June 19, 2013

Mixology Monday LXXIV Cherries Round-up - part 2

Hopefully you have enjoyed reading about all the amazing contributions to Mixology Monday with a cherry theme in the first part of the round-up.

If not, hurry over, there are many pretty and tasty drinks to try and/or be inspired by.

Rowen of Fogged in Lounge leads off the second part of the round-up with a cocktail he calls Silver Spurs. It's the happy marriage of tequila, sherry and Maraschino liqueur.

In part one of the round-up we have already met Remember the Main, a Rye based classic cocktail that Nick mixed for us.

Jacob Grier from Liquidity Preference sends a variation of that cocktail. Anahuac has a tequila base and takes it's name from a Mexican navy ship. Unlike her American counter part, the Maine, Anahuac did not experience any catastrophic episodes at sea and was quietly scrapped in 1938.


Ceccotti from Bartending Notes takes us through three sours all mixed with Maraschino Liqueur. First one of my favorites, the Aviation and then the Prado and Prado Mineiro mixed on tequila and cachaca respectively and both made smooth with egg white. 


For the second time this MxMo black pepper pops up as a way to compliment the taste of cherry. Todd used pepper in his cocktail Backhand Compliment and Zach of The Venture Mixologist uses pepper in his cocktail.

When in France is a cognac based cocktail mixed with Leopold Bros Michigan Tart Cherry Liqueur. Zach has infused the pepper in grain spirit for a pepper tincture, definitely something I will try.


Then let us head to the 70's cocktail culture. A time known as the dark age of cocktails. Mike from Disco Ginferno shows us otherwise with a cocktail from Playboy's Host and Bar Book from 1971.

The San Juan Sling is a rum based cocktail and looks amazing:


And then a warm welcome to a new participant in MxMo.  And what an impressive debut from Chris and A Bar Above. Not only his first MxMo post but with a video to boot.

The Lone Rainier is a wonderful sounding cocktail based on gin, with cherry, ginger and honey as tasters. And not just any cherries but the priced yellow and pink Rainier cherries developed in the state of Washington.


I don't know if it never happens, that two identical cocktails are submitted to MxMo. It didn't happen this time but we have two with almost identical names. Remember the corset fabric inspired cocktail Fred mixed? The Cherry Blossom Brocade.

Well, Scott of Sip, Strain & Sip has named one of his two entries Cherry Blossom. This gin based cocktail merges St. Germaine and a clear Cherry Liqueur for a real pretty result.


Scott gives us an excellent recipe for preserved cherries that he also uses as a garnish in his second cocktail Cherry Bomb. This is quite a tiki sounding cocktail mixed on rum with pineapple juice and clear cherry liqueur among other ingredients.





The good people of the eGullet Forums sends four lovely cherry cocktails to the party.

Chris Amirault mixed two cocktails with Cherry Heering. The first Tommy Appleseed is an exciting mix of Old Tom Gin, Apple Brandy and Ardbeg Scotch Whisky. His second offering is Sachaca Sling. No photos and I can't find a link deeper than this.

FrogPrincess calls her cocktail Cherry Pop but it's all booze - gin, Maraschino and muddled cherries. A deceptive looking drink definitely not for kids:


Fernet Branca and cherries in a cocktail? Haresfur thinks so and made a variation on the Fernet Cocktail from the Savoy Cocktail Book that also includes a home made Polish cherry liqueur and sounds wonderfully medicinal. This I have to try:


To round of MxMO LXXIV two cocktails that dares to use the word daiquiri in relation to cocktails not strictly rum, lime and sugar.

JFL of Rated R Cocktails mixes an Oregon Outcast - well blends actually - half a cup fresh cherries goes into this ice cold mix based on 12 year demerara rum



And I took my clue from a banana daiquiri with dried parsley and added a cherry liqueur drenched ice cone for the full disaster look in The Red Volcano.

