Mixology Monday LXX Roundup: Inverted

22 February 2013

Stir and Strain’s El Jardin de Mi Abuela.

Another Mixology Monday has come and gone, but this time we were hosting. Thanks again to everyone who participated and to Fred Yarm at Cocktail ~~Virgin~~ Slut for reviving and maintaining Mixology Monday.

The theme was “inverted”, and we will spare you the full back story (post here) and just say the theme was intended to see if we could “flip drinks on their heads” any and all possible ways. And the Mixology Monday crowd certainly delivered. We saw drinks “inverted” on name, spirits, solid/liquid (ice was well used), colors, layers and temperatures. All good stuff. We are “working” our way through as many of the cocktails as we can, and many are very good.

As for us, we found this theme somewhat more challenging than expected. We created two drinks, but also failed repeatedly to make our third, a champagne-based cocktail that tasted and looked like Napa Cabernet (some things simply aren’t meant to be, and who wants a cocktail to taste like wine anyway?). Oh well. In any event, here are all the cocktails (mostly) in the order we got them:

BarFlySF gave us three cocktails that invert classics using light instead of dark spirits. We like their use of homemade limoncello as a substitute for darker liqueurs. Their Union Square inverted the New Orleans classic the Vieux Carre.

BarFlySF then took up our challenge to invert the Manhattan and created the Nemo.

And finally, BarFlySF, added another post and inverted the classic Brandy Sidecar and created the Pisco Pedicab. Extra points for use of blood oranges.

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Shake Strain and Sip took the inverted theme to another place altogether and put the drink inside an ice-cube. The Alice’s Looking Glass is a very cool, and very tasty, creation with rye and Aperol in the lead. (We made it with regular ice, still great).——

901 Very Good Cocktails managed to create a cocktail, discuss the Butthole Surfers (a band from our youth, yes we are that old) and even promote the idea of moderation. We are all for moderation….in moderation. The Shah Sleeps Cocktail inverts standard cocktail proportions and leads with Amaro Montenegro.

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The Shorter Straw applied the inverted theme to the Super Bowl (we would still like to invert that outcome) and gave us the 35th Minute. The lights went out during the 35th minute of the game and we certainly would have liked to sip this beautiful Rhum Agricole-based cocktail while we waited.

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Living Through The Senses gave us an inversion of the Dirty Martini using some very tasty sounding barrel-aged gin (we want some of that). The Smoke and Oak Martini combines the barrel-aged gin with smoked olives and smoked olive brine. We like the drink even more knowing that the creator’s name is Juniper. Perfect.

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Fred Yarm at Cocktail ~~Virgin~~ Slut gave us our first bitters-heavy cocktail, the Brandy Champerelle. As bitters-heavy drinks are popular in many bars these days, we expected to see more of these, but there were only a few. This cocktail of equal amounts brandy, Curacao and Angostura does show how using bitters as a lead element adds spice and depth but doesn’t always dominate.

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The Chocolate of Meats gave us a beautiful inverted tiki drink with the Tigress. The Tigress makes a very elegant winter cocktail from homemade pineapple cordial and a popular cast of tiki spirits. Great photo, too.

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Dagreb at Nihil Utopia gave us two inversions. First, the Flourishing Heir, we assume is a riff on the Suffering Bastard. Second is Dagreb’s Old Farshioned, a riff on the classic with a full 2 ounces of Angostura. Yikes (but it certainly is “inverted”).

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DrinksBurgh also took us up on the challenge and made a Clear Manhattan with white rye, dry vermouth and bitters. As a bonus we also get a Clear Sazerac with white rye, sugar, Herbsaint and Bittermen’s Burlesque bitters. White rye is now on our shopping list.

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Doug at the Pegu (or is it Tiki?) Blog, takes the inverted theme in another direction and inverts an ingredient, ginger syrup. His solution to the short shelf life of ginger syrup is to use shelf stable ginger extract and combine it with simple syrup when you make the cocktail. A good idea and maybe something we can apply with other flavors, hmm…

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The Booze Nerds give us all sorts on inversions of ingredients, form and temperature. Their Invertita builds a gin, Aperol and Amaro Montenegro cocktail on a base of blood orange sorbet (stuck in the bottom of the glass) and is topped by Prosecco. Very inverted.

