MxMo XL: Ginger Cocktails

[Chris Hennes]

Paul Clarke over at Cocktail Chronicles has been organizing a monthly online cocktail event he calls Mixology Mondays:

Mixology Monday is a monthly online cocktail party. Since launching in April 2006, Mixology Monday has attracted scores of participating bloggers and thousands of curious readers, all coming together on a monthly basis to share drink recipes and related information in a friendly online environment.

The process is quite simple: each month, a host, working with the moderator, selects a theme for the upcoming event; past themes have included Rum, Winter Warmers, Fizz, and Aperitifs. The event is announced on various blogs (including this one), and on or before the event date (a Monday — hence the name), participating bloggers join the party by posting a drink recipe or other post related to the theme. Each participant notifies the host that they’ve joined in, and soon after the event, the host posts a roundup, listing each participant. For information on participating or hosting, check out the page titled, obviously, “How to Participate.”

This month's event is being hosted by RumDood.com and the theme is Ginger. From the site:

Here’s how to play:

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.

(Hey, that's us! Thanks for the shout-out!)

If you would like to participate, please write up any cocktail made with ginger in this topic before Monday, June 15 at midnight. I will compile a list of cocktails posted and mail them to the organizer.

[Chris Amirault]

Most excellent. Due to my partner's predilection for ginger in cocktails, I have a good array of go-to drinks, a lot of which use an orange/Angostura double bittering to interact with the potent ginger. (If you make your own, I find that Robert Hess's house bitters work well subbed in for the Angostura here.) Here's Toby Maloney's (Alchemist's) Ginger Square, which I've tweaked a bit:

Ginger Square

2 oz cognac

1/2 oz Licor 43

1/2 oz blackstrap rum

3/4 oz lemon

1/2 oz (scant) ginger syrup

2 dashes Regan's orange bitters (doesn't quite work with Fee's)

2 dashes Angostura bitters

Shake, strain.

I've jiggered the Gingered Gentleman from the barkeep at the Red Fez here in Providence, a great tall drink with stuff we usually have on hand:

Gingered Gentleman

2 oz bourbon

3/4 oz ginger syrup

3/4 oz lime

dash orange bitters

dash Angostura bitters

Muddle lightly a few mint sprigs in the above liquid; shake and fine strain over rocks in a collins glass; top with ginger beer (usually Reed's extra at our house); garnish with mint.

Finally, a simple sour based on fiddling around with Beachbum Berry recipes:

Pimento Sour

2 oz light rum (Flor de Cana)

1/4 oz demerara 151 rum (Lemon Hart, which you can omit and float later if you want)

1/2 oz pimento dram

3/4 oz lime

1 tsp ginger syrup

dash orange bitters

dash Angostura bitters

Shake, strain.

[KatieLoeb]

I made up a drink I called a Cantonese Crusta that was a hit back at my former place of employ:

2 oz. Bourbon (I like a light wheated bourbon like Maker's or Basil Hayden for this application)

.5 oz. fresh lemon juice

.5 oz. Canton ginger liqueur

.5 oz. Luxardo Maraschino

.5oz. homemade ginger beer

Dash Orange bitters

Shake and strain into a chilled ocktail glass. Garnish with a flamed orange peel.

[Chris Amirault]

Interesting: lemon, not lime, with the ginger, like the Ginger Square above. Gotta try me that one.

[Mayhaw Man]

Gilligan's Love

2 oz. Amber Rum (I used 3 year NOLA Rum)

1/4 oz. Luxardo Marischino

2 oz Champagne

1 1/8th inch thick slice of fresh ginger

2 dashes Regan's Orange bitters

Muddle ginger, along with the Regan's and the Luxardo in a cocktail shaker glass

Add rum and shake dry

Add ice and shake some mo'.

Strain into a martini glass, top with champagne and decorate with Luxardo cherry (or a cheesy American Marischino if you don't have the good stuff).

Enjoy.

[Mattmvb]

One I made for a Buffalo Trace competition - the idea was to make seasonal variations (loosely!) based upon the mint julep, this was for the spring round.

