Campfire Lemonade

• 1.5 oz. mezcal
• 0.75 oz. mead
• 0.25 oz. Pavan
• 0.25 oz. limoncello
• 0.25 oz. Lillet Blanc
• dash of lemon bitters

Stir with ice and strain into glass. Garnish with toasted marshmallows.

I had received the mead as a gift and wanted to build a drink around it. I think I started with the limoncello and floral Pavan, which worked well, and then decided mezcal would make the best base. The Lillet lengthened and gave a little bitterness to the final drink.

I tried this drink out at a cocktail night, and the name Campfire Lemonade was offered up and generally agreed to by all as appropriate for the taste. Marshmallows came later, but not too late.

Sem Cacatuas

• 1.5 oz. Brazilian gin (McQueen and the Violet Fog)
• 0.5 oz. Cachaça (Santo Grau São Paulo)
• 0.5 oz. Clement Mahina Coco
• 0.5 oz. ginger liqueur (King’s)
• 0.25 oz. lime juice
• dash of Dr. Adam Elmegirab’s Brazilian Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into glass. Garnish with lime twist or wedge and candied ginger.

I had a recent (and first) trip to Brazil and came back with cachaça in hand, inspired to make a Brazilian cocktail. Although you could still call this a modified caipirinha, I wanted a gin to serve as the base. For sweet I reached for ginger and coconut, and kept lime for my acid, then ended with Brazilian bitters, of course.

The name? Well, my trip was for business and I had no time for exploring or shopping, so the airport was my only option for gifts for my family. There were several shops that all had these fun stone carvings of cockatoos. I figured it was a “Brazil thing,” found one that I liked and brought it home, thinking I would use it for a cocktail photo. But in researching I found there are “NO cockatoos” in Brazil, and my sculpture is a lie. Thus, the name is simply that in Portuguese. The sculpture was a miss; the drink is not.

Missionary Coup d’etat

• 1.5 oz. Old Monk rum
• 0.5 oz. Gabriel Boudier Saffron Gin
• 0.5 oz. Rhum Clement Mahina Coco
• 0.25 oz. Tamworth Von Humboldt Tamarind liqueur
• 0.25 oz. Malabar liqueur
• 0.25 oz. Plantation rum from Fiji
• 0.25 oz. cinnamon syrup
• 0.25 oz. lemon juice
• two dashes Angostura bitters
• dash of El Guapo Polynesian Kiss bitters

Shake with ice and strain into glass.

Whew! A lot in this one! I was creating a drink for A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and for one Victorian character who (in a pointedly racist and colonialist way) wanted to bestow England’s largesse onto perceived “lesser” cultures (this is satire).

The character sings of going to India, Africa and the South Pacific, so here I looked to include ingredients from all the regions to create a tiki-esque drink to balance the booze, bitters, sweet and sour with spices and flavors from all over the globe.

The name comes from a lyric, and I love the rhythm of it. The character is (purposely) cringey. The drink, I hope, is not.