Leap day drinks: Celebrate the extra day with these cocktails and mocktails

Tim Sweeney, head bartender at the famed Pebble Bar in Rockefeller Center, doesn't skip a step and leaves no stone unturned in his quest to create beautifully balanced and creative cocktails. He is stopping by the TODAY kitchen to mix up some delicious drinks in celebration of leap day on Feb. 29. He shows us how to prepare a tropical pineapple and orange sipper, a riff on the classic Moscow mule with raspberry, a buzzy coffee cocktail and a spicy blue grapefruit drink.

Feign-Killer by Tim Sweeney

In keeping up with the tradition of Rupert Holmes' No. 1 enjoyment, there is no reason why a teetotaler should not be able to enjoy this riff of the most famous of beachside cocktails: the Painkiller (to wit: piña colada plus orange juice). This one is easy to make and never gets sent back. Ever! While it would traditionally be used with rum, I opted for the Lyre's Apertif because its juicy nature works so well with the coconut and pineapple.

Ciderhouse Mule by Tim Sweeney

Five years ago, I tried combining a Moscow mule with the raspberry flavor of Chambord and a cider beer, and decided it was a bit too sweet, but revisiting it last year, I found that switching out the cider for a sparkling rosé created a more balanced and refreshing cocktail. The vision and name breaks plenty of rules: a lemon wheel when there's no lemon in the drink, cider in the name even though there is no actual cider, and an intentional grammatical error in making "Ciderhouse" one word, as an homage to the same concept of Nirvana's "Nevermind" album, because this cocktail is one of the happiest accidents I've encountered in my cocktail career.

What's the Rumpus? by Tim Sweeney

While I'm not sure if the axiom that someone's favorite childhood cereal has a correlation to their favorite cocktail as an adult is true, if it is and your favorite was Cinnamon Toast Crunch, this will be your favorite cocktail ever. I use a full egg (known as a "flip" in the cocktail world) with coffee, vanilla and cinnamon — all part of a balanced breakfast.The most important step is your base. A white or coconut rum will not work with this recipe, you need a dark rum that is built for symbiosis with coffee. In this case the Guatemalan rum, Zacapa No. 23, shines through. The cocktail's name plays on the great "Miller's Crossing" (which may or may not be my favorite film of all time) and it is dangerously tasty.

Piper Pepper Blue by Tim Sweeney and Dante Colicchio

The creation of this cocktail spawned from the mind of my colleague, the incomparable Dante Colicchio, and it takes some basic components and turns it into something complex and delicious. The key is a green chile vodka that combines the flavors of both sweet and hot peppers that pop when combined with the citrus in the cocktail. Even those who don't usually like grapefruit end up loving this elixir. Then the blue curacao, an orange-flavored liqueur, gives the drink both its distinctive look as well as part of the cocktail's name, which is also a reference to Dante's beloved dog, Piper.

If you like those cool cocktail recipes, you should also try these:

Ubiquity Cocktail by Tim Sweeney

Moon Unit Zappa Cocktail by Tim Sweeney

This article was originally published on TODAY.com