MxMo LXIV: TIKI! - Gilligan's Ginger Swizzle + 2 bonus drinks

It's Alliiiive!!! The blog that is. I've been quite derelict in updating recently, but what can I say, I've been busy, an 10 month old will do that to you. But I can always make time for Mixology Monday. Or at the very least I can when they skip a couple months over the holidays. But it's back, and I'm back, just in time for the month of February. That's right, Feb, aka Tiki Month! Our host this month is Doug Winship over at The Pegu Blog, and he's not surprisingly chosen Tiki! as this month's MxMo theme. Says Doug:

The Tiki scene, like classic cocktails in general, is reviving nicely these days. The lush, decadent marriage of tropical flavors and exotic kitsch carries us away to a better, less dreary place. Please join in and add your words, images, and offerings to the Tiki Gods on the 20th. Since Tiki is more than just the drinks, feel free to post on whatever Tiki subject floats your outrigger canoe...feel free to wax eloquent on aloha shirts, exotica music, decor, garnishes, food or whatever else moves you to enter the Tiki spirit!

To help get in the spirit, on Sat night I hit up PKNY, my favorite NYC tiki spot, for a couple drinks. (Doug, they made a great Missionary's Downfall.) A tall frosty mug of tiki does have the magical power to whisk one away and forget the savages of winter for an evening, not that lady winter has been inclined to savage us much around these parts this year, thankfully enough. Perhaps someone distracted her with an Improved Chartreuse Swizzle or two. Kudos to them!

UPDATE: Doug's got the roundup post of all this month's drinks up, go check 'em all out.

Speaking of that drink, my submission this month uses its recipe as a jumping off point for my creation. Not only do I love Chartreuse, but I've found that she plays well with ginger, and I've enjoyed tinkering with my newish bottle of The King's Ginger, a liqueur I prefer somewhat to Canton because I find King's Ginger to be a bit less candied and have more of the fresh ginger bite I so love. So I swapped in King's Ginger for Falernum (though I added Falernum Bitters and Tiki Bitters) and used the seasonal Meyer lemon instead of pineapple juice, upped the JWray ('cause why not?), and dubbed it the Gilligan's Ginger swizzle, which I thought was appropriately island-y. Oh, and in honor of our host, I garnished it with a tattooed lime (as well as a plastic naked lady from my PKNY drink Sat night).

Gilligan's Ginger Swizzle

• 1 oz Green Chartreuse
• 1 oz King's Ginger Liqueur
• ¾ oz J. Wray & Nephew White Overproof Rum
• ¾ oz lime juice
• ¾ oz Meyer lemon juice (regular lemons work here also)
• ¼ oz Steen's cane syrup (or rich simple if you must, or even Grade B maple)
• 2 dashes B.G Reynold's Falernum Bitters
• 6 drops Bittermens ‘Elemakule Tiki Bitters

Swizzle over plenty of crushed ice, garnish with a tattooed lime, big ol' handful of spanked mint, straw, and whatever other fun tiki flair you've got.

She's got spice and herbs from the liqueurs and bitters, funk and heft from the JWray (though both liqueurs are hardly low proof themselves), brightness from the citrus, and a touch of extra depth and richness from the luscious cane syrup. Just like any proper tiki drink, she might down a bit too easy. But what else would you expect?



In the title I promised two bonus drinks, and since I've been derelict in my blogging duties I've got yet-to-be-posted cocktails in spades from which to pick. Since the theme is Tiki, I'll pick two that fit the bill that I created for Thursday Drink Nights various and sundry over the past months. (Hey, I said I've been too busy to blog, not that I was dead.)

First, here is another swizzle I made for TDN Tall Drinks:

Tornadiki

• 1 oz Coruba Dark Rum
• 1 oz Banks Five Island Rum (sub Cruzan aged white)
• 1 oz Passionfruit Syrup
• ½ oz Lemon Hart 151
• ½ oz orgeat
• ½ oz falernum
• ¾ oz lemon
• ¾ oz lime
• ¼ oz absinthe
• 3 dashes  Bittermens ‘Elemakule Tiki Bitters

Swizzle over plenty of crushed ice, add straw and garnish with mint

Get it? Tornadiki = Tornado + Tiki. And it's a swizzle. This guy's got the bones of a hurricane with the rums and passionfruit, plus a litany of other usual suspects in the tiki oveure.





And I've got one more for you, if I don't bang it out now it'll probably never happen. Although Frederic of Cocktail Virgin/Slut was kind enough to include it promptly in the wrap up of the night. This one I made for the curiously themed Nuku Hiva TDN, for which we were asked:

in honor of this darkly exotic mystery, the goal of the night is to create tiki drinks with at least one German ingredient! Bonus if you use fire!

