It’s Mixology Monday time again! This month’s theme comes from Andrea over at Ginhound. The theme is Blue. Andrea gave everyone permission to interpret that however they see fit, so we’re taking that flexibility to the limit. Read on to see what cocktails we came up with to match the theme.

We weren’t crazy about going with blueberry as an ingredient for this challenge, and we didn’t want to muck about with blue food coloring. Since the theme was flexible though, we thought that we’d use spirits *made* from blue ingredients. That gave us a lot more room to work.

We started with blue plum brandy, and found that it went well with the spicy/bitter flavor of Bonal. We added some bitters and some citrus oil to liven things up, then sweetened it up a touch.

Rone-ry (Because sometimes we all get a little rone-ry and blue)

• 2 oz blue plum eau du vie (we used the one from Clear Creek which is very nice)
• 1/2 oz Bonal Gentiane Quina (made from blue gentian)
• 1/4 oz simple syrup
• 2 dashes cherry bitters

Stir with ice and an orange twist. Strain into glass. Garnish with another orange twist and cherries.

• Nose: Very distinct blue plum. Orange, cherry, cranberry. Herbal, vegetal notes. A little bit of cinnamon.
• Palate: Blue plum and green herbal notes at the front, followed by a hit of sweet cherry and orange accented with cinnamon. Burnt sugar notes at the end of the mid-palate into the finish. Bitter gentian and more blue plum on the finish.

Next we wanted to do something with our blue cane rhum agricole. Its grassy flavors played well with the vegetal spice of green chili, so we used them together with lime and simple in a sort of spicy daiquiri. Happy with the base profile, we extended the fruit flavor with some grapefruit bitters, then built on the grassy/vegetal flavor with some mezcal, which added some smoke and mineral notes as well.

Blue Alert

• 2 oz Depaz Rhum Agricole (made from blue cane)
• 3/4 oz lime juice
• 1/2 oz simple syrup
• 1-2 dashes Drink Addition green Thai chili tincture
• 1 dash grapefruit bitters
• 1/4 oz mezcal as a float (made from blue agave)

Shake first 5 ingredients with ice. Strain into a glass. Top with a float of mezcal. Enjoy!

• Nose: Green vegetal notes, grass, smoke, sweet alfafa hay, tiny bit of lime peel.
• Palate: Lime, sweet hay on the intro. Mid-palate is tart lime followed by vegetal chili and grassy notes. Heat from the chili, smoke, and mineral notes from the mid-palate into the finish. Finish has a slight swell of sweetness and then is fairly dry, with some bitterness and woody, bark-y notes.

Thanks to Andrea for a challenging theme! Hopefully we didn’t stretch it too far, but we really enjoyed what we were able to come up with today. Looking forward to seeing the other entries. Cheers, everyone!