparkling wine, sugar and lemon. We dove into a bowl of spicy-sweet New Dynasty Calamari ($15) before savouring a basket of Southern Fried Rabbit ($31) that put the colonel to shame. 

And with the menu changing every few days, a few regular visits will take us right through to summer sun. 

Le Chien Fumant, 4710 rue de Lanaudière, Montreal, 514-524-2444.

Our favorite flare master and mighty mixologist Fabien Maillard (owner of the LAB bar) has just opened his own college of cocktail.

Watch out, Tom Cruise.

$500/24 hours instruction, includes manual and materials.

Workshops begin February 7, Mixoart Flare Gym, 160 St-Viateur #800A, Montreal, 514-303-1131, www.mixoart.com

It takes something special to make us put down our glass of Rhône-produced Syrah.

But now that Rickard’s has introduced an English Porter-like Dark Ale (from $8 for six), our guy is thrilled to find us breaking out the six packs. Made using roasted barley and caramel malt, its creamy flavor and special sweet tinge come from Quebec-made maple syrup.

There goes our other six pack…

At Metro stores, www.metro.ca

Unless the candy is being handed out in Hermès boxes, our trick-or-treating days are over. Instead, we’ll be getting our heebie jeebies with these Limeslime Eyeball Jello Shooters.

Ingredients
1 package lime jello powder
6 canned or fresh lychees
6 maraschino cherries
6 slices black grape

Method
Stuff a maraschino cherry into the lychee without breaking it.
Cut slice from outside of grape and place over red part of eyeball.
Prepare lime green jello using half-water, half-vodka.
To suspend eyeball, pour jello half way up in a shot glass and let set.
Place 'eyeball' on the set jello and pour remaining jello into shot glass.
Cover and let set.

We asked Manny Vides, Head Mixologist at Koko Restaurant + Bar, to whip up something special as we say goodbye to patio season.

Without further ado, we present his to-die-for Vitamin Daily Martini:

1 1/2 oz Cîroc Vodka
1 oz Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc Wine

6 green grapes

1/2 oz fresh lime juice

1 oz jasmine tea syrup (optional)

6 mint leaves




Muddle the grapes in a glass. 
Add all the ingredients and fill a glass shaker with ice, then shake for 8-10 seconds. 
Double strain into a martini glass. 
Garnish with mint, jasmine tea buds and Sauvignon Blanc foam

Koko Restaurant + Bar, 8 Sherbrooke St. W., Montreal, 514-657-5656, www.kokomontreal.com

For a step-by-step guide to making your own Vitamin Daily Martini, see today's Editors' Diary.

A girl has the right to choose her polish colour, and we think the same goes for summer drinks. 

No need to settle for just one shade of sangria at Origine Bistro.  This breezy riverfront patio offers three refreshing pitchers (from $28), including tarty white, sweet rosé and a divine port sangria that will have you swooning with delight.  Pair yours with soups and salads made from organic, locally sourced ingredients and the only red you’ll be seeing is that of the pretty umbrellas shading you from the soleil.

Origine Bistro, King-Edward Pier, 2 de la Commune W., Montreal, 514-807-0162, www.origine-bistro.com

If a cosmopolitan is still your go-to cocktail, it’s time for new starts. We’re officially declaring absinthe the It-drink of 2010.

Develop a taste for this mysterious green elixir at Sarah B., an intimate new bar at the InterContinental hotel. Named after tragic actress Sarah Bernhardt (whose ghost is rumoured to wander the building), the green silk and velvet booths are soundproof (perfect for smoldering tête-à-têtes) and the cocktail menu (from $6) is sublime. We love the Jacques Cartier Collins, blended with Absolut Pear and limoncello, while the Absinthe Frappe made from Angostura bitter and basil leaves will leave you begging for more.

After all, absinthe makes the heart grow fonder.

Sarah B., InterContinental Montreal, 360 St-Antoine St .W., Montreal, 514-847-8532, www.barsarahb.com