Siam Queen

• 2 oz. Vietnamese gin (Song Cai)
• 0.50 oz. cinnamon syrup (Monin)
• 0.25 oz. basil liqueur (St. George)
• 0.25 oz. lime juice
• dash of cardamom tincture

Rinse a glass with creme de menthe (Tempus Fugit) and pour out. Shake ingredients with ice then strain into glass. Smack a basil leaf, draw around the rim then discard.

Had the Vietnamese gin and wanted to mix with some complementary flavors to the region. Cinnamon and basil worked well. I tried mint in the mix and it was hard to find the balance. The rinse in the end was the perfect amount.

Siam Queen is the name of a basil strain, so seemed kind of fitting, though obviously a different area of the map. Siam Queen is a type of Thai basil, though, and is used in Vietnamese pho, so there’s still a connection. Long live the queen.

My Special Purpose

• 2.0 oz. Porter’s Tropical Old Tom gin
• 0.25 oz. vanilla liqueur (Giffard)
• 0.25 oz. Green Chartreuse
• 0.25 oz. Velvet Falernum
• 0.25 oz. lemon juice
• dash of El Guapo Polynesian Kiss bitters
• dash of El Guapo Barrel-Aged Vanilla bitters

Shake with ice then strain into glass.

The Porter’s Old Tom has hints of passion fruit, and I’ve always enjoyed that flavor with vanilla so added that liqueur. Lemon adds to the tropical feel and the acid, and I balanced it with some falernum sweetness and herbal Chartreuse.

The name was roundabout from the early Steve Martin movie The Jerk. I won’t go through the loose logic that got me there. But I’ve finally found My Special Purpose!

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.

Whisky Ginger Foxtrot

• 2.0 oz. Scotch (Lowlands blend)
• 0.25 oz. Wild Moon Sumac liqueur
• 0.25 oz. Drambouie
• 0.25 oz. Kina L’Aero d’Or
• 0.25 oz. ginger liqueur (King’s)
• 0.25 oz. lemon juice

Shake with ice then strain into glass. Garnish with lemon twist (not expressed) and candied ginger.

Playing with sumac here. No rhyme or reason beyond what tasted good. Initially it used bourbon, but I found the Scotch played better. I think you could experiment with region. Everything else, including the ginger, just plugged in.

I think the name is fun. That’s it. Over and out.

Yankee in Malaysia

• 1.0 oz. Bombay Sapphire East
• 1.0 oz. Plantation Pineapple Stiggins Fancy rum
• 0.5 oz. ginger liqueur (King’s)
• 0.25 oz. tamarind liqueur (Art in the Age)
• 0.25 oz. cinnamon syrup
• dash of Angostura bitters
• dash of orange bitters

Stir with ice then strain into coupe. Garnish with pineapple.

I tried to tie together some Malaysian flavors here, with the ginger, tamarind and cinnamon building on a base of eastern spiced gin and pineapple rum.

The yankee pineapple is a type of pineapple from the region apparently, thus the name. That’s it. Drink up.

Tsu Kimono

• 2.0 oz. Japanese gin (Roku)
• 0.5 oz. umeshu liqueur (Choya)
• 0.25 oz. ginger liqueur (King’s)
• 0.25 oz. lemon juice
• dash of King Floyd’s Scorched Pear and Ginger bitters

Shake with ice then strain into glass. Garnish with lemon (express oil optional).

I have had some umeshu liqueur, which comes from Japanese plums, for a while, but hadn’t yet utilized them in a cocktail. I went with a gin in the end, but think this could work equally well or even better with Japanese whisky. The ginger and lemon gave some spice and acid, and the bitters reined in the sweetness of the ume, which I wanted to make sure had lots of presence.

The name had an interesting development. Originally I had a name of Indigo Kimono, but as you can see from the pic that wasn’t going to work. In researching ume, I mistakenly looked at umeboshi, which is the pickled version of the plum. Umeboshi are tsukemono, the larger group of pickled fruits and veggies. Tsu Kimono seemed too good of a coincidental name, and tsu means “one” in Japanese (though I don’t think you’d put these together in this way actually).

Then I found out that tsukimono means “The Possessing Thing” from the Kanji “tsuki” meaning “possession” and “mono” meaning “thing”. This is a god or monster that has possessed and borrowed the body of a person.

A drink named after a spirit that possesses you? Seems appropriate.

Balancing Act

• 2.0 oz. American gin (Bespoke)
• 0.5 oz. elderflower liqueur (St. Germaine)
• 0.5 oz. Lillet Blanc
• dash of orange bitters
• (1.0 oz. Prosecco)

Stir all but Prosecco over ice, then strain into coupe. Top with Prosecco.

I’m not a huge fan of any sparkling wine, but occasionally wind up with a bottle. I wanted to utilize it here with a gin a la a French 75, but without citrus had to improvise. The result I felt gave enough of each component without overpowering one another.

Hence the name. Not to put my thumb on the scale, but I like the way it leaned. Had the proper weight.

Ok I’ll stop.