Countdown to 2011: Sarah L's Top 10 Drinks of 2010

Seattlest will be counting down to 2011 with a series of posts on our highlights of this year and what we're looking forward to in the next. Got a list to suggest? Send it our way. See the entire series here.

ANIMAL THIRSTY by +RUSS from our Flickr pool

Drinking is the best. If your 2010 was like mine, you drank a lot of things. Between unpaid internships (free coffee and free booze is THE ONLY WAY YOU GET PAID) living with the folks for a while (mmm neverending fridge full of beer), finally getting a grownup job (YAY, now I can afford my own drinks, sort of) and writing for such fine publications of Seattlest, one ends up drinking a whole lot of things. In no particular order, here are ten of the best of those things:

Penicillin at Vessel: A wonderful ginger-lemon-whiskey concoction, this was the first drink I had at my favorite (and dearly departed...for now) craft cocktail bar in Seattle. It's made even better by their old-timey pharmacy-style stirring sticks (a coincidence -- they're used in all their stirred cocktails) that make the drink look like wild-west medicine. The best way to drink it is when you've had a terrible ear infection for a month and you actually just started a round of antibiotics. They just closed the doors at their 5th Avenue location on Thursday (boooo), but are supposedly re-opening in the spring or summer (yay!).

Happy Hour Punch at Knee High Stocking Co: The menu at the Knee High, like all craft cocktail bars, is a wonderful, beautiful, overwhelming read. It's a relief when, torn between five different $9-12 cocktails (totally worth it, by the way), the bartender comes over and says that he still has $3 happy hour punch available. This punch, a concoction of multiple grains of spirits (gin and whiskey both times I've had it) with fruity flavors, is almost reminiscent of pink panty-dropper-like coolers of drinks of college -- if that cooler of sweet booze had been carefully crafted by a cocktail genius. It goes down easy and comes in a pretty glass. And, unlike the punch of our youth, it doesn't come back up.

Kana Winery Tempranillo at Urbane: As soon as I read "toasted almonds," I was hooked. Kana is a cool little Yakima Valley winery that specializes in wines that are a little more old-world, which is refreshing in a state full of very sweet, full wines (with some notable exceptions). Kana has a couple that verge on Washington's sweeter style, but not this one; it's dry, and light for a red, but it holds its own on your palate.

Kana ended up at Urbane because they specialize in small, local wineries -- and they feature a different one for a tasting every Wednesday, which, if wine is your thing, is more than worth checking out.

Barrel-Aged Manhattan at Tini Big's: Shane Sahr barrel-aged a Manhattan in a tiny barrel behind the bar at Tini Big's. Not the whiskey -- the Manhattan.

Tons of bartenders are into Manhattans right now, so one might be put off by the choice of barrel-aged cocktail. Don't be fooled. The winner of October's Manhattan Shake-Off, Sahr is no pedestrian cocktailier looking for a way to dress things up for someone who normally orders whiskey neat.

Also, don't be put off by the inclusion of Jolly Rancher-infused vodka on Tini Big's menu. Just don't even look at it. Sahr's a booze genius who is destined for greater bars.

Hot Todd(y/ies) at the Five Point: I've been getting so many awful, sour-mixed, excessively sweet hot toddies lately. The Five Point is good and faithful, and they don't take any liberties with personal preference; it's just ton of bourbon with hot water, lemon and honey to the side. The perfect comfort drink.

Silver City Fat Bastard at Brouwer's: After trying time and time again to get one of the other five bajillion fantastic beers they have on tap, I've given up. Scotch Ales are my favorite beers (honorable mention: Kilt Lifter and Boundary Bay's Scotch Ale), and the Fat Bastard, from the fair city of Silverdale, is my favorite of the lot. It goes down easy without being sweet or watery, and it goes with anything Brouwers can throw at me, food-wise -- whether it's falafel or frites or mushroom stroganoff.

Soy London Fog at Caffe Vita: While not the bar fare of the other list items, I'd be remiss to not mentionVita's London Fog. A London Fog is an Earl Grey tea latte -- you can get them pretty much anywhere, and they're great for when you need a little lift but a coffee drink would be too much (or if you just want something delicious and foamy). Caffe Vita's is amazing. The bergamot and vanilla balance each other, beautifully, and soy's pillowy foam (seriously, get it with soymilk) lends itself well to a tea-based drink.

Lemon-Lime Four Loko in My Bathtub: After extensive research, I have determined that the lemon-lime flavor has the best color, and that's really what matters with Four Loko. RIP, wine glass that broke on the bathroom floor.

Sassy Whiskey at Bathtub Gin: The polar opposite of my bathtub, Bathtub Gin is a classy joint -- the last place you would expect to enter from a Belltown alleyway. The floorplan is intricate, the square footage is small, and the care put into their cocktails is unparalleled.

Like many craft cocktail bars popping up (Tavern Law and Vessel have similar options), Bathtub Gin has an option of just telling the bartender what you like; in their case, you choose your base from numerous liquors, and choose your feel out of "sweet," "sassy" and "savory." As much as I was apprehensive to order "sassy," I was curious -- and I knew that I wouldn't get an appletini that was bourbon-based. I never learned everything that was in it, but as I drank it, I couldn't help but to think I was taking "sassy" back from the Cosmopolitan crowd for the sake of everyone who just likes a fantastic, understated whiskey cocktail.

Pimm's No 1 Cup at Vessel: Okay, Vessel's been on here twice now -- but, despite Vessel's reputation of being too pretentious, the first time I went to Vessel was the most down-to-earth, exciting cocktail experience I had all year, even before they found out that the date I was meeting up with writes a whiskey column (another great source of inspiration in my Year of Drinking).