Cocktails for Gemini

Bottoms up, Gemini! Now that we've got you cooking, let's move on to the fun part: drinking! Always curious, Gemini likes to bring that taste for adventure with her over to the bar. Beer? Yawn....unless it's a michelada, the spicy-cool Mexican answer to the Bloody Mary. This is beer with a kick, dosed with lime juice and hot sauce, brined up with Worchestershire sauce and sometimes a dash of tomato juice or (yikes) even Clamato, served over ice in a salt-rimmed glass.

Another round of Cosmos? No, thanks: she'd rather be riding her Bicyclette. Born as a Italian workingman's drink made with equal parts bitter Campari and dry white wine, it's been reimagined on some hip cocktail menus as a sexy melange of St Germain Elderflower Liqueur (which has an enticingly floral scent and just the faintest hint of herbal, almost grapefruity bitterness) and pink champagne, finished with a squeeze of blood orange and a twist of citrus rind.

Then again, nothing blows Gemini's mind like a drink that no one else is drinking. That would be the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, a cocktail (with apologies to Tom Wolfe) on the list at the very cool Death & Co., in downtown New York City. Pick your poison: gin, rum, or silver tequila. Shake it up with a slug of British sloe gin (colored deep purple from sloes, the bittersweet fruit of the blackthorn tree) and another of Italian maraschino (the real stuff, which is a clear, potent cherry brandy, nothing to do with those scary bright-red cherries at the bottom of a Shirley Temple). Add a squeeze of fresh lemon and a few crushed fresh blackberries. Serve in a tall glass over ice, and let the party begin!