Spring Forward

1 ½ Fresh apricots (stoned) - ETA as in one and a half

8 x Mint leaves

Grated fresh Ginger

50ml Buffalo Trace

12.5ml Apricot Brandy

Muddle apricot and mint, add other ingredients, shake and fine strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with an apricot slice - cut the slice from the center around the stone so you are left with a ring of fruit. Cut a slit in it and slide onto the rim of the glass. Use the left over fruit as the 1/2 apricot in the cocktail.

Edited June 10, 2009 by Mattmvb (log)

[Chris Hennes]

How much ginger do you use in that?

[Chris Amirault]

On the drive home, I started thinking about associations I have with ginger, which drew me to an apple, cranberry, and ginger compote I often make at Thanksgiving. No real cranberry flavors available at home, but I thought pomegranate might work. That lead to applejack, and that lead to this riff on a Jack Rose (with apologies to the fine people at the Alize corporation, who seem to have a libation with the same name).

Ginger Rose Cocktail

2 1/2 oz applejack (Laird's BIB)

1/2 oz lemon

2 t ginger syrup

2 t grenadine

dash Angostura

Shake, fine strain, garnish with lemon and candied ginger.

[bostonapothecary]

.75 oz. kirschwasser

.75 oz. st. james ambre

.75 oz. allen's ginger brandy

.75 oz. lime juice

scant spoonful of sugar because the ginger brandy is slightly sweet

dash angostura

this was my attempt at a ginger drink but the kirschwasser and st. james really lacked affinity for the ginger brandy. i liked the brandy and don't want to use another medium like simple syrup. over all drinkable but nothing to suggest to a friend.

maybe i need rye whiskey or tanqueray.

[KD1191]

From a conversation with Colin Field at the Hemingway Bar, I discovered one of my favorite winter warmers, the classic Hot Whisky Mac:

2 oz Famous Grouse

3 oz Stone's Ginger Wine

Combine in a mug, add near-boiling water to taste.

He's transformed this into a drink on the menu there called the Mach 2, which is whisky, house-made ginger spirit and green chartreuse (unfortunately, I've had little success devising the specifics/proportions of this).

[jsmeeker]

Ginger Rose Cocktail

2 1/2 oz applejack (Laird's BIB)

1/2 oz lemon

2 t ginger syrup

2 t grenadine

dash Angostura

Shake, fine strain, garnish with lemon and candied ginger.

←

I came up with almsot the same idea myself a few months ago. But I was pretty certain I didn't invent anything. But I dind't add bitters.

[Chris Amirault]

No patent claim here, either -- hence the "riff." But I think that this is more tasty than Alize and vodka, hence the name.

[Mattmvb]

How much ginger do you use in that?

←

Ahh yes, that would help!

I never really measured it properly, I was going with experience on that ingredient instead. I reckon I'd have grated through maybe around 1/4" of an average diameter piece of ginger, maybe a bit less. Sorry that doesn't help that much!

Cheers,

Matt

[bostonapothecary]

1 oz. rum JM aguardente velha de santo antao

1 oz. allen's ginger brandy

1 oz. lemon juice

scant spoonful of sugar (there is sugar in the ginger brandy)

dash regan's

dash angostura

the fino character of the rum is an excellant foil for the spicy ginger brandy.

i think this is the oldest of JM's rums and it is good at $27 but the lesser cru bottling is epic at $20. the ginger brandy is some pretty cool stuff. dirt cheap and amusing.

lately i'm prefering these strange rums from cape verde to the piscos and cachacas they are comparable to. a much better deal than armazem viera.

[Lisa Shock]

Pirate's Gingerbread

1/4 tsp blackstrap molasses

1 teaspoon Ginger Preserves

2 dashes Angostura Bitters

2 oz Captain Morgan Spiced Rum

6 oz Thomas Kemper Ginger Ale (or other good ginger ale made w/sugar)

Ice

Muddle the Molasses, Ginger Preserves and Bitters, taking care to get the ginger into very fine bits. Add the Rum and stir very well. Add the Ginger Ale and stir lightly. Add the Ice and serve.

Optional garnish: Gingersnap cookie or small gingerbread man with a hole carefully carved out of the center -on a sword pick.

Note: Other spiced rums may be substituted, but Captain Morgan most closely replicates the spice mix in a gingerbread cookie.

[Chris Amirault]

Terrific write-up here by the rumdood, with a slew of recipes and links.