Alba Huerta's first bartending job was at a craft-beer bar where cocktails were secondary beverages. And even those, she admits, weren't that good. "I learned to make my first Negroni there," she recalls, "but I wasn't making it right at all."

A few thousand Negronis, Old Fashioneds and Sazeracs later, Huerta has her cocktail game down pat. In fact, she's considered one of the country's best bartenders. And now she's a published author on the very subject that vexed her as a fledgling bartender.

The 37-year-old owner of Julep bar in Houston has written "Julep: Southern Cocktails Refashioned," a recipe book that celebrates the Southern influence in cocktail culture. It's a rich spirits legacy that has so intrigued Huerta that she named her first bar after that most Southern of all cocktails, the mint-sugar-bourbon marriage called the Julep.

While looking back at the Southern roots of cocktails and drinking culture, "Julep" also looks forward via Huerta's reimagining of iconic drinks. She steers Juleps in new directions (flavors such as honeysuckle and peach syrup enter the picture); she relaunches cobblers (wine-based cocktails) and crustas (the first eye-catching fancy cocktail); and revives an appreciation for drinks of the rural South with clever creations such as the Cajun Fig Soda, the Amethyst Flip and the Snake-Bit Sprout.

More Information 'Julep: Southern Cocktails Refashioned' By Alba Huerta and Marah Stets Lorena Jones Books, $24.99, 224 pp.

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For cocktail lovers, these are Fourth of July fireworks in a crushed ice-filled highball glass - adventurous ways to enjoy history and traditions of Southern cocktails and culture. It's what's made Huerta a bartending powerhouse.

Huerta knew this was the life for her from the moment she wielded her first cocktail shaker at the former Timberwolf Pub in 1999: "The second I got behind a bar I wanted to own a bar," she said.

Owning a bar would certainly come, but first there were many bartending jobs in between. She worked in bars in Houston and in Las Vegas, where she was pursuing an undergraduate degree. Huerta moved back to Houston in 2009, the year Anvil Bar & Refuge opened.

The bar, owned by Bobby Heugel, is considered by many to have kick-started the craft-cocktail movement here. Huerta said other bars were doing craft cocktails, including Beaver's, Haven, Under the Volcano and Grand Prize, where she worked in 2010. But Anvil was getting all the buzz - both locally and nationally; last week the bar was named a James Beard Award finalist for Outstanding Bar Program - and it's where she was hired in 2011 as bar manager. Anvil flew high. And so did Huerta.

She and Heugel emerged as cocktail celebrities and found themselves traveling, lecturing, doing photo shoots and interviews about their expertise. In 2014, they were named Bartenders of the Year by Imbibe, the national magazine that covers the cocktail industry. That same year Huerta was on the cover of Southwest Airlines' in-flight magazine with the headline "Alba Huerta is the best bartender in America." In 2015, she landed on the cover of Texas Monthly, the same year Bon Appetit magazine named Julep one of the top five bars in America.

Huerta finds the cocktail stardom amusing because when she was coming up, bartending was not considered a career. "Ten years ago if you told someone you were a bartender, they'd ask you what you're going to do with the rest of your life," she said. "This is my life."

It's a life Huerta said she could not have imagined. Born in Monterrey, Mexico, Huerta's parents moved their family to Houston when she was a young girl. She considers Houston home - it's where she grew up, graduated from high school and where her parents and two siblings (all of whom have American citizenship) still live. Hers could be called an American dream story, but Huerta prefers to cast it from an immigrant perspective: "I consider myself an American dreamer."

A proud Latina, Huerta said the immigrant experience is America itself. "I'm an immigrant. That's the way I look at the world. And I know the restaurant industry was built by immigrants," she said. Being fluent in Spanish, she said, also was an asset in the food and beverage industry. "My heritage has always been valuable in this industry because I can communicate with a labor force."

Though being a Latina made her stand out in the fast-growing modern cocktail movement full of big personalities and ambitions, it's her creativity and dedication to the craft that elevated her.

In 2013, she and partners Heugel and Kevin Floyd opened The Pastry War in downtown Houston. Called a mezcaleria, it was a first for the city - a bar that specializes in agave-based mezcal and tequila. Huerta and Heugel immersed themselves in the study of these noble spirits of Mexico and heritage brands that were elusive to non-existent in Texas.

The bar made a buzz not just in Houston but within the nation's bar industry. A year later Huerta opened Julep, branching out in yet another direction: Southern spirits and cocktail culture. It was a provocative premise with perfect timing as interest in Southern foods and foodways - everything from barbecue and bourbon to fried chicken and biscuits - swept the American dining and drinking landscape. Once again Huerta studied extensively, finding that Southern drinks and drinking has been colored by historical paths, traditions, politics, climate, agriculture and migration. She took both well-known and unsung cocktails and remastered them in alluring ways, flavoring them with bitters, syrups, shrubs and tinctures and insisting on glorious garnishes and the finest glassware to make each drink an ode to the American South, both old and new.

With Julep, a boutique bar built from scratch, Huerta became a fixture in the Southern food world and dialogue. She was the featured mixologist at the 2015 symposium of the Southern Foodways Alliance, an organization that studies and documents the diverse food culture of the American south. She became a member in 2013 and credits the organization for supporting and promoting the culture and discourse on which she built Julep.

Today she travels extensively to preach about her passion. She has to pinch herself sometimes. "It still happens where I say to myself, 'How did I get here?' " she said.

