Booze Nerds

Time to round up all the creative submissions we got for our Resin theme! The goal was to include one or more resinous ingredients in some aspect of a cocktail – flavor, aroma, garnish, whatever else you might think of. We were very impressed with the ingenuity we saw in interpreting the theme and incorporating this interesting family of flavors into delicious cocktails. Thanks to everyone for participating, and thanks again to Fred Yarm at Cocktail Virgin Slut for keeping the MxMo party going.

Without further ado, here’s the roundup:

Bartending Notes gives us the Somerset, a refreshing-looking play on the gin and lemon-forward Fitzgerald, subbing in rosemary syrup for the plain simple called for in the original.

Aaron over at The Gin is In toiled over several iterations before producing Resin the Bar. Points for the pun! :). Gin (well, “ginavit” anyway, of which we totally want some!) and Doug Fir brandy provide the resin, Cocchi Americano and lime provide the balance. Thanks for all the info on what worked and what didn’t, as nerds we love to hear about that sort of thing.

We get the old-school Private Shandy from our MxMo headmaster Fred Yarm at Cocktail Virgin Slut. Nice to see some West coast-style IPA putting in an appearance in this challenge. Love the addition of cinnamon syrup for a little bit of warming spice.

We are both very fond of Sazeracs, so we were delighted to see a play on one, Knock on Wood from Raffaele at The Shorter Straw. The combination of cognac and pine-nut orgeat rounded out with bitters sounds delicious. Bonus points for using citric acid to adjust the acidity without altering the flavor.

Next, we get a bourbon sour in the mix with The Resinator from Chris at A Bar Above. Maple-rosemary syrup provides the sweetener for this drink, who doesn’t love maple with bourbon? Plus there’s some cardamom tincture to add interest, both in the drink and sprayed on for additional aroma at the end.

Sass & Gin gives us the lovely, spirit-forward Rekindled. Cedar-aged gin, rosemary tincture, and a hint of Fernet. Can’t get much more resin-y than that. Definitely sounds like a chilly night kind of drink. We are now adding cedar paper to our list of stuff to pick up for the bar…

Ginhound gets points for using a resin-y ingredient we weren’t even aware of, Aalborg Nordguld. The Amber marries this amber-infused aquavit with refreshing clementine juice and spicy rosemary and black pepper flavors.

Silver and Green is the beautifully opalescent offering from Stewart at Putney Farm. A play on a Silver Bullet, it uses rosemary to enhance the resin notes in gin and Kummel. Sounds spicy and delicious, and might appeal to those of you who are also fond of aquavit.

A Reasonable Guide to Horrible Poisons jumps in with their inaugural submission to MxMo, The Cup Which Jesus Refused. Great work! Nothing but resin-y ingredients – gin, gum mastic-flavored liqueur, and a little trip into the vaults of history for some myrrh-infused wine. Sounds like just the thing for a bracing pre-dinner drink.

Our guide to all things tiki, Rated R Cocktails gives us Pining for Paradise, a beautifully layered beer-based tiki drink. Hoppy IPA along with dry rum and gin gets exoticized by pineapple, lime, and orgeat. Something tells us these go down easy…

Grow. Eat. Mix. Drink weighs in with An evergreen, bittersweet. We get maple, rosemary, rye, lemon, a fairly traditional flavor profile so far, but then we also get mezcal (near and dear to Christa’s heart!), IPA, and chocolate bitters, which are less expected. Sounds kind of like a south by southwest shandy. We can totally see the chocolate bitters and the beer’s citrusy hops pulling the mezcal together with the other ingredients.

Mark at Cardiff Cocktails put some time in to make both frankincense syrup and hopped wine for  The Three Magi. The syrup and wine are combined with gin, citrus, and lavender bitters to create what must be a gorgeously aromatic cocktail. Definitely on the “to try” list when we get some time to assemble the requisite ingredients.

From Christelle over at Dirty Martini Talk (another MxMo neophyte – welcome, welcome. Thanks for joining us) we get the Rosie Loves Toddy. Sounds lovely and perfect for a cold New England night. Or cold anywhere for that matter. What’s not to love about alcoholic rosemary lemonade. Also an excellent nod to those of us who grew up with bad 80’s TV.

