By DCist Contributor Nathan Wilkinson

There’s really no other season that’s as predictable as fall—the weather gets colder, trees lose their leaves, and restaurants start putting pumpkin in everything. Like fall fashion, seasonal cocktails this time of year start to look a lot alike, which is to say the same as they looked last year and the year before that. How do you find something different to satisfy that craving for richer, spicier beverages? You look to bars that are using new ingredients and mixing techniques to stand out in a world of pumpkin spice. These cocktails, with their unusual fruit and spice syrups, capture the transitory and sometimes unanticipated spirit of autumn.

Head Bartender Josh Fatemi stirs a Mary Todd at the newly opened McClellan’s Retreat (2031 Florida Avenue NW), where the house syrups make every cocktail an original. The Mary Todd is a swizzle, a category of drink that requires rapid stirring, made with ginger and butternut squash syrup, Jamaican rum, and lemon juice. It’s served so cold your hand freezes to the glass.

“We want to make all our syrups as complex as possible. Not complex for the drinker, but more complex in the build out,” says Fatemi. “Some of our syrups contain as many as twenty tincture profiles” like allspice, cardamom, black pepper and anise. Another Civil War-themed drink, the Barren Hill, is a rye and scotch combination that makes use of syrup made from pistachio and quince—an oft overlooked fall fruit.

The Sage Advice at Beacon Bar and Grill (1615 Rhode Island Avenue NW) deserves mention because of its daring combination of Jefferson Reserve bourbon, lemon juice, dark amber maple syrup, egg white and sage. It’s served in a coup glass and is the closest thing to a “Cold” Toddy you can find. Sage, an herbal balm for sore throats, is present throughout this sweet, soothing drink.

Then there are the seasonal cocktails at Black Jack (1612 14th Street NW), where you can get a Pumpkin Jack Rose. This twist on the classic apple jack cocktail is made with Laird’s apple brandy, pumpkin spice syrup and lime juice. There’s also the smoky Pop’s Pipe, made with Pig Nose scotch, Byrrh (a French wine liqueur) and allspice tincture, served on the rocks. Beverage Manager E. Jay Apaga explains the complexity of a popular hot drink, the Perfect 10 Hot Toddy: “It has ten different ingredients that make for a warming and satisfying drinking experience. I use mace and cayenne in my ‘tea’ to round out the flavor profile and give it a spice firmness to match the Knob Creek Rye.”

Apaga balances his fall cocktail menu by appealing to every taste. “There always has to be an easy drinking vodka or rum cocktail, a couple of lovely and complex gin drinks, and a depth of whiskey drinks. There needs to be good distribution of ideas too,” he says, noting that fall cocktails can be simple and light as well as savory and complex.

The refreshing antidote to heavy fall cocktails can be found at Hank’s Oyster Bar (1624 Q Street NW) where bartender Joni Hector mixes the Akuma. This drink is unusual because it is made with Junmai Gingo Sake, Dolin Dry vermouth, and cranberry-corn syrup and habanero extraction. “It’s meant to be one of those cocktails that you drink when you want to keep going,” says Hector. It’s light and sweet with a little bitterness and pepper burn at the finish.

Hector also recommends the Cup Of Jo Jo. Served cold, it includes Bittman’s coffee liqueur, Plymouth gin, and dry curacao and is garnished with celery shrub and orange twist. “It reminds me of one of those liquor bottle-shaped Christmas chocolates with the whiskey or cognac inside,” says Hector.

The Barbary Coast is a good fall classic for the home bartender. It is named after the rough dockside district of San Francisco where it was invented more than 100 years ago. Here’s what you need to make one: