Douglas fir trees grow with abandon throughout the Pacific Northwest, and every spring, when bright-green buds of new growth appear along the tips of each branch, they’re ripe for plucking. Steve McCarthy of Portland’s Clear Creek Distillery was the first domestic distiller to bottle his own Doug fir eau de vie, but for DIYers, this liqueur from Brandon Pettit and Kenaniah Bystrom of Seattle’s Essex bar is another way to get a taste. With a subtle tree-sap sweetness and a strong herbal backbone, it “makes a fun replacement for Chartreuse in a Last Word,” says Bystrom, and it mixes especially well with bourbon, citrus and a concentrated tea syrup in his Smoke Signals cocktail. “Our inspiration comes from what’s around us,” Bystrom says, “and trying to capture that essence in a glass.”