Another month has quickly come upon me and thus a new Mixology Monday has arrived, this time presented by Andrea at Gin Hound:

Singapore Gin Sling, Blood and Sand and the Aviation wouldn’t be the same without them. They are brilliant in pies, go great with pork dishes and may even be a super food able to combat insomnia. But cherries in cocktails are also horribly abused, few things taste worse than artificial cherry aroma and the description of how most maraschino cherries are made can make you sick to your stomach. So it’s my pleasure as the host of Mixology Monday number 74 to challenge you to honor the humble cherry.

I had just tried some sour cherry jam in a Young Frankenstein cocktail, What Hump?, and thought I might start there, but honestly I got tired of the straining after shaking that this involved. Also, not wanting to just rely on the old standby Cherry Heering, I played a bit with Leopold Bros. Michigan Tart Cherry Liqueur and a Black Forest Cherry Liqueur, and, although I like these quite a bit, in the end it was the Cherry Heering that won out in my two cherry cocktail creations.

The Payout

• 1.5 oz American Dry Gin (Bluecoat)
• 1.0 oz. Kirschwasser
• 0.5 oz. Cherry Heering
• 4 dashes Fee Brothers Cherry Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into coupe. Garnish with three maraschino cherries.

If I was doing cherries, I was going all out. Although tempted to have two cherry components and go with a Neil Diamond reference (anyone?) I ended with three cherry components representing a slot machine’s payout. The sweetness here obviously comes from the Cherry Heering, though the bitters also offer more sweetness and tartness than they do anything bitter. The cherry brandy makes the cherry flavor a little more natural to my taste, and opens the drink up a bit, as does the gin, which adds some nice spice and herbaceous notes.

For the second drink, I wanted a punch that would really contrast with the sweetness of the cherries. Thus, the Backhanded Compliment.

Backhanded Compliment

• 1.5 oz black pepper-infused Rye (Old Overholt)
• 1.0 oz. Cherry Heering
• 0.5 oz. lime juice
• 1 dash Peychaud’s Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into coupe.

I love the spiciness of rye, and the black pepper infusion here enhances that even more. There’s a lot of Cherry Heering present for sweetness, but the amount of spice along with the tart acid of the lime really help to balance it. The Peychaud’s I think deepens the drink a little more, while also adding to its bite.

Maybe if the theme is ever pop icons of the 60’s and 70’s I can go back to that Neil Diamond tipple.

Before starting in on my next collection, I thought I would post an addition to my Sunday in the Park with George drinks. This in itself wasn’t inspired by the show, but rather was a drink that I was developing while in the show (well, not while on stage…). At one after-show gathering I made it for our music director, who had gifted me with a bottle of Ron Zacapa. I made him the drink and gave him the opportunity to name it. He immediately dubbed it “Lesson #8,” which is a song from the show where George begins by reading his great grandmother’s written grammar lessons from her lesson book before connecting the simple words to his own life.

Lesson #8

• 2.0 oz. Aged Rum (Ron Zacapa)
• 1.0 oz. Kina L’Avion D’Or Quinquina
• 0.25 oz. Vanilla, Fig and Black Pepper syrup
• 0.25 oz. lime juice

Shake and strain into coupe. If desired, crack fresh pepper as garnish.

This one began with the vanilla, fig and black pepper syrup. I thought an aged rum would work nicely with it, and I think it does. The quinquina is a favorite ingredient of mine, giving a bright bitterness to a drink. The lime juice balances everything out with its acid, which is necessary here for me because of the sweetness present from both the syrup and the quinquina.

George would have liked to see people out drinking on Sunday.

For this month’s Mixology Monday, Mark Holmes of Cardiff Cocktails posted the following challenge, the Witches’ Garden:

As far back as we can look, the use of fresh herbs have been prevalent in the world of mixed drinks. From the early days of the julep, through Williams Terrington’s 19th century Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks, to Don the Beachcomber’s ahead of their time Tiki drinks, fresh herbs have always been at the forefront of mixology. So lets take influence from the bartenders that once ruled the world of mixology, raid your herb garden that too often gets neglected, and start mixing. I don’t want to put too many limits on this theme so get as creative as you please, want to use roots, spices or beans as well? Sure thing. Want to make your own herbal infusions or tinctures? Sounds wonderful.

Now, I don’t have a garden, and I’m not a witch (I weigh much more than a duck), but as it happened I had a gin I had recently infused with fresh rosemary and so I immediately gravitated to that as a base. I also had some fun ingredients I had picked up in Sydney that I hadn’t yet played with. One was a bush tomato balsamic. Rosemary and tomatoes? I could work with that.