So I used a german Kirsch and a Honey Liqueur, as well as three german bitters. And fire of course:

Einbahnstraße (Einbahnstrasse)

• 1 oz e Coruba
• 1 oz Lemon Hart 151
• 1 oz Cruzan aged rum
• 1 oz Kirschwasser
• 1 oz Bärenjäger
• 1 oz Canton Ginger Liqueur
• 1 oz lemon
• 1 oz lime
• 1oz OJ
• (scant) 1 oz cinnamon syrup
• 1 dash Bitter Truth Orange Bitters
• 1 dash Bitter Truth Creole Bitters
• 1 dash Bitter Truth Aromatic Bitters

Shake & strain over fresh ice into stoic tiki mug; add straw & garnish with lime shell filled with flaming LH 151

I think the name translates from the German as something along the lines of "One way street", if you allow me a hefty amount of poetic license. And in fairness, you are probably better off splitting this with a friend, there's a lot in there, but I wanted to stick with the link between 1 oz of everything and the name. It's got a lot going on, but I thought it was not bad for something I threw together. At the risk of breaking the one way theme, it's pretty sweet with a full oz of cinnamon syrup, depending on how rich yours is, but it needed some; just go easy on it unless sweet is your thing.

Purse Strings

This is the second drink I threw together a couple weeks ago for TDN "Mint."  The picture is not as well done as I usually try to do, but I was winging this one so it is what is it.  I do enjoy the silhouette of Halley lounging in the background though, so that somewhat makes up for my sloppiness.  The drink itself is quite refreshing.

Purse Strings

• 1½ oz Pisco
• ½ oz Velvet Falernum
• ¾ oz lemon juice (or lime*)
• ½ oz simple syrup
• 1 dash Angostura
• Mint
• ~6 blueberries
• soda

muddle mint and berries with simple and bitters, add rest and shake, dump into glass, top with soda, mint sprig garnish

As for the name, don't you worry about that.  It arose from a long chain of non sequiturs that I seized upon when at a loss for a name.  It wouldn't even make sense to me if I tried to explain it.

*UPDATE: I accidentally made this with lime this weekend for guests over the 4th, and it went over well, so perhaps lime is better than lemon.  Maybe it's like the pisco sour where people debate which to use, but both work in that too.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Another month, another Mixology Monday. This MxMo's theme is still Vermouth, hosted by Vidiot at Cocktalians. This is my second drink for this month's MxMo, using Italian vermouth this time as opposed to my first, the Green Lantern, which used Dolin Blanc. Both of these are doing double duty in another way, since I mixed them up for recent TDNs.

I came up with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen for the rather wide open category of Thursday Drink Night: Clear Spirits several weeks ago. I was lucky to have procrastinated posting it, because now I get to use it for MxMo as well.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

• 1 oz gin (Bulldog London Dry Gin)
• 1 oz mezcal (Del Maguey Chichicapa)
• 1/3 oz Velvet Falernum
• 1/3 oz Fernet Branca
• 1/3 oz Carpano Antica Formula vermouth
• 2 dashes Xocolatl Mole bitters

Stir and and strain into cocktail glass.

When I initially presented this drink it was met with much skepticism due to the admittedly scary looking combination of several very boldly flavored ingredients, which do not at all obviously look like they would go well together. Thus the name. But once a couple guys got over their apprehension and tried it most quite enjoyed it, even extolling others to try it because despite its daunting recipe it is "actually good - honest. You should try it. Really." Although it did make one guy sneeze. Never found out if that was bad or a positive endorsement. Anyway, I enjoy it, and I liken it to a smoky manhattan.

Anyway, on to the discussion of the vermouth. Carpano Antica is still a sweet, or Italian vermouth, but it's made from a base of red wine as opposed to the more typical white. In addition, it is spicier and more robustly flavored than your typical Italian vermouth. And just plain better, it's great stuff. I mentioned at the most recent TDN that it was my default and the response was that it should be everyone's. I think the Carpano is key to making this drink work as the dude who ties all the other guy's big flavors together and keeps them all in line.

Another note about vermouth in general: unlike liquors, it goes bad, so take steps to preserve it. At the very least, reseal it and keep it in the fridge, but I go one step further and use Private Preserve to replace the oxygen laden air in the bottle with inert gasses, to great success. Highly recommended, and for leftover wine as well. (Also at amazon.)

And note, I am well aware that the movie is pretty bad but I quite enjoyed watching it, it's in my wheelhouse, like almost all vampire stories, except of course Twilight which I have not seen but I'm quite sure is utter garbage.

Viking Oar-Shearer

Last Thursday was the first anniversary of Thursday Drink Night, and the theme chosen was TDN Tiki. I was not very familiar with this genre, so I set out on a bit of research.

I settled on this recipe for the classic Zombie to use as a jumping off point, and then started swapping ingredients with abandon, using stuff I like, had on hand, and thought would work well. So here I present the Viking Oar-Shearer, in all its 12 ingredient glory.

Viking Oar-Shearer

• 1 ½ oz Rhum Clement VSOP
  
• 1 oz Ron Zacapa 23
  
• 1 oz Brennivín (or aquavit)
  
• 1 oz lime
  
• ½ oz pineapple juice
  
• ½ velvet falernum
  
• ½ oz green chartreuse
  
• ½ oz cherry heering
  
• ¼ oz orgeat
  
• ½ tsp allspice dram
  
• ½ tsp absinthe
  
• 3 dashes fee's whiskey barrel bitters

Shake and strain over crushed ice, garnish with mint sprig

Preferably, the mint will be freshly picked from the lush plant in your new herb garden. It will make the drink better, trust me.

I used Brennivín I brought back from my recent trip to Iceland, but any aquavit will do. I imagine a gin would work nicely as well, but the name will be less apropos.

HT to Rick at kaiser penguin for his photo tips; I think this is easily my best drink pic yet.