A few things to try...

I'd like you to consider tasting a few things. Don't commit to them and buy a whole bottle unless you truly love liquor, but instead go relax at a nice bar and taste a few things. Don't just down them. Take the time to savor them and experience the complexity that they offer.

Rum:
No, I am not talking about Bacardi or anything that is clear. Drink rum like the pirates did: straight, dark and mysterious. Like anything else aged in barrels for that long, it should have that beautiful amber whiskey color. Note flavors like sweet caramel and tropical fruits. Rum is every bit as complex in flavor as wine or coffee. Note the country it was made in and see if you can taste the differences. Rum does in fact taste good enough to avoid putting it in daiquiris and coke. In fact, I would be willing to say that good aged rum is my favorite thing to drink neat.

Gin:
Although a gin and tonic is quite refreshing on a hot afternoon, I really think that the person who introduced them to under-aged kids should be shot. Before the rise of vodka, back in the pre-prohibition era, gin was it. It was the key ingredient in so many drinks as to be mind boggling. The reason for this is because it is so damned good. No two gin's are alike. They all use a different complex combination of herbs, spices and flowers. To expand your mind, try drinking a dry gin martini with no garnish. I am a huge fan of Tanqueray Rangpur or X. If you want to support a more local variety though, Bluecoat is quite nice.

Tequila:
All I am going to say is throw away the Cuervo and find a bottle that says "100% Blue Agave" somewhere on it. Pour a shot into a snifter. Breathe it in deeply. Sip it. Let it roll around on your tongue. Come talk to me after this holy experience.

Now you may be asking yourself "Why is he saying to try these things that we have all tried a million times?" The reason is simple. If you are going to mix these things, you have to appreciate their flavors. They are delicate, bold, sharp, smooth, etc... They are wonderful. How can you possibly make a good margarita if you don't understand the taste of good tequila? Once you understand something like that, you can make decisions to do something crazy like adding an egg white to it because you want to smooth the flavor over and enhance the mouth feel of it. (Did I just use the phrase mouth feel while talking about a margarita?!? Yes. It's not just for wine anymore, dammit.)

A red margarita made with egg whites
and a shot of Chilean carmanere

Absinthe... I like absinthe...

This is the good stuff. It is what legends are made of. It is a drink that lives in infamy for essentially no reason, but that does nothing but make it more bad ass. Oh, and it tastes really, really good.

Absinthe is one of my favorite things in this world. I like it simple. Usually I will drink it mixed with a bit of still or sparkling water on ice. While absinthe is transparent in nature (ranging from utterly clear to green), the effect known as "louche" (french for shady) occurs when chilled and mixed with water. It takes on a cloudy version of the color it started as. It is a liquor with personality. This makes my absinthe cooler than your vodka and cranberry.

The history of the liquor just makes it even better. It was banned because some idiots thought it made you hallucinate. This is not true now and wasn't true then either. I am amazed that so few people put together the fact that absinthe was a popular drink in places such as opium dens back in the day. Did nobody think that maybe, just maybe it was the drugs and not the booze that were making people crazy? Either way, they usually blame it on the wormwood or trace amounts or the chemical thujone that shows up in absinthe.

Some people can't stomach the anise flavor of absinthe, and I can accept that. It means more absinthe for me. Other people, notably those from New Orleans and whiskey lovers have a place in their heart for absinthe because of the sazerac. I love it because despite it's particularly strong and very pronounced flavor, it is very versitle to mix with. If you don't believe me, try a combination that I love: gin, mint, Peychaud's bitters, a touch of lemon juice and you guessed it, absinthe (just a touch though, because let's face it, that is some strong tasting shit).

If there is no absinthe in your favorite bar, you should probably be asking them to stock it. If they refuse, then you should probably reconsider where you whet your whistle.

Vodka sucks...

If you recall, I never listed vodka amongst the liquors that I like. Let me explain.

There are only two men in this world that I like to drink vodka with, my father, and local artist, Ruslan Khais. You may think that Ruslan is a strange name. It may be in Philadelphia, but in the land of vodka it might as well be Tom, Dick, or Harry... Just a name. When I drink vodka with Ruslan, we drink it in one of two ways. Frozen or warm. Not watered down, not mixed with cranberry juice (have you figured out my hatred of the vodka and cranberry, or "cape codder" if you are a pretentious prick?), not mixed with orange juice, just straight and like a man or a really bad ass woman.

The only reason I drink vodka with these two men is the ritual. I'll drink anything that honors an age old drinking tradition started by a rich drinking culture even if I am not a huge fan. I'll drink vodka to honor the Russians (or Polish depending on which version of the origin you believe), raki to honor the Greek, grappa to honor the Italians. Hell, I'd even drink moonshine to honor our brothers in the south if it was put in front of me. It doesn't mean I like these things, but you have to have respect for traditions lest they die.

Beyond that, vodka has been bastardized within an inch of its life by big marketing in the liquor world.

Let's start with the modern goal of vodka. In most people's eyes, the beautiful thing about vodka is that it tastes like nothing. In short, the better the vodka the more it tastes like nothing. Does this sound just plain stupid to anyone besides me? If I am going to spend $30+ on a bottle or $10+ on a drink in a bar, it damned well better taste like something, and I don't want to hear about it tasting "clean."

The other excuse for vodka is that it takes on the flavor of whatever you mix it with. To me, all this says is that you want to cover up the taste of alcohol with a variety of crappy juices, or you are drinking to get drunk, not to enjoy the drink. That makes vodka the tofu of the drinking world with one major exception: at least you can make tofu taste good.

A bit about bitters

In the classic definition of a cocktail, bitters are a necessity. In short, if it doesn't have bitters, it is not a cocktail. What does this tell you? Unless you are drinking manhattans, sazeracs, old fashioneds or real mojitos, you are most likely not drinking a cocktail.

You have likely seen a little bottle covered in paper with a plastic yellow top. This is called Angostura bitters, named for the town of Angostura in Venezuela in which it was created. As far as most people know, there are no other kinds of bitters. Shame on you if this is a belief you hold.

There is a wide world of bitters out there if you care to delve into it. There are strange people out there distilling and infusing their own in secret locations known only to the lucky few that will get to drink them. For the rest of us however, there are a few other notable commercial bitters that will serve our purposes. If you get a chance, seek out Peychaud's bitters and Regan's Orange Bitters No. 6.

You can't actually make a proper sazerac without Peychaud's, and that alone should be enough to send you running to the store to get some. A better reason though is to arm yourself to create some truly wonderful cocktails. And as we learned earlier, if it doesn't have bitters in it, it is not a cocktail.