St. Patrick’s Day, an excuse for Green Drinks (Cheshire, Polaris)

St. Patrick’s Day is upon us! Today’s drinks have nothing to do with Ireland, but at least they’re green! 😀

Good excuse to spam few photos from my last visit to Ireland, summer 2018…

 

Couple of limerock formations in Marble Arch Caves. If you ever visit Ireland, I strongly recommend visiting them. Okay, the cave is situated just a north of the border, in Northern Ireland, but anyway.

After such a gloomy underground pictures one might expect some Batcave-related drink, but instead of that we’ll go to Vietnam…

 

CHESHIRE

Ingredients: gin (London Dry, as usual), Lillet, Midori, tequila blanco/absinth, creme de menthe, fresh rosemary

1. Mix one part creme de menthe and one part tequila blanco OR absinth. Put in the freezer to cool.

2. Put lot of rosemary sprigs and 5 parts of gin in the shaker. Mush with pestle throughoutly, let it rest for 10-15 minutes.

(3. Enjoy another cocktail while waiting ;P )

4. Place couple of rosemary sprigs into the cocktail glass, add some crushed ice. Add cold dark green mixture from the freezer.

5. Add 5 parts Lillet and 1 part Midori to the shaker with gin and rosemary, add ice and shake vigorously. Layer to the glass, add more rosemary sprig on top.

(6. Optional: dry some rosemary sprigs beforehand. Light them up, to burn as incense, and serve the drink along them. Scent is pretty… hmm, intoxicating/”poisonous”. This maneuver is not necessary, but a nice touch anyway.)

So, we have pretty laborous cocktail with strong rosemary aroma? What this has to do with deadly assassin Cheshire?

One of my friends, Test Subject B., got his gin served with burning rosemary alongside while visiting Vietnam: he said it made “sort of nice ambience” for a relaxing moment with a glass of gin.

I tried it, burning rosemary in my home, with or without drinking gin, searching for inspiration… the smell was pretty intoxicating after a while (well, I burned them all day long)… Heureka!

Keywords: intoxicating and Vietnam! Cheshire, assassin with Vietnamese background, sharp fingernails coated with toxin!

I started making experiments, and realized that you don’t necessarily need to burn the rosemary, alcohol is efficient solvent. We have soaked many things in vodka during the progression of this blog (licorice, jelly beans, Skittles, ginger, coffee etc.), now it’s time to drop some rosemary into the London Dry Gin… actually I recommend brands with sharper (some say “cheaper”) taste for Cheshire: instead of Beefeater or Gordon’s try eg. Finsbury or Greenall’s.

So, drink with “fingernail poison of Cherhire” was taking form… but something was missing…

As I’ve ranted, I never layer drinks just foor the looks (not even in Mr.Mxyzptlk, those layers also serve a non-visual purpose): layers, the order of drinking them, has to serve a purpose while describing cocktail’s namesake. I admit, I repeat myself to some extent while using the bottom layer for some kind of “end twist”: it might be comforting relief (as in eg. The Atom or Starfire) or a nasty surprise disguised as comfort (in Joker).

This time there’s no such thing, dark green bottom layer is just “a cherry on top of the cake”: it changes the the “overall sensation” of Cheshire The Cocktail just a bit, just before the end. Creme de menthe and tequila give more “serene” result, if you prefer “nasty final blow” (as you might, considering she’s an assassin) use absinth with menthe. Your call.

 

And before the next drink… more pictures from Ireland! 😀

 

First of all: it was raining, but the weather was much hotter than you might think. This rocky shore was a fantastic place for an avid fossil collector/spotter, as Yours Truly happens to be.

 

Remains of crinoids from the Carboniferous Period…

 

…some of them with spectacular detail. This beach is next to Sligo, in Western Ireland. Don’t forget to taste the oysters, fresh from the Atlantic Ocean! Dozen oysters per pint of Guinness, that’s my recommended ratio 😀

 

…and with the awe that the fossilized remains of animals, over 300 million years old, bring to our humble primate minds, we head toward the next awesome character, and towards her cocktail…

 

POLARIS

3 parts sour apple liqueur

1 part creme de menthe

Prepare a frappe: cool suitable small glasses in the freezer beforehand, super cold. Fill them with shaven/crushed ice, add a straw and an apple wedge, then quickly shake ingredients with ice until glacially cold and strain into the glasses.

Polaris, the daughter of Magneto… truly a inspiring character, and I pondered how to approach her, cocktail-wise… I decided to stick to her trademark, green colour, tried to reproduce the “sheer power” that Magneto the Cocktail manifests (through raw alcohol content)… but I ended up creating disappointment after another.

So, I scrapped my plans and crated simple frappe: straightforward, with a zest. Powerful throught “sting”, not by alcohol volume.

I think it’s okay. Truly a “Springtime Special” with sour apple mirth.

 

Okay, thank you for bearing with my holiday photos. I’m working for something special next time, it looks like it’s gonna take a while… see you in two weeks or so. 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Éirinn go Brách!