The Walkabout

• 2.5 oz Rosemary-infused London Dry Gin
• 1.0 oz. Cucumber Liqueur
• 1 barspoon Caramelised Balsamic Vinegar with Bush Tomato
• 2 dashes The Bitter Truth Lemon Bitters

In addition to the balsamic, I have some dried bush tomatoes as well, which dehydrate to the size of small berries. I muddled some of these with some fresh rosemary, then combined all ingredients with ice, stirred and strained into a cocktail glass. Finally, I garnished with some of the dried tomatoes, floated on top.

The cucumber is almost like a really light simple syrup which opened the drink up a bit. The balsamic gives a rich, sweetness that isn’t too overwhelming, and the bitters help to counter it. The rosemary gin is what stands out here, as I think it should.

Not willing to leave it at that, I also infused some gin with some lemongrass and came to the following:

Thai Phoon

• 2.5 oz. Lemongrass-infused London Dry Gin
• 0.5 oz. King’s Ginger Liqueur
• 1 barspoon Monin’s Coconut Syrup
• 1 barspoon Ginger Rice Vinegar
• 2 dashes The Bitter Truth Lemon Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a coupe. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Lemongrass, coconut and ginger sounded good to me. That little bit of the syrup is all that’s needed for sweetness along with the ginger liqueur, which added some bite. The vinegar is my favorite part here, adding a brightness and acidity to counter the sweetness, which the bitters also help out with. I’m not sure how much lemongrass I could detect in the end, but I didn’t mind.

Now off to see what I can do with these beets…

A little Young Frankenstein addendum:

At the show’s conclusion I was thoughtfully given a gift by one of my friends and castmates who played the Blind Hermit (famously portrayed by Gene Hackman in the film) along with a card issuing a fun challenge, asking me to construct a cocktail specifically inspired by the Blind Hermit character. The gift contained a few ingredients and bottles from another cocktail, which was basically half Frangelico and half Iced Cake Vodka with nutmeg on top. I kept the Frangelico and nutmeg (sorry, the Iced Cake Vodka tasted exactly like it sounds — yummy if you were wanting to drink cake, I’m sure) and came up with the following.

Blind Hermit

• 2.0 oz. Old Monk Rum
• 1.0 oz. Frangelico
• 0.5 oz. Dry Oloroso Sherry
• 1 barspoon cinnamon syrup
• 1 barspoon Green Chartreuse
• 2 dashes coffee bitters

Stir and strain into coupe over rum soaked raisins (raisins cooked in dark rum, cinnamon and allspice).
Garnish with fresh toasted nutmeg.

Keeping the monk theme (close to a hermit, I guess) presented by the Frangelico bottle, I started with one of my favorites, the spicy Indian rum Old Monk. To this I added the healthy dose of the hazelnut Frangelico and some dry, nutty sherry to open the drink up more. I wanted some Young Frankenstein influence, so added the cinnamon for a bit of “fire” and a little Green Chartreuse for the monster himself. The coffee bitters helped temper the sweetness, and were added, of course, because the hermit was “going to make espresso!”

All of this went into a coupe over rum soaked raisins — raisins were also included in the gift as an ingredient and I thought they made an interesting garnish. The nutmeg was also part of the original cocktail I was riffing on, so I ended with that, but first used a torch to toast it. Just watch that you don’t light your thumb.

The Enormous Schwanzstucker

• 2.0 oz. White Rum
• 0.75 oz. lemon juice
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters

Shake with ice and strain into sugar rimmed cocktail glass.
Light one ounce of Cointreau on fire and pour into glass.
Toast stick of cinnamon and stir resulting drink with stick.

Fire! Fire good! Here we have rum from a Daiquiri, bitters from a Manhattan and lemon juice and sugared rim from a Sidecar. The Cointreau comes from a Margarita, and seeing it lit aflame is a cool effect but honestly does nothing for the drink. The toasted cinnamon stick, on the other hand, really helps the nose of the final drink.

Omit the cinnamon stick and you just have a Schwanzstucker, so use the cinnamon stick. Woof.

Hello, Handsome!

• 2.0 oz. Cognac
• 0.75 oz. sweet vermouth
• 1 dash orange bitters

Stir with ice and strain into coupe imbued with smoked cherry wood chips.
Garnish with Maraschino cherry.

This was the first cocktail that I not only imagined, but made for my Young Frankenstein collection. I bought my new favorite toy, The Smoking Gun, after seeing it employed for a number of drinks during my trip to Sydney. Basically, you put wood chips in it, light the chips, and smoke is produced out of a long rubber tube, which can be used to infuse in food or cocktails.

For this drink I used Cognac from a Sidecar, part of the sweet vermouth (Carpano Antica) from a Negroni and orange bitters from a Martini. While that is mixed and stirred, I turn a coupe over on the counter and fill it with cherry wood smoke. When the drink is ready, the coupe is flipped, releasing the smoke. The drink is poured in and a cherry from a Manhattan is dropped in. You get nice hints of smoke without it being overwhelming, which I think plays nicely with the Cognac.