UPDATE: I forgot Mark from Cardiff Cocktails in the round-up. Really bad manners especially as his contribution is an Aviation with extra cherry oomph. He calls it Carlig Cocktail and he adds both Cherry Heering and cherry bitters to a base of gin and Maraschino Liqueur and ends up with this pretty presentation:



So there you have it 33 34 amazing cherry cocktails to last you until the next MxMo. It I have forgotten anyone or misunderstood your creative ways let me know. Thanks for participating and thanks to Fred for keeping us all busy with MxMo.

Mixology Monday LXXIV Cherries Round-up - part 1

Like a typical neurotic hostess I was concerned that nobody would participate as I sent out the invitation for this months Mixology Monday.

After the broad themes of drink your vegetables and witches garden in April and May I feared my theme of cherries was way too narrow.

I needed not to have wringed a single hand - you contributed an amazing 33 34 drinks in total (I overlooked an entry) and my spread sheet for getting an overview runs a staggering 10 pages.

The 33 drinks utilizes cherries in many, many forms from fresh fruit to a homemade Polish cherry liqueur and everything in between.

So let's get started because: Dang, cherry cocktails are pretty!

Christa and Shaun of Booze Nerds sends two cocktails.

The Southern Virgin is a fizz mixed with muddled fresh cherries, bourbon and St. Germaine. If it tastes half as refreshing as it looks I'll have a couple:
The second cocktail - Peruvian Disco - is a clever use of syrup from brandied cherries either commercial ones like Luxardo Maraschino Cherries or homemade ones. The syrup is balanced out by Pisco and orange and lemon juice.

Stew from 901 Very Good Cocktails uses Kirchwasser and Cherry Bitters in his intriguing sounding The Cherry Heering No. 2 where the surprise to me is the pear liqueur.


Raff from The Shorter Straw really got into the cherry theme and mixed three cocktails while at the same time taking on Jeffrey Morgenthaler and his claim to make the worlds best Amaretto Sour.

But he started off with the pretty in pink, the Sour Cherry Ramos Gin Fizz. It gets the stunning color from the home made sour cherry soda Raff made for the occasion:
His next presentation is the Amaretto Sour with organic sour cherry jam as the magic ingredient. It certainly looks tasty:
After these two rather complicated cocktails his last offering is a cognac based swizzle. His Casta Swizzle involves muddled sour cherries after they have been flambéed by a burning Angostura Spray, rum, absinthe and several juices. Well done!

One of the ingredients I was hoping someone would mix with is Belgian cherry beer.

And that is exactly what Dustin from Dunder and Lees does. His Guatemalan Poker Hand utilizes both cherry beer and Red Stag Cherry Bourbon for a very hearty sounding cocktail. And he give a great introduction to Belgian beer a long the way.

And then we jump from beer - although as Dustin mentions some Belgian beers are brewed for childen - to cherry soda. I have to admit I didn't know the stuff existed, but it sure lookes tasty.

Ian from Tempered Spirits mixes two cocktail with Cheerwine soda which dates all the way back to 1918. Cheerwine cocktail No. 1 is mixed on gin, it's a variation of a gin rickey and looks like a thirst quencher.


Cheerwine Cocktail No. 2 is a cherry soda variation of an Americano and looks every bit as delicious as No. 1.


Fred from Cocktail Virgin Slut serves a liquid fabric pattern best known from corsets! Kirch meets Genever and Absinths in what sounds like a very happy tryst called Cherry Blossom Brocade.

Kirch is also one of the cherry ingredients in the cocktail from Putney Farm. Stewart turned to a 1951 cocktail book for inspiration and found The Baur Au Lac.

It takes it's name from a fancy hotel in Zürich. At Putney Farm the cocktail got a bit of a makeover with muddled cherries and it looks stunning:

Mike from DrinksBurgh takes us into Tiki territory with a drink called Gold Cup. Maraschino Liqueur is the key to that drink and it involves an ice shell for a dazzling presentation:


And now we are going to sea - actually the bottom of the sea. Nick from The Straight Up settled on Remember the Maine after careful consideration of some of the most classic cherry tasting cocktails. A deceptively simple mix of among other things Rye Whiskey and Cherry Heering.