And their Rogue Wave is a deconstructed tiki drink that has tiki-flavored ice cubes that melt into the spirits. Usually tiki drinks dilute as the ice melts, the Rogue Wave inverts that process. (We will be playing with this approach over the next few months at the farm).

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Rated R Cocktails gave us a full LOL moment when we saw their Iat Iam, a nearly sacrilegious inversion/riff on a Mai Tai. Rated R knows their tiki, and their flavors, so this blue Curacao tinted tiki drink turns out to be a very tasty sip.

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Gin Hound took the theme in yet another direction and inverted a dessert / candy into a cocktail. Excellent. The Hawaii O takes the Hawaii ring, a combo of a pineapple ring, pineapple jelly and dark chocolate, and turns it into a cocktail. Pineapple and chocolate are a better combo than you might expect.

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Little did we know that while we were inverting the Dark ‘n Stormy (see the end of this post) that the Liquid Culture Project was also on the case. But LCP went in an entirely different direction and made a toddy from the rum, ginger and lime classic. The Daiquiri in Space inverts all sorts of stuff, but just the thought of a “winter daiquiri” perfectly fits the theme.

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Bartending Notes give us a quick inversion of the classic Caipirinha. The Inverted Caipirinha uses a bit of honey and takes the limes out of the bottom of the glass and places a lime shell on top (like a Mai Tai). And just like that, you have an “inversion”.

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We expected someone to do it, and Feu de Vie went after a the Cosmopolitan and gave it a full inversion. The Biological Clock (love the name) takes the Cosmo and gives it a big slug of rye, some spiced cranberry sauce and pomegranate. If only the Cosmo started as a rye drink…sigh….

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Stir and Strain went after the Margarita and found plenty of ways to invert the classic. Orange Curacao syrup, hibiscus infused tequila and lime wedges in ice all make an appearance in this long drink, but the use of Vanilla Salt takes the El Jardin De Mi Abuela to “inversion Nirvana”. (Note: vanilla salt is also a fantastic ingredient with savory dishes, IMHO. Put some on french fries and you may never go back.)

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The 3 Archers took up the challenge and inverted one of their local favorites the Spanish Coffee. The Spanish (Iced) Coffee combines rum, Curacao, coffee liqueur and Ethiopian Yirgacheffee coffee concentrate. They wanted it to flame, it didn’t. But as far as we are concerned, any cocktail with Ethiopian coffee can stand on its own.

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Stay at Home Cocktails also took us up on the challenge to invert the classic Manhattan. The Flipped Manhattan leads with sweet vermouth but gets balanced by high-proof whiskey (always happy to see some Rittenhouse) and a big slug of bitters. Another example of using high volumes of bitters without it dominating the sip.

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Felicia’s Speakeasy made a bunch of Cocktail Cupcakes. Oh my. Now this is an inversion. We will let the pictures do the talking. Warning: You will be hungry after you visit.

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Liquidity Preference got into the action with a cocktail containing a little beer. We expected more beer-based recipes for this MxMo, but the Hopped Up Nui Nui not only adds beer to a tiki drink, it uses Deschutes Brewery Inversion IPA. Inverted, and then some.

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And just when you think there is nothing left to invert, the Bone Luge comes up with an inverted cocktail using crab stock, sherry, egg and amaro- all chugged through an empty crab shell. You got all that? The Inverted Luge is even, technically, a “flip” cocktail. Inverted? Why, yes. A bit twisted? Possibly. Inspired? Certainly.

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The Fogged In Lounge does us the favor of inverting the classic, but perhaps under-appreciated Chancellor cocktail (worth a look on its own). The Reverse Chancellor uses Tori Amer as a sub for orange bitters, but then accents with vermouth, ruby port and dashes of good scotch. Inverted, yet very civilized.

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And finally we have our creations. We won’t wax poetic. The Calm Sunny Day inverts the Dark ‘n Stormy as many ways as possible while still tasting like rum, ginger and lime.