Time for our roundup of truly awesome cocktails from this month’s Mixology Monday. We had the pleasure of hosting and our theme was “Hometown Hooch”. If you want more info on the theme, see here. But, in short, we were looking for cocktails that feature some of the bloggers favorite local spirits, and we were not disappointed.

We had many submissions from cocktail hotbeds of Boston, the Pacific Northwest and the Bay Area. But we also had some excellent cocktails from all over the US and serious representation from Europe. It seems the whole world is making local, craft booze. We think that is a good thing.

We will start with the Bergman Zombie (see the first cocktail image) from Robin at Kitchen Shamanism, a very good Scandinavian cocktail blog (worth a visit). The Bergman Zombie features Facile Stockholm Punsch, a version of the venerable Swedish Punsch. We are fans of the funky notes of Batavia Arrak in Swedish Punsch, so we will certainly be trying this one (we are always looking for excuses to mix a Tiki Drink).

Next up is the North of 7 Rhubarbian from Delicious Cocktail Time. It seems that Ottowa is making serious strides in local distilling and DCT featured the Triple Beam Gin from North of 7 Distillery. Combined with Lillet, rhubarb syrup and lemon juice, the Rubarbian combines local gin with seasonal ingredients. Rhubarb plays very well with gin and Lillet- so this sounds good to us.

Our Master of Ceremonies at Mixology Monday, Fred Yarm of Cocktail Virgin Slut gave us some old school local hooch along with some serious history. Seems that back in the day (like, the 19th century) many local distillers made bottled “punches” of booze, fruit and spices. Fred found a local product called “Hub Punch” and after a little time, Boston’s Bully Boy Distillers made a modern version. Fred’s Hubba Hubba, takes the Hub Punch into the 21st century (the post is worth a read, cocktail history never disappoints.)

Staying in Boston metro, GarnishGirl gave us the aptly named Boston Mollasacre using local Folly Cove Rum from Ryan & Wood. Turns out that Boston was once a hub of rum production before whiskey became our national spirit. But even as rum production faded, there was still a LOT of molasses left around…with surprisingly dire consequences (take a look). Regardless, we love molasses, and combined with rum, ginger beer and lime, it’s hard to go wrong.

Moving west to Seattle, the Shrubbery gives us two tasty cocktails featuring their strawberry champagne shrub (we want some of that!). The first cocktail is O’Keefe’s Wild Rose, featuring Hedge Trimmer Gin from Sun Liquor and Rose Sugar from Libertine Tacoma. The second cocktail is the aptly named Strawbeery Punch, a beer-based punch using Naughtly Nellie from Pike Brewery. Sounds like a perfect summer sip. Continue reading →