Once every month the great cocktail enthusiasts of the world band together around a common, randomly selected theme to give you Mixology Monday. Every month a different sucker – err – host chooses a theme and collects everyone’s submissions. This month, I am that sucker.
For the month of June we find ourselves smack dab in the middle of Mixology Monday XL! That’s right – for another TEN MxMo’s this will be the grandest, largest, fattest Mixology Monday EVER! For such an XL-ent event we needed a theme that would really allow all of the participants to really XL.
Ginger is one of my all-time favorite spices. About the only thing I love more than ginger is garlic, and I honestly didn’t believe I would be widely embraced by the cocktail crowd for choosing garlic as a theme with less than one month to go before Tales of the Cocktail takes place in New Orleans. So the call was sent out: Get thee some ginger and mix, mix, mix! Here are the FORTY SEVEN people who answered the siren call.
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Jeff 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 de Canton ginger liqueur. |
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At Urbane-Not-Cosmopolitan, Chris makes his first foray into the wild world of MxMo with a tiki concoction featuring so many of my favorite ingredients that I confess to almost leaving work when I read his post so that I could head home and make a few dozen – you know, for research purposes. Homemade ginger beer, pimento dram, falernum, rum, and more all mix together in the delicious-looking Koro Koola. |
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Another new participant, one Wordsmithing Pantagruel, comes running into the game with not one, but TWO drinks for your enjoyment. Drawing inspiration from his own pool of friends, Pantagruel brings us the Ginger Balls and Chinesey cocktails. Welcome to the party Pantagruel, new guy pays the tab. |
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Art of Drink‘s Darcy leads a double-life. By day he is a super-scientist working hard on the sorts of subjects that I failed abysmally in college. By night he is a super-mixologist working hard on creating drinks that I abysmally fail to make today. Somewhere between those two he’s a super-blogger too. So I guess that’s a triple-life of superheroism. He dances close to the line this month by suggesting that Rye an Ginger might be better than rum and ginger, but we’ll grant him some leniency in light of his other great works….this time. |
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The Raven checks in with us next and submits a spicy, super gingery drink with a…salmony garnish? Maybe I could have gone garlic on everyone afterall. The Raven’s Loft; Spicy cocktail looks spicy, tasty, and like a pretty neat entree. |
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We return to our long list of first-timers for this month’s MxMo (out of the bloody woodwork this month!) as one Mr. TheBastard joins the fray. John submits a drink deriving its ginger kick and a dose of sweetness from a dose of Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur (I had a feeling we’d see a drink or two with that): The Brandy Crustacean. |
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Maybe I should have grouped all of our MxMo rookies together for some hazing. DJ Hawaiian Shirt engages in his first MxMo with the Summit Cocktail, a heady mix of cognac, ginger, lime, and lemonade. Sounds delicious, if – as DJ supposes – a tad difficult for a beginner. I dunno, sounds like good fun to me. |
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Elba and Angel, two very incredibly talented photographers and mixologists, decided to remind me that I am no photographer and post their first Mixology Monday entry. “We thought it would be a great idea to create photoshoot and want to share with you our signature cocktail recipe, Ginger Frost.” Thanks for sharing, and making me feel incredibly inadequate while doing so. |
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Tranberg from the Drinksmeister family of sites comes to us with another first-time (but promised not to be the last-time) MxMo entry. The “Ginger Smash is a powerful drink, with ginger in almost every ingredient.” Tranberg isn’t kidding: ginger syrup, ginger vodka, ginger something else, and just fresh ginger flavor this spicy take on the Smash. |
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Tiare, from A Mountain of Crushed Ice, is no stranger to Mixology Monday, great cocktails, or great photos. She also happens to be a big fan of rum, and hence I’m a big fan of her. Her Zingiber Cocktail is a delightful mixture of rum, more rum, ginger bitters, and ginger beer. |
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If there’s one thing I like to do, it’s enabling empowering people to go out and buy more delicious cocktail ingredients. Frederic from CocktailVirginSlut heard the knock of opportunity at his door and set out to try some ginger wine in two cocktails: The Commonweal and the Gamble. See? I’m inspiring people to try new things. RumDood.com: Inspiring People To Buy More Liquor Since 2007! |
