I made a literary drink.

Some friends and I were having a party to celebrate winter break and the beginning of the new semester. I had a lackluster drink, one I'd made from a book. I had the idea that it would taste better with pepper.

Why pepper? I like kick of pepper, especially when there's just too much of it. I like the flavor shock -- I don't get it enough.

So I grabbed a handful of pepper and took it back to the party. "What's in your hand?" they asked. "Pepper," I replied. They raised their eyebrows and let me be.

So I found my friend who loves inventing new cocktails. I said, "Dear friend, teach me."

I learned something about drinks that night. There are sweet liquors, savory liquors, and neutrals. "The only thing I know of that uses pepper as an ingredient is a Bloody Mary," he reminded me. We had no tomato juice. So I wanted to make something new.

"You'll want to put your pepper with a savory drink," he said, and then pointed out various options in the liquor chest. "Use a savory, a neutral, a lot of ice, and your pepper."

I have had a crush on espresso for a few months now, so when I saw coffee-flavored liqueur, I knew I must use it. The end result looked like 1:2:1 of kahlua, 151 rum, and water, with a splash of kahlua and a splash of water, with the water and pepper being the very first ingredients. And, a handful of ice in the water.

He whipped out his brand-name phone and checked the internet for the name of the drink. Finding none, we decided we had the solemn responsibility of naming it ourselves.

"It's kahlua, rum, and water," we mused, trying to come up with a witty name. A friend pointed in passing to the "Lolita" name on the kahlua bottle. "I'm naming it the Nabokov," I answered resolutely.

We checked to make sure the name was not already taken, and well enough, it wasn't! I invented the Nabokov; I invented a literary drink.