June 19, 2013

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!

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