This month’s Mixology Monday topic is Ginger, hosted over at rumdood.com. His announcement reads as follows:
On June 15, Mixology Monday: Ginger will occur at cocktail blogs around the world! For the MxMo:Ginger, participation is relatively simple.
- Find or concoct a cocktail recipe that uses ginger in one of its many forms as an ingredient. This can be muddled ginger, sliced ginger, ginger syrup, ginger beer (commercial or homemade), ginger liqueur, ginger candy, or pieces of a shredded photo of Ginger from Gilligan’s Island.
- Make this recipe, take a picture of it, and then post the recipe, your thoughts about the recipe, and your photo on your blog or at the eGullet Spirits and Cocktails forum.
- Post a link to your submission in the comments here, or send me an email using the“Contact” form.
Do all of the above by 11:59:59 PM on June 15 and you’re a shoe-in to become part of the round-up.
I’ve been doing some thinking about this one. My first Mixology Monday was done in haste, but this time I’ve got… well, some time. So do you, but that time is quickly ticking away!
I first thought about homemade ginger syrup, a shrubb, or something of the like. However, my day (and sometimes night) job only allows me just so much time (here with go with that damned time factor again!) for experimentation. I finally decided to so something fairly simple, with ingredients that were readily available. Apples and Ginger…..gin…..lemon….hmmm, it started to take shape. Here’s what I came up with:
“a yet unnamed cocktail…”
2 oz London Dry Gin (I used Bombay Sapphire)
1 oz Martini and Rossi Extra Dry Vermouth
3/4 oz Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur
3/4 oz Laird’s Bonded Apple Brandy
1 oz freshly-squeezed lemon juice
3-4 dashes Fee Brother’s West Indian Orange Bitters
Shake all with ice and strain into a pre-chilled (frosty) cocktail glass. Garnish with a long, thin piece of lemon peel.
After fighting off the urge to simply give in to self-doubt, I tasted this interesting-looking drink. It was pretty damn good, if I must say. Not too sweet, balanced with the tartness of the lemon, ginger, and subtle hints of apple coming through. Gin makes a fine base for many classic cocktails, and that’s why I chose it. Vermouth keeps the gin’s sometimes overtly herbal character in check, and allows the other ingredients to shine through. I hope you will try this cocktail and please let me know how it goes for you.
6 comments
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June 23, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Max
I tried this, it was quite good. I think 3-4 dashes of bitters may be a bit too much though, at least for my taste. This makes a very large drink, easily enough for two. I’m experimenting with reducing the volumes to get a more compact 4oz or so cocktail.
June 23, 2009 at 9:41 pm
undertakingthebar
Thanks, Max, for giving this a try. Of course, bitters is one of those things that most of us play around with once or twice. I was hoping to tame the lemon with it. I realize it (the recipe) makes a mammoth-sized cocktail, due to my mammoth-sized cocktail glasses…
. Again, thanks for trying it out.
June 25, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Brian
I don’t think Sapphire is considered a London dry gin. Sapphire is a modern “wet” style of gin. Bombay straight, Plymouth, or Beefeater are better examples of a London dry style.
June 25, 2009 at 7:17 pm
undertakingthebar
Thanks Brian for your feedback. While Sapphire does lean towards that modern “wet” style of gin, it is bottled and sold as London Dry Gin. Plymouth Gin, however, is considered a different style than that of London Dry, which is of course, plymouth gin. It would be interesting to try all of the gins you mentioned–the Bombay, Plymouth, Beefeater, and Sapphire–side by side and try to distinguish the differences. Something tells me that they are subtle, at best.
Again, thanks!
July 15, 2009 at 12:10 am
Tobi
Apple Ginger Snap or Ginger Apple Crisp would be good names!
November 9, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Mixology Monday XL: Ginger!
[...] at UndertakingTheBar enters into his second-ever Mixology Monday and starts us off by submitting “a yet unnamed cocktail…” – a lovely-sounding and all-original gin-based cocktail with the gingery addition of Domaine [...]