Of course, the kitchen smokes up something fierce during this process and lasts for an hour or two. Small price to pay.

Sedagive

• 2.5 oz. London Dry Gin
• 0.5 oz. simple syrup
• 0.5 oz. lime juice
• 0.25 oz. Harvest Reisling vinegar

Shake with ice, then strain into cocktail glass with salted rim.

Gin from a Martini, simple syrup and a bit of lime juice from a Daiquiri and additional lime juice from a Margarita. The Abby Normal here is the vinegar, though it’s not so abnormal for me as I have a whole bunch of these unique flavorings that I’ve collected in the past year. This one I picked up in Mystic, CT, from Extra Virgin Oil. It definitely gives the drink some pucker with the lime that the salted rim (from a Margarita as well) helps to balance.

In the movie Young Frankenstein, “sedagive” is the ludicrous guess made at the being-strangled doctor’s charades attempt. Although this scene and line appears in the musical, the final ludicrous guess made is “Flying Down to Rio.” I don’t know. This is one of the many little changes made from the film that I question. But perhaps to accommodate you can throw an umbrella in the drink for a little Brazilian flair. Pra caramba!

Zipperneck

• 1 oz. London Dry Gin
• 1 oz. Cointreau
• 0.25 oz. lime juice
• 1/4 tsp. Ponzu

Here’s a light and unique sipper using the gin from a Negroni, the Cointreau from a Sidecar and part of the lime juice from a Daiquiri. The Abby Normal ingredient here is obviously the Ponzu, a soy sauce with a hint of citrus. It provides a wonderful saltiness to the drink that I love.

In Young Frankenstein there is a line about choosing a giant corpse to simplify working with all the parts. I think in this drink’s case pilfering a much larger Negroni and Margarita would help. Doubling the size might be a little much, but using 1.5 oz. gin and Cointreau would make sense to me, perhaps keeping the lime juice and Ponzu at the above measurements.

It just occurred to me a garnish of a Ritz cracker might be appropriate…

There Wolves!

• 2.0 oz. Reposado Tequila
• 0.75 oz. sweet vermouth
• 0.5 oz. dry vermouth
• 2 drops liquid smoke

Stir without ice and pour into coupe.
Garnish with a lemon twist.

Ooo, this was a tough one. It was actually the last cocktail I made from the ingredients I had leftover from the other Young Frankenstein drinks, with tequila from a Margarita, part of the sweet vermouth from a Manhattan, and a lemon twist and dry vermouth from a Martini. My initial thought was to use Sriracha or a cayenne hot sauce I had as my Abby Normal ingredient. Neither worked well. I spent a bit of time lingering on one variation that used a sweet Thai chili sauce, but eventually nixed it. I then purchased another hot sauce with a sweeter angle (honey habanero) and even tried a spicy wing sauce. In all cases, I was losing the tequila and even if the drink had an initial welcoming though unusual taste it quickly wore out that welcome.

I was about to throw up my hands and start rearranging some of my other drinks to allow for a different combination when it occurred to me to try my little bottle of liquid smoke which I acquired probably two years ago and had never utilized. Just a couple of drops is all you need to impart the hickory smoke flavor (it’s concentrated). I tasted it before stirring and really enjoyed it, so proceeded with a stir with ice and… then I didn’t like it. I lost the tequila again and actually felt the dry vermouth was dominant, though there was less of that than the sweet vermouth or tequila. The dilution of water just really brought it to the forefront.

So I tried it again, stirring without ice. Perfect. There wolves, there castle.

What Hump?

• 2.0 oz. Rye
• 1.0 oz. Campari
• 0.5 oz. lime juice
• 2 tsp. sour cherry jam

Shake with ice and double strain into coupe.
Garnish with orange twist.

For the first of my Young Frankenstein cocktails I took rye from a Manhattan, Campari and an orange twist from a Negroni and part of the lime juice from a Margarita, and then combined that with my Abby Normal ingredient of sour cherry jam. Using jam and preserves is somewhat trendy (or maybe just passed the trend — truth be told, I’m not that trendy), but it isn’t something that I’ve really tried. That’s a shame since there are some great artisanal jams out there which can provide some interesting sweeteners for drinks.

For me I chose sour cherry so that the resulting drink wouldn’t be too sweet and would stay more on the tart side, which this drink certainly does, especially with all that lime juice. The sour cherries give it a nice hint of sweetness, but tart and bitter (from all that Campari) win out here. For rye, I went with the bonded Rittenhouse which holds its own against the strength of the other ingredients.

The orange twist is the hump. Feel free to put it on the right or left side. On in the middle.