Picture a store selling some of the most unique furnishings from India and Southeast Asia. Now picture a bar in the middle of the store and that pretty much describes the Imperial inside Sanford’s Washburn Imports. Sure the Imperials in Ivanhoe Village (the original) and the one that opened in Winter Park have similar aesthetics, but only the Sanford outpost serves liquor, and their cocktail program caters to connoisseurs. Besides, how many joints can sell you a quality Sazerac and the seat you’re sitting on?

This intimate tiki bar inside Tuffy’s Bottle Shop has a sizeable rum list but limited seating, so be sure to make resys before heading to Sanford. Down as many zombies, mai tais and Singapore slings in the two-hour limit, but don’t go overboard – sip a few too many namesake Suffering Bastards and your morning will be a bitch.

One of the progenitors of the city’s cocktail craze, the Courtesy still lays claim to the tippler’s haunt of choice thanks to the scholarly nerds behind the bar and the locally sourced and seasonal ingredients going into their mixers and garnishes. Its move from the downtown core to Winter Park didn’t affect the vibe any – its throwback apothecary motif and intimate layout is still a boozer’s sanctuary. And be patient – well-constructed cocktails take time and precision. Literate types will want to give good study to the nifty selection of absinthes.

Quality quaffs in pretense-free digs is lure enough for liquorists to the Guesthouse in Mills 50. By day, the large square bar at the space’s core is bathed in sunlight and potted plants happily photosynthesize around its perimeter. By night, the bar takes on an ethereal complexion as guests purposefully sip between two ferns (or more) and barkeeps swizzle and shake potent potables of the highest order. Out on the back parking lot, an Airstream trailer serving cocktails keeps the party going.

Given they open their doors at 6 p.m., the Sunroom is typically sun-less but there’s plenty to beam about at this throwback terrazzo-lovers’ dream. The ultra-chill vibe is reflected in beachy, tropical cocktails like the “Bonswa Swizzle,” an homage to Haitian-style tippling with Saint Benevolence rum and gin fruited with pineapple and spiced with cinnamon. Lime, orgeat and bitters round it out but it’s just one in a bevy of creatively focused potions that have made this sister bar to the Guesthouse a fave among the cocktail crowd. Its “Golden Hour,” from 6-8 p.m., is like a ray of sunshine made from $8 cocktails.

While many consider Tori Tori an izakaya, it’s actually a no-resy, walk-ins-only Japanese bar that just so happens to serve some of the best pub grub around. Bites of whole binchotan-grilled Japanese flying squid and chicken skin tare pair perfectly with effervescent highballs and creatively concocted stiffer sips like the coconut shinobi and the Japanese slip n’ slide with Haku vodka, midori, dry curacao, lemon, and egg white.

No surprise that one of the finest restaurants in the city would have a high-caliber cocktail lounge attached to its hip, and this one pops. The lounge isn’t large, but the star power certainly is, as are the bangin’ cocktails borne from the mind of Tim Durett, infusing Japanese and Southeast Asian ingredients and flavors. Oh, the lounge’s food menu, borne from the mind of James Beard-nominated chef Henry Moso, is a perfect complement. 

The swank neighborhood rum bar oozes all the midcentury Cuban charm and lively conviviality without the deafening clamor and clang. Experienced bartenders shake, stir and pour refined Cuban-inspired rum-based cocktails like the “guava pastelito” and espresso-roasted “Bustelo Biafra,” but there’s a focused selection of Cuban fare to be had as well.

From the brains behind the Wildflower in Baldwin Park comes this downtown stunner that serves coffee by day and cocktails by night from the historic Angelbilt Hotel. The bar’s design invokes the mysterious, escapist and moodily tropical setting of an Agatha Christie novel. Reading Murder on the Orient Express in a cozy nook while sipping on an Espresso Train would be entirely apropos here.

Even those with a love/hate relationship with tiki culture will find it hard to find fault with this nostalgia-filled bar – it’s got enough South Pacific kitsch and rum to keep Richard Rodgers and Captain Morgan amused. Rattan furniture, grass skirts, and over-the-top cocktail vessels aside, there are some stiff drinks to be had, most notable of which is the signature and rum-less, “Tiger Fucker” – a fuschia-hued drink of 44° North potato vodka, jalapeno-blackberry syrup, lemon juice and passion fruit juice in an ice-filled schooner glass. It’s then garnished with a flaming sugar cube atop a lemon slice. Needless to say, it’s lit.

Boutique spirits, seasonal ingredients, cordials, bitters, and syrups are all necessary requirements in modern-day cocktail making, but what Mathers Social Gathering brings to Orlando (apart from another speakeasy) is a level of big city sophistication. It’s like the city’s very own Soho House, sans the high fees, but with all the style. The spacious bar is housed on the third floor of an 1884 building replete with vintage furnishings, antique accents, soaring bookshelves and cozy brick-lined nooks. While drinks have that old-timey flair, their pricing reflects a current age, that is, pricey. Dress dapper.

Equal parts Brooklyn loft and West Elm showroom, the second-floor bar in the historic Robinson Building is a paean to pomo art and poisons in every way. It’s from the same group that brought Mathers Social Gathering into our cocktail consciousness and who envision the Robinson Cocktail Room to be “a bastion for the avante-garde.” No doubt, that ethic is reflected in drinks incorporating a dose of the uncommon with a dash of molecular gastronomy. Think the boozy and bitter riff on a Martinez called “Death by Elocution” with Treaty Oak Old Youpon and Bristow barrel-aged gin, a vermouth blend and maraschino foam. It’s then dusted with the powdered skins of lacto-fermented kiwis. If that isn’t out there enough, take a swig and stare at the skeleton display of a sabre-toothed tiger encased in glass.

The speakeasy thing has become a somewhat tired novelty, so once entry to Hanson’s Shoe Repair has been secured by procuring the password from the Twitters (@HansonsShoeShop), head to the Hanson Building (generally considered to be the oldest building in Orlando) and give the person minding the door on the third-floor the “secret” code. Once seated inside the tight, dimly lit space, relax and savor the stiff potions designed by Rene Nguyen, one of Orlando’s finest cocktail creators. There’s even a small outdoor area for those feeling a bit claustrophobic. Oh, and don’t be overly nonplussed by couples making out — it’s a thing here.