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Frederic’s partner-in-crime, Andrea, also chimed in this month, drawing inspiration from favorite desserts and providing us with the Naughty Nanny. Gin, lime, ginger syrup, yellow chartreuse…this is a cocktail that will spank you, if you’re lucky. |
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Marshall and SeanMike run Scofflaw’s Den – a place the recently gave birth to a cocktail named in my honor. Both guys are class-acts and true gentlemen. OK, maybe I’m stretching the truth there. Marshall submits two drinks, The Cure – a curious mix of Domaine de Canton and Miller Freaking Light, and the Ginger-Rhubarb Fizz. SeanMike, on the other hand, decided to continue his torment of the blogosphere and has rendered unto us the SLOSHED, in honor of Marleigh and Dan over at SLOSHED! |
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Speaking of Marleigh and Dan and drinks inspired by the idea of taunting your humble host, SLOSHED! brings us a delightful looking tiki drink, apparently rendered from the bottles I’ve left at their abode as I attempt to build RumDood Outpost #1. The El Centro Cooler (named after my hometown) combines lots of my favorite spirit and lots of gingery ingredients – including my very own falernum! Who says you can never go home? |
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KaiserPenguin, as written by Rick, is almost infamous for his many complex recipes requiring so many different special syrups. Oddly enough, this month he tells us NOT to make ginger syrup – followed quickly by a recipe for ginger syrup and a recipe for a Firebiter cocktail which then uses said syrup. If you find yourself not certain whether you should or shouldn’t make the syrup, the answer is yes, make it, and then send it to me. |
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Let’s get back to hazing the rookies. Jessamyn brings FoodOnTheBrain to the MxMo family with the Lillet Sin, a delightful-sounding cocktail with ginger, lime, mint, and Lillet Blanc. As the French like to say, “Mmmm, c’est TASTY!“ |
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Jon, up in Edinburgh, goes in a direction none have yet dared in this round-up. Ginger jam? Awesome! Mixed with Campari, Courvoisier, and egg white? With his gift of the La Roux, I may have a new hero. Sorry, Camper. |
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Apparently there was a sale on the name “Jon” and it came with a free cocktail blog. “Evil Jon” from DrinkPlanner participates in his first Mixology Monday with the Ginger-Grass Shimmy – which I challenge anyone to say after drinking 3 or 4 of them. |
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Forrest is one of my favorite people in the world, and that’s not just because he works at my favorite liquor store and organizes cool stuff like rum tastings. A Drink With Forrest has never joined in on all the MxMo fun before, but starts off participation with a bang – a whopping FOUR DRINKS. I’m not sure where to start, but I recommend you start with the first and end with the last, or any other order you like – just drink’em all. |
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Der Cocktailwelt ist ein Auslese-Blog für Mixology. In plain English, Christian from CocktailWelt runs an awesome cocktail blog that’s worth reading even if your German is a little rusty. He takes one of my favorite rum drinks, the Mojito, and infuses it with fresh ginger to bring you the Ginger Mojito. Excuse me whilst I fetch my muddler. |
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Ginger, rum, sugar, lime, and mint just all seem so natural together. No wonder The 3Shiek blog (a rather clever pun derived from tres chic) also brought us a Ginger Mo’! |
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DrinkMix.de joins the German contingent this month, providing a nice write-up of the Ginger’nLime cocktail in both German and English. Originally submitted for a cocktail competition run by mixology.eu, the drink combines gin, lime, ginger, and berry soda for a light, refreshing beverage. |
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The Cocktailians join the increasing list of blogs that opted for the Domain de Canton liqueur for their ginger flavoring agent. While others have taken the mojito for a spin, they take the margarita out and dress it up for the ball as the Gingerita. Que bueno! |
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Matt Rowley of Rowley’s Whiskey Forge shares my awesome first name AND last initial. This makes me wonder why I didn’t bump him to the front of the line. Anyway, Rowley actually forgoes brown spirits and opts for vodka mixed with a host of ingredients (including my beloved falernum) in a Bai Nai Punch. If you don’t have any of the syrups, don’t despair – he provides the recipes! |
