Mixology Monday is here again, hosted this month by Sonja at Thinking of Drinking, and this month’s theme is a favorite of ours: absinthe!

Anise liqueurs have been a staple in our home bar for years, ever since we walked into a bar in Provence and ordered pastis without having a clear idea of what we’d be getting. When our order turned out to include two small glasses partially filled with clear green liquid, a metal jug of ice water, beaded with condensation, and a plate of bread and tapenade, served at a little table on a sunny patio on a hot afternoon, we fell instantly in love. From then on, the flavor of pastis – or any anise-flavored alcohol – takes us back to that trip and those lovely long evenings.

For a long time we only kept a bottle of Pernod on hand, so we could drink pastis on hot summer days (of which we get relatively few here in Western Washington). We tried arak on our last trip to Paris (at the World Arab Institute restaurant), and while we couldn’t find any to buy at home, we did spring for a bottle of ouzo. We also have a bottle of Pastis 51 which we picked up at the Paris airport – it has a distinctly different flavor than Pernod. And when real absinthe became available again in the US, we bought a small bottle to try, and started using it in mixed drinks.

Probably our favorite anise-flavored cocktail is the Corpse Reviver #2, the drink that really got us on the road to our current cocktail obsession. The classic Sazerac is wonderful, too, with its Herbsaint rinse. We spent some time experimenting, though, and found this rather elegant concoction of gin, amaro and absinthe with the slightly annoying name Gin & Sip. The absinthe is just a rinse, but it adds a subtle level of flavor. We’ve also tried upping the amount of absinthe to as much as ½ ounce, and that’s pretty tasty as well, giving the drink a strong anise edge.

Amaro is a broad category. Jon recently fell in love with Cynar, an artichoke-flavored liqueur, and that’s what we’ve been using for this drink. It makes for a nicely bitter drink with some earthy overtones. It might be fun to try it with Fernet Branca, just for the extra depth, but a lighter amaro makes for a better balance.

Gin & Sip

• 2 ½ oz Gin
• ½ oz Cynar
• Absinthe

Rinse out a rocks glass with a splash of absinthe. Stir the gin and Cynar together with ice, strain into the glass and add more ice to taste. Garnish with a lemon or orange twist.

This month’s Mixology Monday challenge is hosted by Cocktail Virgin, and the theme is tea. Black or herbal, brewed or infused, anything goes as long as it’s tea-based.

When thinking the challenge through, it seemed like we had three basic options: add brewed tea to the cocktail, infuse spirits with tea, or make a tea-flavored sugar syrup. We actually had rather good results mixing brewed oolong tea with aperol and lemon juice, but the drink we became fondest of used the sugar syrup.

The really tough decision was which tea to use. We thought of Lapsang first, with its deep smokiness, but thought that might be too strong. We have some madrona bark tea from Shaw Island which we haven’t yet tasted, but it brews for a long time and we kept forgetting to get it started. One of my very favorite teas, though, is Golden Yunnan, and it seemed like a perfect candidate. Rich and malty in flavor, it seemed like it would go great with booze.

Having decided on a tea, making the syrup was a snap.  Combine equal parts sugar and water in a saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves, then add 1 tsp of loose tea (this was for a small amount of syrup – just about 1/2 cup total) and steep for 5 minutes or so.  Strain into a clean jar and refrigerate.

With the syrup made (and really tasty on its own) we experimented with a few different combinations. We’ve recently become fond of Crown Royal, with its smooth sweetness, and thought it might work well with the Yunnan. We tried using it to make a Whiskey Sour with the tea syrup in place of the usual sugar. This was very tasty, but the lemon juice overwhelmed the tea flavor – not bad, but not enough tea. For our next try we used Aperol instead of the lemon, both to provide a citrus element and a bitter edge to offset the sweetness. This worked really well, and was gorgeous besides. We call it the Royal Yunnan.

Royal Yunnan

• 1 ½ oz Crown Royal
• ¾ oz Golden Yunnan syrup
• ¾ oz Aperol

Stir all the ingredients together with ice, then strain into a rocks glass. Serve on ice with a strip of orange zest and a piece of fresh ginger.

Ed. 1/27/10: The roundup of everyone’s tea cocktails is up! Check it out at Cocktail Virgin Slut.

Note: This Mixology Monday post is brought to you by our house mixologist, my husband Jon. He makes the cocktails, I just drink ‘em and take their pictures, so I had him write this post himself - Jessamyn.

Another note: December MxMo roundup is up on Beers in the Shower!