Todd from Concoctails figured he would go all in with the cherry theme. Not only has he mixed two cocktails one of them is the equivalent of three cherries on the slot machine. The gin based The Payout features Cherry Heering, Kirchwasser and Cherry Bitters.

Todd's second cocktail brilliantly mixes pepper and cherry with bourbon in Backhanded Compliment.



Muse of Doom from Feu De Vie also mixed two cocktails. One of which does not look one bit cherry - so to speak. Sweetness and Light is a pretty mix of clear or almost clear ingredients and takes it's taste from both Kirch, orgeat and Solano on a base of Lillet Blanc.
The second cocktail from Feu de Vie had me googling like mad to see if I could find somewhere to purchase ROOT the alchoholic root beer cleverly included in the cocktail So We're Havin' a BBQ, huh? along with cherry liqueur and Jack Daniel's. I love the taste of root beer which is virtually unknown in Denmark. And this cocktail sounds - and looks - great:



And that concludes the first half of the round-up. So get reading, get mixing or just stare at the many lovely drinks while I get started on the second half. Cheers!

June 17, 2013

The Red Vulcano - MxMo LXXIV

I have so looked forward to this months edition of Mixology Monday - as the host I got to choose the theme of cherries and I also managed to secure one of Cocktail Kingdom's Navy Grog Cone Kits.

That gave me so many options.

The inspiration to the Red Volcano I found in a drink by Hardeep Rehal (sorry in Danish only but try Google Translate) who is head bartender at bar 1105 in the center of Copenhagen.

His Musa Daiquiri is basically a banana daiquiri mixed on aged rum and garnished with dried parsley.

It got me thinking and this is what I ended up with:




  • 6 cl white rum - I used Plantation 3 Star
  • 3 cl lemon juice
  • 1,5 cl gomme syrup
  • 3 cl Frederiksdal Cherry Liqueur - similar to Cherry Heering
  • 1/4 very ripe banana
  • 1 teaspoon dried parsley (I dried it in my oven at 75C for about an hour and then pulverized it) 
  • 1 ice cone
Get your cone ready before mixing - just fill it with crushed ice and let it freeze for an hour with the metal straw inserted to make room for a drinking straw.

With a muddler smash the banana in the lemon juice, rum and gomme syrup. Add ice and shake until the banana is completely mixed into the liquid and all is very cold.

Insert straw into cone and place it in a glass,  than strain cocktail over it without soaking the part sticking out.

Next drip the cherry liqueur over the top of the cone to imitate hot lava and sprinkle the dried parsley for an deforestation imitation.

Enjoy!






June 3, 2013

Mixology Monday LXXIV - Cherry


Singapore Gin Sling, Blood and Sand and the Aviation wouldn't be the same without them. They are brilliant in pies, go great with  pork dishes and may even be a super food able to combat insomnia.

But cherries in cocktails are also horribly abused, few things taste worse than artificial cherry aroma and the description of how most maraschino cherries are made can make you sick to your stomach.

So it's my pleasure as the host of Mixology Monday number 74 to challenge you to honor the humble cherry.

However you choose to do that, is entirely up to you. You could use Maraschino Liqueur, Cherry Heering, Kirchwasser, Belgian Kriek Beer, cherry wine or any spectacular infusions invented by you in a cocktail. Or make your own maraschino cherries for a spectacular garnish.

Whatever you choose, here is how to participate:

Post your drink on your blog, or on egullet’s spirit and cocktail’s forum if you don’t have one, with a picture, the recipe list, and any thoughts on the drink or theme.

Add the MxMo logo to your post with a link to the Mixology Monday website, and one to my Ginhound blog.

Finally comment on this post, with a link to your entry, or you can email me at andreadoria56(at)gmail.com or tweet me on twitter @Husejer. Do all this by midnight on the June 17th.