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Yet another member of our ever-growing crew of Southern California cocktail bloggers, Chris from Blueprint Cocktail and The Varnish cocktail bar in Downtown Los Angeles brings us a new cocktail with a new spirit. Seems the folks at Bacardi are bringing Oxley cold-distilled gin to our shelves and cabinets, and Chris started a-mixin’ the Rhapsody In Blue: a combination of gin, ginger syrup, lemon juice, and blueberries, this is a delicious-looking drink. |
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I’ve gone too many items without a tiki drink, and then Trader Tiki comes to my rescue. Blair walks you through brewing your own ginger beer, a la Jeffrey Morgenthaler, and then uses his magical potion to make an even better potion: the Dead Bastard. |
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There was a time before bloggers ruled the e-roost of the Internet – a wild and unpredictable epoch when forums and CGI scripts ran unfettered through our many interconnected tubes. A crazy time when one had to share their opinion and risk other people questioning their infallibility. One of the many survivors of those early days, the e-Gullet Spirits & Cocktails forums, continues to produce some amazing discussion (while this site allows me to more or less bellow into the wind with little or no consequence). I counted no fewer than ELEVEN drink recipes (including four from Chris Amirault alone!), all looking ridiculously good, and I’m not just saying that because so many of them use rum! |
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Journeying back across the Atlantic, this time to Foggy Londontown, Jay of Oh Gosh! (have you noticed the bevy of cocktail blogs with exclamation points in their names?) brings us the Mr. Antoni. This riff on the Penicillin uses a Genever in the place of whisk(e)y as the base, and makes me hate Jay just a little bit for his access to a wider variety of Genevers than I have. |
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In a shocking turn of events, Doug over at the Pegu Blog has finally managed to get a MxMo entry in prior to the deadline. I, for one, almost fainted. Doug started down the path of a review of Bols Genever and ended up at Cocktailville, population Antoine Collins. |
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OK, enough vets for the time-being, let’s get back to bullying rookies. Fiona over at Gourmet Pigs finally succumbed to the peer pressure of emails, tweets, and instant messages and posted her first of what we can all hope will be many Mixology Monday posts. She indulges us with a twist on the famous Spanish concoction: Ginger Sangria. |
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First-timers abound this month, and Hank of Hank’s Food & Drink Miscellany decided to join the party for MxMo:Ginger. Hank takes a different approach to one of my favorite rum drinks and whips up the Dark’n’Stormy Daiquiri by mixing Gosling’s Black Seal and everyone’s favorite liqueur this month: Domain de Canton. |
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Brand new blogger David graces us with his VERY FIRST POST EVER! Now THAT is how you start a blog people, by participating in the Extra Large event that is Mixology Monday XL: Ginger, hosted by the one and only, award-winning RumDood.com! Where was I? Oh, right. David brings us the Lowlander, a mix of Scotch, lemon, simple, and ginger. |
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Stevi runs Two At The Most, and brings us yet another cocktail with the noblest of all spirits, rum. She combines Zaya Gran Reserva with the liqueur du jour and bitters to fashion a Gingered Rum Old Fashioned. |
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Michael at A Dash of Bitters is a regular participant in Mixology Mondays, and a man that takes his Old Fashioneds very seriously. Apparently Michael was somewhat troubled by the selection of ginger as the theme for the month – a problem I’m often faced with for Mixology Mondays. What to do?! Well Michael got ginger, sugar, mint, strawberries, vinegar and half a bajillion other ingredients into a Strawberry-Ginger Sekanjabin. Say that three times fast! |
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Felicia and her Speakeasy is also no stranger to MxMo, and shows up for this one in fine style, and with another drink that some would claim was named after me. Her Lazy Lover submission combines cachaca, ginger-honey syrup, and orange to create a great, refreshing drink. |
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Jacob Grier is a D.C. refugee living life on the run in Portland, Oregon, where he makes up cocktails, lattes, and political observations. His entry this month is the Shift Drink, made with rye whiskey, the oft-mentioned ginger liqueur, lemon juice, and Fernet-Branca. Mmmm…shifty. |
