The Stirrings of premium fruity cocktails

Home bartenders have long sought reliable assistance in concocting cocktails.

But good help is hard to find and those margarita mixers in big plastic jugs simply don't fill the bill.

Stirrings, a line of all-natural mixers, gives drinks the pleasant pucker and excitement of fresh fruit, in addition to the sweetness of cane sugar (and, praise be, no corn syrup). I made passionfruit mojitos from Stirrings, rum and club soda, garnished with mint from the garden. The drinks tasted so fresh I wondered if someone had slipped a slice of passionfruit in my cocktail. (I checked the blender, to make sure.) You'll find a veritable bartender's guide of other recipes at http://www.stirrings.com/

The long line includes such treats as red grapefruit (just waiting to become a margarita) and espresso, ideal for coffee martinis. Many of the flavors, such as watermelon and pina colada, are well suited to non-alcoholic drinks.

You can find Stirrings mixers and creative coordinating rimmers at foodie (and drinkie) destinations, including Whole Foods and Sur La Table. Expect to pay $11 for a quart bottle, which translates to about 11 cocktails, and $6 for a rimmer, conveniently packaged in a tin disk. I brought wild blueberry mixer and a rimmer (made with crushed graham crackers) to a picnic, where the host transformed it into blueberry martinis, the cosmo's cousin come to visit for the summer.