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The trifecta of sugar, low moisture ingredients and some high-proof spirits make fruitcakes some of the longest-lasting foods in the world.

There was the Sazerac, of course, in which the ingredients are stirred with ice to temper the burn of the high-proof rye and absinthe while melding the flavors.

This basic template — an alcoholic mixture high-proof enough to ignite, and a sugared rim, coffee and a dollop of whipped cream — is a highly flexible one, lending itself to a variety of luxurious flavor combinations.

James Louie, one of the owners of Huber’s Cafe in Portland, Ore., saw this when he ran across Spanish coffee — a flamed blend of high-proof spirit and coffee — in the late 1970s.

We kissed a cod, danced a jig and tossed back a shot of high-proof, awful-tasting rum called screech.