I’d never had domestic applejack, just French calvados, but Ted Haigh’s book is positively bullish on it, and a number of mixologists seem smitten with the Jack Rose, a Prohibition-era cocktail featuring the spirit. So seeing that I could pick up a bottle of Laird’s at Cirace’s for less than fifteen bucks, I couldn’t resist.

Consumed straight, I like calvados far better – it has more a mellow brandy taste rather than applejack’s 80 proof whiskey-like kick. But I’d heartily recommend applejack for cocktails: it’s spirit first and fruitiness second and holds up to strong ingredients.

Take the increasingly famous Jack Rose. A simple applejack sour (with lemon or lime), it’s offset with the sweetness and color of grenadine.

Jack Rose Cocktail

1 jigger domestic applejack
juice of 1/2 lime or lemon
2 dashes grenadine

Shake well and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lime/lemon wedge.

At first blush it seems like a frou-frou drink, pink and sweet. But a couple sips into it, you’ll be struck by the complexity. At least I was. Cocktail aficionados insist on a good quality grenadine like Angostura or Fee Brothers brand, but I’ve combed most of the liquor stores in Boston and have yet to see anything other than Rose’s grenadine. Perhaps with the right stuff, the drink would be sublime; with Rose’s, though, it was sufficiently tasty.

Or, if you’re looking for something stronger and not-so-fruity, I flipped through the Trader Vic’s guide and found an Applejack Cocktail that’s equal parts applejack and Italian vermouth. Again using the very strongly flavored Punt e Mes, the result was too bitter and disharmonious for my tastes, so I doubled the proportion of applejack in the recipe. Much better.

Applejack Cocktail

1 jigger domestic applejack
1/2 jigger Italian vermouth

Shake and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon twist.

Too outré? Applejack works well in a highball, with some ginger ale, ice and a lemon wedge. Not bad for cheap hooch.

Laird’s Applejack can be found Cirace and Sons Liquors, 173 North Street, North End and Beacon Hill Wine and Spirits, 63 Charles Street, among other stores.

Knob Creek isn’t the end-all, be-all of bourbons, but it certainly was instrumental in popularizing top-shelf bourbon. With its stylish packaging (looking like a typography class art project), it signaled its difference from the Jim Beams of the world. More importantly its taste wasn’t overly sweet or corn-y; instead the 100 proof required sipping rather than guzzling.

These days, there’s the competition of other fine bourbons getting distribution – and there have always been quality products like Maker’s Mark around – but Knob Creek is still worth picking up, particularly when it’s as cheap as it is at Roslindale’s Atlas Liquors. Twenty-dollars a fifth will be hard to match. Even Jim Beam isn’t always much cheaper.

Atlas Liquors is located on 591 Hyde Park Avenue in Roslindale.

I don’t know if it’s the strong euro, or the Sex and the City factor - legions of would-be Carrie Bradshaws swilling down cosmopolitans - but the never-cheap Cointreau seems even more expensive these days.

Not that it’s unworthy of the price. For those unfamiliar with it, Cointreau is a liqueur made from the rinds of Seville oranges, much like Grand Marnier, only with a neutral rather than a brandy base. Technically, it’s a triple sec and thus interchangeable in recipes, but it’s miles apart from the run-of-the-mill orange distillate that’s cheap and candy-sweet. It’s used in so many cocktails - more and more given the preference these days for fruity drinks - and its dryness carries them off much more admirably than triple sec. I even love drinking it on the rocks, no garnish or additions necessary. Try that with the twelve-dollar-a-bottle stuff. Still, if you’re entertaining, you can be surprised how quickly your booze budget can disappear.

Fortunately, Martignetti’s Liquors comes through with a great price, $26 tax inclusive for a fifth of the exquisite liqueur. So stock up while you can.

Martignetti’s is located at 64 Cross Street in the North End, right next to the former Central Artery.

Not that I’ll have a deal for you every week, but right now Marty’s (Comm. Ave at Harvard in Allston) is selling fifths of Plymouth gin for 12 bucks. It’s an unbeatable price for a great gin, which increasingly is retailing for over $20.