When Jessamyn informed me of this month’s MxMo assignment, ideas did not immediately spring to mind.  Money drinks?  What the heck is a money drink?  Two different definitions were provided, but neither gave a clear direction.  The first definition, a normal drink made with super-high-end ingredients, quickly got ruled out.  We just don’t have enough super-high-end ingredients in our liquor cabinet.  The other definition provided seemed a little better: a drink that you could give to anyone and they would like it.  Still a challenge, but potentially doable.

Since there seemed to be an undercurrent of festivity, with the upcoming holidays, I headed straight for the pomegranate juice.  It doesn’t appear in very many cocktails, giving it an aura of something special, plus it has that great, brilliant red color.

For a gin-based pomegranate drink, it’s hard to beat the Diva Quaranta, which Jessamyn has already written about.  For cold winter evenings, though, we’re often more in the mood for whiskey-based drinks, so I used the Diva Quaranta as a jumping-off point and began tweaking.

Not all of my attempts were successes, but I do believe I found a winner.  Named the Runabout, after one of the better words played in a game of Scrabble the other evening, it uses rye, but would work equally well with bourbon.  I retained the Campari, since I enjoy the bitterness it imparts.  If the recipient of the drink does not like bitter (after all, this is supposed to be a drink that you could give to someone and know that they would like it), omit the Campari and double the Triple sec.

The Runabout

• 1 oz rye
• 1 oz pomegranate juice
• 1/2 oz Campari
• 1/4 oz Triple sec

Stir all ingredients with ice (shaking creates a bit of foam on the top that detracts visually).  Garnish with a lemon twist.  Give to someone you really like and then make another for yourself.

- JLN

I was happy to see that this month’s Mixology Monday challenge was Vermouth. It just so happens that we have recently discovered that vermouth really is a worthwhile flavor in a cocktail, not just something to wave at from a distance while making a dry martini. I will admit that I’m not fond of it straight, but ask again in a year and I might say something different.

Probably my current favorite drink using vermouth is the Manhattan, but in the interests of broadening our horizons we tried a few new things. The winners were the Emerald and the Cornwall Negroni.

The Emerald is an elegant cocktail composed of gin, green Chartreuse, sweet vermouth and orange bitters. Strangely, it tasted very much like a Manhattan made with rye whiskey. I liked it very much. But then there was the Negroni.

The Negroni, I sometimes think, may be the most famous cocktail no-one ever drinks. I ordered one in our favorite bar a few months ago and the bartender said she only gets to make them about twice a year. Personally, I love the strong bitter flavor and deep color. Made of gin, Campari and vermouth, it’s a drink to sip slowly over the course of an afternoon or evening, preferably with a little cheese or a few bites of ham. You definitely don’t want to chug this one.

The Cornwall Negroni, the variation I’m drinking right now, has a bit more gin and a bit less Campari than the usual, but it uses both sweet vermouth and a bitter Italian variety called Punt e Mes. The garnish is a piece of flamed orange rind, which is a wonderful accent to the tart drink. It’s not tremendously different than a traditional Negroni, but it may have a bit more depth, since both the Campari and the Punt e Mes are adding to the bitter flavor, rounding it out. I might not go out and buy Punt e Mes just to make this, but it’s a great use for it if you have a bottle floating around .

Cornwall Negroni

from Mr. Boston: Official Bartender’s Guide

• 2 oz gin
• ½ oz Punt e Mes
• ½ oz sweet vermouth
• ½ oz Campari

Stir all ingredients with ice and strain into a cold cocktail glass. Garnish with a flamed orange twist.

This month for Mixology Monday we were faced with the theme Dizzy Dairy. In other words, any cocktail involving eggs, milk, cream, yogurt or butter. The first thing that came to my mind was Irish Coffee, one of my favorites, but that seemed far too obvious.  We did some research and applied ourselves to some experimentation.

We began with an Angostura Fizz. A tart mixture of lime juice and Angostura bitters, this also had cream and grenadine, and was shaken vigorously with one egg white. Poured into a pint glass and topped up with seltzer, it offered an intriguing combination of bitter, frothy and creamy. I’d never tasted anything quite like it. I wouldn’t mind trying it again sometime, but I’m not really sure what the right time would be: to go with a burger? An afternoon pick-me-up?

Jon tried making himself a Snowball, which was simply gin, pastis and cream. We each took a sip, then poured it down the sink. Ew.

We had better luck with the Scotch Solace, a soothing blend of Scotch, honey, milk, cream and Cointreau. It was served cold, but I could totally see it as a frothy warm drink to sip by the fire.

The Belmont was at least somewhat successful. Composed of gin and cream with a dab of raspberry syrup, it was rather like a cocktail glass of melted ice cream with a faint gin edge. Not terrible, but kind of weird. We wouldn’t make it again.

