Bësk, which means “bitter” in Swedish, is similar to Malört, though Gibler says there’s no competition. “Jeppson’s is a dare shot and a bit of regret,” he says. This liqueur, on the other hand, “is incredible, like biting into a handful of grapefruit pits, with an 8-foot tail [in the form of] a boatload of wormwood,” he says, praising the finish that “legitimately lasts 45 to 60 seconds.” At Bar Roza, it stands up to the sweetness of lychee liqueur in an Astor called the Hex that’s finished with a spritz of cinnamon and citrus. When he serves it to guests, “you get a quizzical look on someone’s face, a smile and look of suspicion.” He also recommends using it like grapefruit bitters: If you accidentally batched a too-sweet Paloma, you could add a touch of Bësk to balance things out. At 50 percent ABV, it’s an intense spirit. “It also does actually kind of function as a dare shot,” he says, “but it’s way more fun.”

Inspired by Mexican fruit punch and tamarind chile candy, this tangy liqueur comes from Guadalajara. The base is a sugarcane distillate that’s sweetened with piloncillo (aka panela), a rich unrefined sugar used throughout Latin America. When Gibler tasted it, it reminded him of visits to Mexico and the memory of coffee sweetened with the sugar, so he paired it with J. Rieger & Co.’s Caffè Amaro in an Astor called The Tugboat. At home, he recommends throwing it directly into hot or iced coffee, using it as a punch or mixing it with fresh fruit juice, like pressed green apple.

Recently, saffron’s become a star ingredient in cocktails, showing up everywhere from Martinis to Paper Planes. This product, from Chicago-based Apologue, makes it easy to channel the flavor at home—in an accessible way. “Apologue Saffron sits at the very front of the menu because of its approachability and lightness,” says Gibler. It combines the luxurious spice with ingredients like cardamom, lemongrass and golden raisins, and it can complete a range of cocktails or even be enjoyed neat or on the rocks. For an Astor called the Argonaut, Gibler pairs it with a red wine-based gentian liqueur that’s soft and savory; together the duo is “nearly glowing orange.”

This is Gibler’s favorite Scotch. He describes it as self-assured, not trying to be overly burly and brusque: “It’s right in the middle of comfort with tropical fruit bits in front, and it’s smoky, but not bracingly so,” he says. Pairing it with Bénédictine and vermouth, as he does in the house take on a Bobby Burns, is a classy move. “It’s like, I’m an adult who knows how to drink cocktails and I’m very happy I’m doing it,” he says. He tops the drink with an atomized spritz of aromatic garnish (more on that below) that the team calls Hop & Barley, made with the two namesake ingredients, plus botanicals like myrrh, sage and coriander.

Throughout the menu are splashes of custom spirits, like that Hop & Barley mix, by Gibler and the Bar Roza team. He took a perfumer’s approach, researching the relationship between top, middle and bottom notes and how each can elongate the flavor and finish of a distillate. It was an exacting process: “This is scales and droppers, not quick pours and tastes with the back of a spoon,” he says. 

For the coffee liqueur used in a Carajillo-like drink, for example, he diluted neutral grain spirit with espresso and used essences made from extracts, oils, aldehydes and terpenes in dropping funnels, steeped for days at a time, to get the specific layered flavors he desired. The end result was a mix of “cocoa nib extract, tonka accord (not the same as tonka bean), vanilla absolute, cardamom, nutmeg, allspice, pink peppercorn, blood orange, clementine, neroli, frankincense, ylang ylang and peppermint.” 

But “I just don’t want to tell everyone all of that,” he said a few weeks before opening. All of the behind-the-scenes work is meant to further the experience, whether a guest wants a heady explainer of the chemistry behind the cocktail or to simply enjoy something surprising and delicious. “I’m just hoping people come in and order a drink, and I give it to them, and then they love it.”