Mixology Monday (Barely)

It's about a quarter till Tuesday right now, actually, but hey...

Gin... I actually bought a bottle specifically for this. I mean, I've always wanted to try it, but (as I am the world's best procrastinator, when I get around to it), I had to wait until I had a "deadline" to actually get some. Sick, isn't it?

I wanted to try a Pegu, but I spent so much money on booze this last week (8 six-packs of Bridgeport IPA, two bottles of vermouth, a bottle of Bombay gin and a bottle of Maker's), I couldn't bring myself to buy Cointreau too (sorry, Doug). Maybe next week. :)

What I did try, I was happy with... which brings us to the drinking part. My favorite.

London Dry Gin (Neat):
A little bit of Bombay (Original)
Glass

Interesting. Not bourbon... but what is, really? I grew up in Juniper country, so the aromas were... nostalgic, I guess. Very interesting.

Dry Martini:
1.5 oz. Gin
.5 oz. Dry Vermouth (M&R, until I go to the city, or get off my lazy you-know-what and buy something nicer online)
Lemon peel garnish

Not exactly my new favorite drink. I love (LOVE) sweet Vermouth, and I don't mind Gin, so it must be the dry vermouth that throws me off this one. I made it pretty wet; maybe I'll try some different ratios, but I can't see this as a regular. Just like in my Manhattans, though, I love the aroma from the lemon peel. No orange bitters yet... see the note about laziness; I could see how they could round out the drink, though.

Sweet Martini:
1.5 oz. Gin
.5 oz. Sweet Vermouth (M&R... see above)
Dash Angostura bitters (no orange bitters yet... see above)
Lemon peel garnish

Much better. I still prefer the Manhattan, but this is going into the rotation. There's something about red vermouth... Maybe it's complexity, maybe I've just got a sweet tooth, I dunno. But it's good stuff. The Angostura, as in any drink, adds a nice je ne sais quois... It may've helped the dry martini, but I didn't want to fsck up my nice clear drink.

Gin and Tonic:
Highball full of ice
1.5 oz. Gin
Top with Tonic water (Schweppes here)
Lime (or Lemon) wedge

Now we're talkin'! See last week's post for more of my feelings for the Gin and Tonic. Love it, love it, love it. Here in the summer (roughly 4/5ths of the year) it'll be a BIG regular. I think God made bourbon and beer on the first day... on the second, He made Gin and Tonic (they really, naturally, go together... every other Gin drink is simply a bastardized G&T). Good stuff.

I leave you tonight (this morning, now) with, again, a quote from The Man:

It is a curious fact, and one to which no one knows quite how much importance to attach, that something like 85% of all known worlds in the Galaxy, be they primitive or highly advanced, have invented a drink called jynnan tonnyx, or gee-N'N-T'N-ix, or jinond-o-nicks, or any one of a thousand or more variations on the same phonetic theme. The drinks themselves are not the same, and vary between the Sivolvian 'chinanto/mnigs' which is ordinary water served at slightly above room temperature, and the Gagrakackan 'tzjin-anthony-ks' which kill cows at a hundred paces; and in fact the one common factor between all of them, beyond the fact that the names sound the same, is that they were all invented and named before the worlds concerned made contact with any other worlds.
--Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

G'night.

Edit: I can't believe I was too tired last night (this morning) to remember to give a *ahem* "shout out" to the host of today's (yesterday's) MxMo... so, thank you, Jay at Oh, Gosh! (best url EVAR!).

Drink of the week, and MxMo...

Well, week two of the blogging thing commences. So far, I've been blogrolled (it tickles) thrice... hopefully, the peer pressure will keep the bloggin' on track.

I've been doing the cocktail thing lately (it's like chemistry sets... with booze!), so I was thinking of starting this week off with a drink (see previous references to food and drink). In my recent delvings into the world of cocktail geekery, I've stumbled upon many great cocktail blogs (Yes, blogs devoted to cocktails... it's a sick world we live in.), a few of which are listed to the right.

Sidenote: Y'know, I think I'm wired somehow to identify with subcultures... I mean, there's the whole libertarian thing, and the anarchy thing (which is a subculture within the libertarian subculture, sort of), and the CPC. And now I'm a cocktail geek. There must be something in my brain that really hates being normal.

Anyway, today happens to be a Mixology Monday, so I asked myself why, since I am now blogging, I shouldn't participate in it. And I couldn't really give myself a decent answer to dissuade me, so...

Today's MxMo, hosted by Gabriel at cocktailnerd.com, is themed Fizz!! (Two exclamation points because... fizz is exciting, I guess? I had fun, anyway.)

So, the drink of the week, and my MxMo entry is (gimme a drumroll, Kirsten)... the Mojito! Rather boring, compared to some of the other entries, but I'm no mixologist, and it's a new drink for me, so I don't care if it's boring. It's definitely a top summer drink for me now, and since I'm a desert rat, that means I'll be drinking Mojitos about 9 months out of the year. :)

It is a simple drink really, but it's a charming simplicity, rather than the vulgar simplicity of a Vodka Redbull, or whatever the kids are drinking these days. When you need to pound a nail, you grab a hammer; when it's a hundred degrees in the shade you grab a Mojito. Y'know, that kind of simplicity.

Anyway, before I start waxing too poetic about booze, I'll just post the recipe and send it up. I really do ramble, don't I?

The Mojito:
10-12 fresh mint leaves
1 tbsp sugar (I use a 1:1 simple syrup made with raw demerara sugar, plus a pinch of crystals for abrasion)
3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
1 1/2 oz. white rum (Cuban is best, but try finding that in the States... free market; what's that?)
Ice
Club soda
Sprig of mint and slice of lime for garnishment

Muddle mint leaves and sugar in a heavy-bottomed pint glass. Fill to half with ice, then add lime juice and rum; stir well. Top with ice and soda, then give it another stir or two. Rub the peel of the lime slice around the rim of the glass, then drop the lime in. Lightly pop a sprig of mint between your hands (to bring out the aroma), then place it in the drink.

Blissfully ignore the current popularity or non-popularity of the Mojito, and drink up.