When I got back to Ithaca a few weeks ago, I realized that the snow and wind chill here made sub-freezing D.C. seem positively balmy (although, with all the body heat left over from Inauguration, it’s probably warmed up by now).

It was so cold in Portland, Ore., that a state of emergency was declared because scads of cars — abandoned by owners gone in search of warmer climates — were blocking the roads, and it was still warmer there.

This cold has, however, given me a chance to try something I’d always wanted to make: the Hot Toddy.

Like the Mint Julep and the Manhattan, the Hot Toddy was something I read about growing up, making my markers of 100-year-old drinks that hadn’t been popular since the 1950s.

It’s fairly difficult to really hurt yourself making cocktails, barring an unfortunate toothpick accident or a loose cocktail shaker. The great exception to this is fire. Bartenders since the beginning of time have been drawn to it like moths to the extremely literal flame, or lazy writers to the overly obvious simile. The best-known early bartender, Jerry Thomas, made his mark on bar culture with the Blue Blazer, a mixture of scotch whiskey and boiling water that was set alight and flung between two glasses, creating a stream of flame and thoroughly impressing any onlooking patrons.

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.

Though ordering a martini may have once signified a gin cocktail with a hint of vermouth, vodka is now generally the more common main ingredient in a martini.

Martinis are most commonly made in the U.S. with two and a half ounces of vodka or gin and half an ounce of vermouth. The two are usually mixed in a cocktail shaker with ice and then drained into a cone-shaped cocktail glass with a long stem.

Vermouth, in case you haven’t been spending your days researching drinks online, is a fortified wine with an alcohol content generally between 15 and 19 percent (with sweeter vermouths having less alcohol content).

Olives can be used simply as garnish, though some people actually add olive juice to the martini.

My friend came home from a trip to Europe last year with a story I knew I would have to share in this column. A paraphrasing of said great story: “I was in Dublin with some friends on our way to a Saint Patrick's Day parade. Brian decided he wanted a drink before we got to the parade, so we went into a nearby pub. Brian walked up to the old bartender and asked, ‘can I have an Irish Car Bomb?’ I couldn’t believe he had said that, fearing how Irish people might react to such a violently named drink. The bartender responded as if he was going to hit him: ‘What did you say?’ But instead of punching him, the bartender just asked what was in the drink.

As you are reading this, vendors and patrons alike are filling the Ithaca Commons to celebrate an important part of Upstate New York agriculture — the apple. If you haven’t noticed already, the area surrounding campus, Collegetown and downtown is filled with orchards and you can even go pick your own fruit at many of them. So why not continue the celebration by using the apples from the Apple Harvest Festival in your drinks this weekend?

Flashback to the summer after my senior year of high school: several of my friends and I were drinking late one night in my backyard, knocking back mezcal someone had brought back from a trip to Mexico. After a short while one of my friends drunkenly dared another to eat the worm out of the mescal bottle. That’s right — they put a “worm” inside bottles of mezcal. Well, some kind of larva or something like that which looks like a worm. (My friend, by the way, greatly regretted eating the worm; that anecdote was not meant as encouragement to do so.)

Back in January, I used a column to explore what goes into some common but elaborate drinks. I’ve again noticed that many people seem confused about what makes a drink, even if they or their friends order it regularly. I personally never order a drink unless I know what’s in it, so figuring it out is important to me. These recipes are according to the International Bartender’s Association, by the way.

A commonly ordered drink at some Collegetown bars.

Long Island Iced Tea

1 ounce vodka

1 ounce tequila

1 ounce white rum

1 ounce gin

1 ounce triple sec

1 2/3 ounces lemon juice

2 ounce gomme syrup

dash cola

ice

Pour ingredients over ice and stir.

Everyone should make sure to make at least one toast this weekend to Cornell Days and the Cornell weather machine. Why else would the sun have been shining this week and the temperature have warmed up to frisbee and whiffle ball highs? This weather can only mean one thing: it's time to grill dinner and sit around drinking outside at night.

Anything chilled could really count as a “summer drink,” I guess, but sangria is really a summer specialty. A wine punch originating in Spain and Portugal (the word actually comes from “sangre,” meaning blood in Spanish), there is virtually no wrong way to make sangria. Even it its traditional form there are variations.

Most people know how important it is to experience as much of the real culture of a foreign country when visiting — the food, the entertainment, the shopping and, of course, the drinks. Though rather uncommon in the United States, the Brazilian alcohol cachaça is actually one the most popular alcohols in the world. According to a study at American University, cachaça is the third most popular alcohol in the world after vodka and soju (a Korean alcohol).