"Julep" the book is also a triumph of Houston talents: acclaimed food and portrait photographer Julie Soefer shot it, Amanda Medsger styled it, and Claudia Casbarian employed digital technology. And Huerta said every bit of glassware, serviceware and tabletop finery came from Kuhl-Linscomb on West Alabama.

Huerta had already researched Southern cocktails before Julep opened, but writing the book was an even deeper immersion into Southern history and storytelling. One thing she learned during the book process, she said, was valuing time.

"Sitting down and looking at what I do through a microscope was really cool," she said. "But really, there's never time to sit down. I think we all take time for granted."

She wasted no time, though, on bestowing an advance copy she got on two of her staunchest advocates, her parents, Sergio and Maria Alba. It was her Christmas gift to the Huertas: the first edition of her first book.

"They didn't know what to say, and then Mom asked, 'How many of these are there?' " Huerta said with a smile. "I told her, 'There's a lot of them, Mom.' "

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Mississippi Punch

Recipes from "Julep: Southern Cocktails Refashioned" by Alba Huerta

½ ounce Rhum JM Agricole Blanc

½ ounce cognac, such as Pierre Ferrand 1840

½ ounce 100-proof bonded rye whiskey

½ ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice

½ ounce simple syrup (recipe follows)

1 dash Angostura bitters

Garnish: 2-3 mint sprigs, 1 fresh blackberry, 1 lemon wheel, powdered sugar

Glass: Rocks glass and straw

Serving ice: crushed

Instructions: Fill the glass with crushed ice. Pour the rhum, cognac, rye, lemon juice, syrup and bitters into a cocktail shaker. Fill the shaker with ice cubes. Cover and shake vigorously 20 times. Strain into the glass. Place the straw in the glass.

To garnish, press the mint sprigs between your fingers to release their aroma and tuck them into the ice next to the straw. Place the blackberry on the lemon wheel and secure it with a cocktail pick. Place the wheel on top of the crushed ice and dust with powdered sugar.

Cajun Fig Soda

1½ ounce Demerara rum, such as El Dorado five-year

½ ounce kumquat syrup (recipe follows)

1 bar spoon freshly squeezed lime juice

1 bar spoon half-and-half

2 dashes Bittermans Orange Citrate (see note)

Soda water to top

Garnish: 2 mint sprigs, 1 dried orange wheel

Glass: rocks glass

Ice: 1½-inch cubes

Instructions: Fill the glass with ice cubes. Pour the rum, syrup, lime juice, half-and-half and orange cream citrate into a cocktail shaker. Fill the shaker with ice cubes. Cover and shake vigorously 20 times. Strain into the glass. Top with soda water. Press mint sprigs between your fingers to release their aroma. Push the sprigs through the center of the dried orange wheel and place on top of the cocktail.

Note: Bittermans Orange Citrate is available at amazon.com; Bittermans products are also available at Total Wine & More. A bar spoon is equivalent to a teaspoon.

Mint Julep

10 mint leaves

½ ounce Turbinado Syrup (recipe follows)

2 ounces mid-80s-to-90-proof bourbon

Garnish: 2-3 mint sprigs, powdered sugar

Glass: Julep cup and straw

Serving ice: Crushed

Instructions: Place the mint leaves and syrup in the julep cup and lightly press with a muddler. Leave the muddler in the glass and add the bourbon, pouring over the muddler to rinse it off. Stir with the muddler to mix. Fill the cup a little more than halfway with crushed ice and stir with a bar spoon 15 to 20 times. Add more ice to form a dome on top. Place the straw in the cup.

To garnish, press the mint sprigs between your fingers to release their aroma and tuck them into the ice next to the straw. Dust the mint sprigs with powdered sugar.

Vinegar & Rye

1 whole fig, trimmed and halved

1 ounce 100-proof bonded rye whiskey

1 ounce rainwater madeira (see note)

½ ounce turbinado syrup (recipe follows)

1 bar spoon freshly squeezed lime juice

1 bar spoon Banyuls vinegar (see note)

Garnish: 2 mint sprigs and ½ fresh fig

Glass: Rocks glass and straw

Serving ice: crushed

Instructions: Place both halves of the fig into a cocktail shaker. Muddle until pulverized. Add the rye, madeira, syrup, lime juice and vinegar. Fill the shaker with ice cubes. Shake vigorously 40 times. Pour into the glass. Fill the glass to the rim with crushed ice. Place the straw in the glass.

To garnish, press the mint sprigs between your fingers to release their aroma and tuck them into the ice. Lay the fig half, cut side up, on the ice or tuck it stem side down into the ice next to the mint.

Note: Rainwater madeira is available at Total Wine & More. Substitute sherry vinegar if you don't have Banyuls vinegar.

Simple Syrup

Makes about 2 ¼ cups

2 cups sugar

1 cup water

Instructions: Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and stir to combine. Place over medium heat and bring to a gentle boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat and simmer until the sugar is dissolved and the syrup is slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool. Transfer to a glass container with a tight-fitting lid and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Turbinado Syrup

Makes about 2½ cups

2 cups Sugar in the Raw turbinado

1 cup water

Instructions: Combine the turbinado sugar and water in a saucepan and stir to combine. Place over medium heat and bring to a gentle boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat and simmer until the sugar is dissolved and the syrup is slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool. Transfer to a glass container with a tight fitting lid and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Kumquat Syrup

Makes about 1½ cups

1 cup whole kumquats

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

Instructions: Place the kumquats, sugar and water in a saucepan and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer over low heat and simmer gently, uncovered, for two hours, stirring frequently. Strain the syrup, pressing on the kumquats to extract as much liquid as possible; discard the kumquats. Store the syrup in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.