MxMo LXIV: TIKI! - Gilligan's Ginger Swizzle + 2 bonus drinks

It's Alliiiive!!! The blog that is. I've been quite derelict in updating recently, but what can I say, I've been busy, an 10 month old will do that to you. But I can always make time for Mixology Monday. Or at the very least I can when they skip a couple months over the holidays. But it's back, and I'm back, just in time for the month of February. That's right, Feb, aka Tiki Month! Our host this month is Doug Winship over at The Pegu Blog, and he's not surprisingly chosen Tiki! as this month's MxMo theme. Says Doug:

The Tiki scene, like classic cocktails in general, is reviving nicely these days. The lush, decadent marriage of tropical flavors and exotic kitsch carries us away to a better, less dreary place. Please join in and add your words, images, and offerings to the Tiki Gods on the 20th. Since Tiki is more than just the drinks, feel free to post on whatever Tiki subject floats your outrigger canoe...feel free to wax eloquent on aloha shirts, exotica music, decor, garnishes, food or whatever else moves you to enter the Tiki spirit!

To help get in the spirit, on Sat night I hit up PKNY, my favorite NYC tiki spot, for a couple drinks. (Doug, they made a great Missionary's Downfall.) A tall frosty mug of tiki does have the magical power to whisk one away and forget the savages of winter for an evening, not that lady winter has been inclined to savage us much around these parts this year, thankfully enough. Perhaps someone distracted her with an Improved Chartreuse Swizzle or two. Kudos to them!

UPDATE: Doug's got the roundup post of all this month's drinks up, go check 'em all out.

Speaking of that drink, my submission this month uses its recipe as a jumping off point for my creation. Not only do I love Chartreuse, but I've found that she plays well with ginger, and I've enjoyed tinkering with my newish bottle of The King's Ginger, a liqueur I prefer somewhat to Canton because I find King's Ginger to be a bit less candied and have more of the fresh ginger bite I so love. So I swapped in King's Ginger for Falernum (though I added Falernum Bitters and Tiki Bitters) and used the seasonal Meyer lemon instead of pineapple juice, upped the JWray ('cause why not?), and dubbed it the Gilligan's Ginger swizzle, which I thought was appropriately island-y. Oh, and in honor of our host, I garnished it with a tattooed lime (as well as a plastic naked lady from my PKNY drink Sat night).

Gilligan's Ginger Swizzle

• 1 oz Green Chartreuse
• 1 oz King's Ginger Liqueur
• ¾ oz J. Wray & Nephew White Overproof Rum
• ¾ oz lime juice
• ¾ oz Meyer lemon juice (regular lemons work here also)
• ¼ oz Steen's cane syrup (or rich simple if you must, or even Grade B maple)
• 2 dashes B.G Reynold's Falernum Bitters
• 6 drops Bittermens ‘Elemakule Tiki Bitters

Swizzle over plenty of crushed ice, garnish with a tattooed lime, big ol' handful of spanked mint, straw, and whatever other fun tiki flair you've got.

She's got spice and herbs from the liqueurs and bitters, funk and heft from the JWray (though both liqueurs are hardly low proof themselves), brightness from the citrus, and a touch of extra depth and richness from the luscious cane syrup. Just like any proper tiki drink, she might down a bit too easy. But what else would you expect?



In the title I promised two bonus drinks, and since I've been derelict in my blogging duties I've got yet-to-be-posted cocktails in spades from which to pick. Since the theme is Tiki, I'll pick two that fit the bill that I created for Thursday Drink Nights various and sundry over the past months. (Hey, I said I've been too busy to blog, not that I was dead.)

First, here is another swizzle I made for TDN Tall Drinks:

Tornadiki

• 1 oz Coruba Dark Rum
• 1 oz Banks Five Island Rum (sub Cruzan aged white)
• 1 oz Passionfruit Syrup
• ½ oz Lemon Hart 151
• ½ oz orgeat
• ½ oz falernum
• ¾ oz lemon
• ¾ oz lime
• ¼ oz absinthe
• 3 dashes  Bittermens ‘Elemakule Tiki Bitters

Swizzle over plenty of crushed ice, add straw and garnish with mint

Get it? Tornadiki = Tornado + Tiki. And it's a swizzle. This guy's got the bones of a hurricane with the rums and passionfruit, plus a litany of other usual suspects in the tiki oveure.





And I've got one more for you, if I don't bang it out now it'll probably never happen. Although Frederic of Cocktail Virgin/Slut was kind enough to include it promptly in the wrap up of the night. This one I made for the curiously themed Nuku Hiva TDN, for which we were asked:

in honor of this darkly exotic mystery, the goal of the night is to create tiki drinks with at least one German ingredient! Bonus if you use fire!

So I used a german Kirsch and a Honey Liqueur, as well as three german bitters. And fire of course:

Einbahnstraße (Einbahnstrasse)

• 1 oz e Coruba
• 1 oz Lemon Hart 151
• 1 oz Cruzan aged rum
• 1 oz Kirschwasser
• 1 oz Bärenjäger
• 1 oz Canton Ginger Liqueur
• 1 oz lemon
• 1 oz lime
• 1oz OJ
• (scant) 1 oz cinnamon syrup
• 1 dash Bitter Truth Orange Bitters
• 1 dash Bitter Truth Creole Bitters
• 1 dash Bitter Truth Aromatic Bitters

Shake & strain over fresh ice into stoic tiki mug; add straw & garnish with lime shell filled with flaming LH 151

I think the name translates from the German as something along the lines of "One way street", if you allow me a hefty amount of poetic license. And in fairness, you are probably better off splitting this with a friend, there's a lot in there, but I wanted to stick with the link between 1 oz of everything and the name. It's got a lot going on, but I thought it was not bad for something I threw together. At the risk of breaking the one way theme, it's pretty sweet with a full oz of cinnamon syrup, depending on how rich yours is, but it needed some; just go easy on it unless sweet is your thing.