This Saturday, the Rochester hotel will sponsor the third annual Stem to Stem, Local First’s friendly mixologist competition featuring harvest-themed drinks. A half dozen upscale bars will use locally produced herbs, fruits, honey and distilled spirits to dazzle the crowd with creative cocktails for the season.

Sounds like a deal to me. For $25, you sample five gourmet harvest cocktails in four hours and get to keep a commemorative engraved garden glass to add to your collection of wine glasses from Durango’s many fundraisers. We collect these like Christmas ornaments at our house, but unlike ornaments, they’re used year-round, especially when we pack a bottle of wine for a road trip or a picnic.

Partiers need to pick up their glass ahead of time at the Durango Coffee Co. They’ll vote for their favorite cocktail, and then will be entered into a drawing to win a gift certificate to the establishment with the winning drink.

I think there ought to be a rule that you can’t call your cocktail a martini or a mojito unless it’s in the ballpark of the original. A dirty martini, yes, because olive juice doesn’t change the composition drastically. But when chocolate, apples, mint, peach syrup and other left-turns enter the shaker, then the mixologist needs to come up with a name, too. That seems fair.

I don’t like the bastardization of food and drink classics. It seems lazy when you can’t come up with a name short of stealing one. I think this robbery started when someone tweaked the traditional Caesar salad and got away with it.

It reminds me of the subdivision developers of the 1960s who would take a track of land, cut down the standing forest and then name all the streets after the missing trees: Elm, Maple, Locust, Ash … a big lack of imagination to go along with the cookie-cutter houses.

There’s been an uptick of special cocktails thanks to the Food Channel showing how easily one can blend a batch of seasonal drinks other than margaritas. The pitcher has replaced the punch bowl, but the idea is nothing new – Get a themed drink, mix it ahead of time, and enjoy time with your guests.

I’m hoping someone comes up with a Durango bellini, that peach puree, lemon and prosecco classic that originated in Venice. Peaches are still in season, and that’s one you can pull from the freezer.

Apple-cider-based cocktails, honey from Honeyville with bourbon from Silverton, and herbs paired with fruit infusions remain popular.

But if I were mixing drinks this Saturday, I might come up with a pumpkin, nutmeg and rum-laced coffee to usher in the cold nights ahead.

It’s feeling like fall.