The upshot of all this testing was the realization that the Irish Coffee really is my drink of choice when it comes to dairy and alcohol. Plus, it appeals to me because it can so easily be built to taste. How much whiskey do you want? Pour it in. Make the coffee as strong as you like. Add whatever kind of sugar you prefer: raw, white, brown, it will all work. Make your whipped cream as sweet as you want, and pile it on as thickly as you want. Every cup will be a little bit different. And that, frankly, is how I cook.

Irish Coffee

Pour 1-2 ounces of Irish whiskey (I like Jameson’s) into a mug or Irish Coffee glass. Pour in hot coffee, leaving some room at the top. Add sugar to taste. Top with sweetened whipped cream. Wrap yourself up in a blanket by the fire, invite a cat up to sit, and enjoy.

This month’s Mixology Monday, hosted by Felicia’s Speakeasy, has the regrettable theme of Vodka is Your Friend. I wish I could concur, but I can’t really say that vodka has been my friend in the past. In fact, most of my interactions with vodka have involved a certain acquaintance who likes instant cocktail mixes, usually mixed much too large and strong, and inevitably leading to a conversation with Ralph on the big white phone (for her, anyway – I tend to just feel ill for days). But we needn’t talk about that.

So I was trying to think of anything I’ve had with vodka that I actually liked. I will occasionally try a Bloody Mary, but I usually find that I can only drink about two inches down the glass before I get tired of it. Vodka tonics hold no interest for me at all, and neither do vodka martinis. I like gin, what can I say?

Then I remembered a drink I had many years ago, at Campagne in Seattle. It was called Nuage de Pastis, and at the time I thought it was fantastic.  I’ve been unable to find any record of the drink online, but I remembered it as a primarily vodka cocktail with an orange twist and a float of pastis (French anise liqueur) which “snowed” down into the vodka. It was beautiful and delicious. I decided to try to recreate it, with my husband’s assistance. We shook up two ounces of vodka with ice, strained it over a fresh orange twist, and spooned a little Pernod over the top.

Suffice it to say, it didn’t work out. It came out pretty enough (see the pic at the top) although we didn’t quite get the pastis to float; it clouded down into the glass fairly quickly. The flavor, though, was like a regular pastis-and-water cocktail at first, except that it was too strong to drink fast, and not particularly refreshing. As the drink sat it began to take on a weird flavor of mothballs. I have no idea if I remembered the ingredients incorrectly, or if my tastes have simply changed. If anyone else remembers a drink like this I’d be happy to compare notes.

This time, though, I set it aside and poured myself a glass of gin and bitters. No more vodka for me for a while.

Note 8/12/09: I’m not the only one with vodka issues. Check out the MxMo roundup here.

In defiance of all the traditional wisdom of what a Skagit County spring should be like, the last few weeks have ranged from pleasant to actively hot, with practically no rain. Normally we’re lucky if we even see the sun before the Fourth of July! Instead we’ve been able to turn off the house heat, the garden has needed to be watered several times a week, and the summer cocktail recipes are beginning to emerge. When I saw that this month’s Mixology Monday theme was ginger, I knew just what drink I was going to post about.

Two of my favorite summer drinks are the mint julep and Lillet Blanc on the rocks, but Jon recently discovered a drink on the Lillet website that combines fresh mint and Lillet, then punches it up with fresh ginger and lime. They call it a Lillet Sin, for some odd reason – it’s one of the least sinful cocktails I can think of. It’s extremely light and refreshing, and the ginger gives it a nice heat that complements the bright mint and lime flavors. It tastes slightly exotic, while retaining a certain cold-lemonade quality, very welcome on a hot afternoon. You could certainly soup it up with gin or vodka, but then you might not be able to drink as many.

The original recipe’s a bit vague, so each time we’ve made it it’s come out a little different. You could muddle the mint or just add a sprig to the glass, you could shake it or stir it. We’ve found that we like it with quite a lot of ginger, and not too much Perrier. Adjust to your own taste.

Lillet Sin

adapted from the Lillet website

• 2 oz Lillet Blanc
• ice
• 4 mint leaves
• 1 wedge lime
• 1 slice ginger
• 1 tsp simple syrup or fine sugar
• tonic water or Perrier
• another lime wedge, for garnish

Muddle the mint, ginger and lime in a shaker or glass. Add the Lillet, ice and simple syrup and stir well, strain into a wineglass filled with ice, top up with tonic water and garnish with a lime wedge. Sip while reclining comfortably in the shade on a warm day.

Mixology Monday this month is being hosted by Rumdood. Final roundup is here - check out all the great ginger drinks!