From Rowen over at Fogged in Lounge we get Mister Moose. A refreshing sounding cooler that looks perfect for a cool west coast evening. Now we need to pick up a bottle of Zirbenz because we don’t have enough things to mix with. 🙂 We also love the very specific directive to not over dilute the ingredients when shaking. These are exactly the kinds of details that we nerds love obsessing about.

Kristen over at Kristen Rose (another first timer, yay!) gives us The Spruce Goose. A really interesting sounding cocktail that brings together beer, gin, and maraschino. Normally Shaun isn’t a fan of beer in general (though Christa is!), but he thinks Kristen does an excellent job of selling it. Definitely worth trying with notes of mulled wine and cherry. Sounds great!

From Stacy at Stacy Markow (another eponymous blog and another first timer, we’re sensing a positive trend :)) we get The Bees Trees. Another inspired beer cocktail that riffs on a classic. Rosemary and honey, what’s not to love, and we imagine the IPA adds great character to this classic.

Raul over at Death To Sour Mix brings us a complex and fascinating concoction, Branches In A River. This sounds amazing. Definitely makes us want to pick up a bottle of Zirbenz (as if Rowen’s submission wasn’t enough), as well as make fig bitters and German (we love it!) beet syrup. And damn those are some nice pictures. Oh, and flattery will get you everywhere. Well, that and free booze. 😀

Elana at Stir and Strain gives us the A Winter Pear Cocktail. Another complex and  delicious-sounding cocktail. We love the challenge of mixing with the Doug Fir eau de vie, and this combination with pear and cardamom sounds like a great use of it. Bonus points for that garnish and the picture, they both look amazing.

FrogPrincesse (is that their real name?) over at Tartines to Tikis bring us the psychedelic sounding Acrylic afternoons, which is really an exploration of using gum syrup in various cocktails. For those that don’t know, one of the key ingredients in gum syrup is gum arabic, which is the sap or resin of the acacia tree (we certainly didn’t know this) . Thanks FrogPrincesse for persevering and educating all of us.

Scott at Shake, Strain & Sip presents us with a Pacific Northwest re-imagining of the Cosmopolitan, the Metropolis. Sounds quite lovely, refreshing and will probably go down way too easily. 🙂 We look forward to trying one out.

The Muse of Doom over at Feu de Vie gives us a twofer, The Shrew Stone and Grey Skies, Grey Seas. The Shrew Stone sounds deliciously complex, using frankincense along with the fruit of the vine in the form of both white wine and grappa. Then she knocks us out with the one, two punch of Skinos Mastiha matched with scotch. The Grey Skies, Grey Seas sounds elegant, focusing on smoky, bitter flavors to complement the resin.

Head researcher Rafa and the tireless (and tardy ;)) technicians over at DrunkLab (we may be in love with the name) give us two cocktails for the price of one, Into the Woods and Blackthorn Bramble. Into the Woods is a spirit-forward cocktail using Doug Fir brandy supported by bitter, herbal flavors. We’re curious to try it since it uses Campari, and we really like the Doug Fir brandy with the somewhat similar Aperol. The Blackthorn Bramble takes a different path, and balances gin’s juniper notes with sweet-tart fruit (lemon, blackberry, sloe plum) and honey. Both sound delicious, great attention to detail in these.

Last but not least, your humble hosts give you The Achaean & Raven’s Wing. The Achaean uses the under appreciated (in our opinions at least) wine retsina along with gin and grapefruit liqueur to make a lovely “with dinner” drink (why aren’t cocktails paired more with food?). Whereas the Raven’s Wing combines cedar, gin and Fernet for a drier and more complex cocktail that would make a good digestif.

Lots of great entries this month. We hope we didn’t make things too hard on you all, but sometimes it’s good to push yourself outside of your comfort zone. 🙂 Looking forward to seeing everyone’s offerings for next month’s MxMo!

N.B. If we’ve missed anyones entries, our most profuse apologies. Please lets us know and we will add you to the roundup posthaste.