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Sonja often finds herself Thinking of Drinking, which is probably why we get along so well. She takes some of her very own aquavit (I want MY own distillery!) and submits two drinks containing it and a ginger contingent of some sort. Will Domain de Canton appear in one of them? You’ll have to read her post to find out! |
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Tiki Mama has been busy as-of-late raising Tiki Child, but was kind enough to drop in on this auspicious hosting of MxMo by the one and only me. She even becomes only the second person to submit a drink using ginger jam, this time mixed with genever: The Pinko Cocktail. |
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Drink of the Week‘s Jonas sends me a link to a concoction of Domain de Canton, strawberries, and vodka. The Strawberry Ginger Martini looks like a sweet, delicious get-away for a warm summer evening. |
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Apparently there’s a little-known bar in New York City (where-ever that is) called the Pegu Club, and this club may or may not make a cocktail called the Gin Gin Mule. Kenn from Cocktailia.com brings us his adaptation: the Gin-Gin-Gin Mule. When in doubt, add another gin I always say. Gin, ginger syrup, lime, mint, and ginger beer? Sounds like a winner to me! |
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Reese felt like he had already done all there was to do with ginger in cocktails. What possible challenge could my feeble MxMo post for CocktailHacker? Well he puts together a ginger five-spice syrup and then uses it in a delicious-looking Ginger Five Spice Daiquiri. Man, so many rum drinks, it’s like people know my weakness or something. |
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Oh I do so love cross-overs. Marvel vs. D.C., Star Trek vs. Metallica, the Los Angeles Clippers vs. a professional basketball team – they’re great! Jac’s Rosarita Beach Cafe brings us a drink concocted during the Mixoloseum’s Thursday Drink Night for Bols Genever: Dutch Caribbean Fizz. |
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Alpha Cook‘s Nat sends in a drink that’s eerily close to my submission, and I like it. Great minds think alike, and apparently I think like them too sometimes. Nat does get a tad fancier what with her special ginger, lemon, verbena syrup used in her Lobo-Marinho. |
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Despite my great efforts to avoid endless jokes about this being MxMo XL (and jeez, there are enough entries to merit the name), Paul – the progenitor of our great cocktail party – was unable to avoid puns about rum, ginger, and meteorological phenomena. That’s why I love Paul, who blesses this party with the Stormy Weather, a great riff on the Dark’n’Stormy that uses Domain de Canton (what else?). |
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Fellow Southern Californian Chuck Taggart checks in tonight rather close to the deadline, but with enough time to spare such that I shan’t mock him when I see him next. It would be doubly-hard to mock Chuck when you realize his submission is an original Chuck Taggart creation that was recently created for the Los Angeles Downtown Sub-District Cocktail Contest (or LADTSDCC for not-so-short): The Toy District Cocktail. |
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My only late entry for the month was Michael from My Aching Head – a wonderful little piece of Internet real estate that often profiles important bloggers and people in the rum “biz.” Much like myself, Michael has been somewhat taken by the El Presidente cocktail and used it as inspiration for his very own Gingerino, which is made with rum, dry vermouth, and fresh ginger. |
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A late-comer to the party, Dominik at the Opinionated Alchemist got to me a little tardy, but with a really interesting drink. I’ve not had strawberry sake – Fujichiro Ichigo – before, but now I want to try it, and preferably in a Ginger Fujichiro. |
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DrinkSnob also encountered a few temporal difficulties, but did manage to make a fascinating drink, The Bracken. Scotch, ginger, and maple syrup…all part of this complete breakfast! |
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And last, but certainly likely to be least, the man that put the “XL” in the waistband of Mixology Monday, your faithful author, submits his own Ginger Caipirinha – which is really just a caipirinha with ginger added, but it’s SO darn delicious! Plus, it gave me an excuse to use a muddler the size of a 1967 Cadillac El Dorado. |
Whew. That was an exhausting list. It was massive, huge, and other such words that could be rightly applied to any event lucky enough to be the XLth event in a series. Thank you to all of our particpants this month, and remember that MxMo XLI: Going Out is a scant month away at CocktailChronicles.com!
Comments on this entry are closed.
Stevi Deter
Wow! 47! I think that’s the new record.
Great writeup, Matt. And so great to see so many first time participants.
Jac
Holy stutz, that’s a lot of entries! Very nice round up, Dood… I’m impressed you were able to get it done this week, much less Tuesday morning.
JohnTheBastard
well done dood.
Chuck
Wow, someone was up all night!
Jacob
“Shrift drink”? Arg, I’ve been typoed. It was “shift drink.” But I just looked up the word shrift and learned that it means confession to a priest. This would, actually, be a great name for a cocktail!
DJ HawaiianShirt
you rock dood. none of us (except maybe Paul) is worth all that work.
SeanMike
Spelling it “where-ever” makes me happy as it feels all old-timey and stuff.
Now where are the Soggy Bottom Boys…
Chris Bostick
Fantastic round up my friend. I guess I didn’t realize you were a Southern Cali fellow as well. I look forward to crossing paths sometime.
Matt Robold
Jacob, I corrected the typo. I don’t recall what hour of the night it was, or what number caipirinha I was on, but it sure looked like “shrift” when I looked at it. 😉
drinkmix
What a great theme, missed the last three MxMo’s, but ginger was both challenging and provoking for me
Tony Harion
Is that a record of entries forMXMO?
Great and huge round-up! You probably went thru a lot of Ginger Caipirinhas to put it all together!
Tiare
I think this must be the most exstensive round-up i`ve seen.Impressive Dood!
drinksnob
Argh, I totally failed at reading the full submission instructions, but for what it’s worth, here’s my timely but unsubmitted entry:
drinksnob.wordpress.com/…/mxmo-xl-ginger-the-…
And it was such a good drink, too! Ah well, thanks for the great theme, and next time I’ll actually do the required reading.
Reese
Excellent wrap-up Matt. I award you +2 geek points for seriously cracking me up with the “Star Trek vs. Metallica” cross-over. Well played. 😀
Matt Robold
By they way, added some late-comers to the list, corrected a typo, some gender misnomers, and sprinkled some pixie dust on a few drinks.
Thanks again to all who participated. This was a great deal of fun.
And if you didn’t participate but found this interesting and fun, then get off of your duff and submit drinks for next month!
ChinaNob
thanks for welcoming a n00b & inspiring me to start my own blog – and looking forward to next month’s MxMo. hopefully i’ll learn a little CSS by then and get the blog in better shape. and i finally added my photo:
barmancometh.wordpress.com/…/the-lowlander/
now, off to grab that ginger out of the pantry and make some of these drinks…
Dark Rum Connoisseur
Quite late to the whole thing but there are some fantastic cocktails there.
I’ll have to look at the rum themed MxMo at some point, your choice for it was quality though, looks like a lot of people really thought about what they were doing, lovely.
Chris Amirault
Thanks for the propers — but I must admit that credit is due Toby Maloney of Chicago’s Violet Hour (and more), the folks at Red Fez in Providence, and Jeff Berry deserve some credit for the bulk of “my” drinks. Great round-up, btw. Cheers!
Jon
So many new cocktail blogs…Google Reader now hates me…
Awesome roundup, Matt!
ila
holynuts. that’s a lot of booze.
the other day i made ginger simple syrup, then made a gin n’ tonic out of it. it was like… ginger ale, but x-rated. ausome.