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The Cocktail: “I made my own seed-based orgeat with sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, local wildflower honey and raw cane sugar. Sunflower seeds brought the depth and nuttiness I was looking for. I wanted a savory drink and used olive oil infused with Thai basil and sage. I name many of my cocktails after songs I love. Listen to “The Summer Ends” by American Football while you sip this one for the full experience.”

The Cocktail: Q’s entry is fresh and botanical, with a little bit of funk. A sweet creaminess from the coconut cream and honey, with a tart little kick from the lime

The Cocktail: “Mom used to make us a strawberry and sage lemonade. I remember it being the first drink that made my eyes go wide. As an adult, I soon learned that it became even better when you slip a shot of gin into the mix. So I created this cocktail as an homage to my parents secretly drinking around me as a child.”

The Cocktail: “Peaches, honey and peppers. Combining these flavors was an homage to my childhood. All spirits and flavorings in this drink are from local distilleries. Even the bitters are local. I imagine someone on a September afternoon: plucking some peaches from their tree, picking some peppers and harvesting honey from their own bees.”

The Cocktail: “A ‘Bee’s Knees’ (the much-loved Prohibition mixture of gin, lemon juice, and honey) has always appealed to me in its simplicity and accessible deliciousness. I wanted to make a richer, more autumnal version, while still staying true to the drink’s refreshing and direct character. My inspiration came from imagining a cross between the citrusy classic and a much more wintry dram—the Hot Buttered Rum, which combines rum, spiced butter, sugar and hot water. The drink should be served cold and combine locally made butter (Mountain Born Creamery in Ogden, which uses milk from only local Utah dairies) and local raw honey (Amrita out of Eagle Mountain) with sage, rosemary, and gum arabic to ensure proper emulsion and a stable texture. I selected Beehive Distilling’s Barrel reserve gin as the base spirit, a local gin that spends some time aging in oak, lending it toasty flavors that meld well with a buttery richness and again seem to speak of autumn.”

The Cocktail: “For my drink, I considered the concepts of ‘drinking your food, eating your cocktail.’ I drew on culinary inspiration and techniques and meshed them into mixology.”

The Cocktail: “I’m a big fan of mixing cocktail families together. I wanted to come up with something that satisfies savory cravings, yet stays light and ignites all our senses.”

The Cocktail: “I named my signature FTG drink after Log Haven’s General Manager (and wine nerd), Ian Campbell, who is from New Jersey. I call this cocktail ‘The Jersey Transplant’ as a homage to Ian. The Laird’s Apple Brandy that I incorporated is a New Jersey staple. He’s our little touch of Jersey Shore, with a great taste for wine, which is weird. Like, who would think that?”

The Cocktail: Leo’s entry features seasonal peaches rounded out by Amaro’s herbaceous undertones. “The end of summer is a big mix of emotions, lots of excitement for what’s coming and sadness for what’s leaving. The nostalgia for our childhood summers, fall colors and holiday seasons inspired this drink, bringing in summer ingredients to make fall flavors.

The Cocktail: “I used cozy fall flavors and our own in-house honey which is harvested in the fall. We have four beehives on our roof and each year we yield more and more of the honey that goes into our cocktails and recipes.”

The Cocktail: “After a long night on the town, I needed some coffee the next morning to wake myself up. I proceeded to wait for 26 minutes at a Starbucks as they had to make 10 pumpkin spice lattes. I wondered how I could use this behind the bar.”

The Cocktail: “Bourbon is my spirit of choice so I ended up working with High West Bourbon. This cocktail is a perfect combination of tart, sweet, spicy and refreshing recalling the summertimes of my youth.”

The Cocktail: “I have been playing with corn in cocktails since last fall. I love how it’s a natural sweetener, as well as adds texture to the cocktail.”

The Cocktail: “It was just another Wednesday behind the bar, daydreaming of white sand beaches and fruity drinks…and, of course, mezcal. So, with the help of some Plantation 5-Year Rum, pineapple agave syrup and a little coconut, I found my escape.”

The Cocktail: “I created a lighter, juicier, seasonal rendition of the classic ‘Jungle Bird,’ substituting blanco tequila for rum, Salers for Campari and Santa Claus Melon for pineapple. While the cocktail’s profile immediately comes off as juicy and crushable, the Salers and Genepy bolster the cocktail with herbaceous tertiary notes, expanding the layers of flavor with each sip and lactic acid lends a milky creaminess to the mouthfeel, rounding out the palate. To me, the Turaco Swizzle embodies the perfect refresher for Utah’s sweltering hot summer days and will help you get through fall into winter.”

The Cocktail: “Water Witch is a neighborhood bar of the Central 9th area, so I wanted to include ingredients from the neighborhood. I used local sorrel from Central 9th Market and the barley is from Fisher Brewing. Combining these two ingredients with the brightness of the gin and smokiness from the Wahaka mezcal you get a balanced and bright spirit-forward cocktail.”

The Cocktail: “I decided to take farm-to-glass a step further and use an ingredient that could be found in the wild: Sumac berries, which is where the name of the cocktail comes from. I’m a booze-forward cocktail fan till the end, so coming up with something farm-to-glass was a little difficult. I do love a mezcal negroni though, and managed to get two of those ingredients into my recipe.”

The Cocktail: Maysie’s cocktail is named after the San Rafael Swell, one of her favorite places in Utah to take a break from the city. Peaches can be found at the local farmers market from summer through early fall. This is an elegant fall cocktail, with hints of refreshing sweetness, rounded out by Amaro’s herbaceous undertones.

The Cocktail: “I really wanted to recreate a spicy margarita with character,” he says. “I gave it some funk and added texture with savory and smoky notes on the back end. The cacao and black pepper in the bitters offer some depth and personality to the finish.”

The Cocktail: