MxMo CVI - Summer Break

Oh - yeah... since a long time I am ready to participate another Mixology Monday - I am so excited.

This time - it is a quite easy going subject - Summer Break. This MxMo is hosted by Joel DiPippa of the Southern Ash blog - thanks so much!

As I am Beverage Manager in the real corporate life, I had also this time the idea to extend the fun, and ask the interested bartenders, if they would like to participate... two were excited as me - and you will find their thoughts and pictures below.

First things first: the thoughts of Joel DiPippa:

As we look past the frost in the air for the arrival of spring, I wanted to challenge you with the theme of Spring Break!..  The best part of Spring Break is that it means so many things to so many different people, so I have some high expectations this month.  Yes, tiki-heads, I am looking at you. I want all of you to dig deep, steeled by last month’s MxMO, and find your spring break drink! What sort of drinks do you enjoy when you start to break out of your winter shell? Do you crave a return to gin and tonics? Is there a drink that calls to you as the weather warms and the sun creeps through the sky longer and longer?  Perhaps there is a drink that you fondly recall from your days of being a callow youth on Spring Break that led you down this primrose cocktail path?.. This is the month to to share those warm weather finds!

Here in Dubai the seasons are slightly different than let's say in Arizona. The weather is changing from slightly chilly spring or autumn temperature (winter), to full blown summer temperatures (your spring or autumn) - to seriously insane "sous vide" temperatures in the summer. Winter is never seen here.

Due to this point drinks you will be able to offer 10 months in a year some summer drinks - and the 2 remaining months you are mixing mulled beverages - basically only because of their novelty (but on the side, you still make summer drinks) - if there is no rain (a felt 5 days a year) - sandstorm, or really "strange bad weathers", even on the coldest day in the year, you will have comfy "above 20ºC" over the day.

But as we all come (more or less) from countries with more confined seasons, we do exactly what the topic is all about.

First of all we look at Aurelien's suggestion, who works in the exciting beach restaurant Palm Grill.
Orel comes "freshly" from France - and isn't yet "spoiled" than many others in Dubai...

The Margarita, is such a classic drink for warm weathers that we can enjoy in many different ways; like on the rocks, frozen or strain into a chilled glass.

So I did the difference using strawberry/chili infused tequila which got to give us a real distinct taste but also gives us a nice red color.

Instead of a salt rim my goal was to augment the taste with the combination of acidic lemon salt and sugar, which is balanced and supercharged with the addition of  bicarbonate of soda to give the last touch by providing a fizzy effect as soon as you take the first sip.  

45 ml 100% agave tequila infused with strawberry and chili,

15 ml Patrón Citronge (or other quality orange liqueur)

30 ml fresh lime juice

5 ml sugar syrup.

Strawberry Chile Margarita

For me - it is rather everything about blue sky...

And yeah - I know - some people would remind me, that I always talk trash about blue drinks... but there is a difference: it is not necessarily the colour - it is the fact, that blue usually means artificial - and this is really my main point of dislike.

However there is something like "butterfly pea tea" (butterfly pea - is a shrub with blue blossoms), which can make a drink in a shade of blue... until it becomes acidic - then it turns purple or red.... a colour changing cocktail - based on natural only ingredients? Sign me up.

The perfect drink for the spring break season is for me a long drink, it is refreshing and doesn't whiplash your head, if you are drinking two or so of them. A highball is cool... or a collins? Well - I settled with a nice Tom Collins... 

Meet the Butterfly Collins... a slightly more floral variation of a Tom Collins; floral though doesn't mean, that it is more feminine - with Plymouth Navy it is as "gin'y" as it gets - and it is blue'ish purple - and it is just totally G&T'ish.

40 ml Plymouth Navy Strength

20 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice

15 ml rich syrup

1 tea bag Butterfly Pea tea

120 ml club soda

Infuse the gin with the tea bag.

Add ice cubes into the glass and add lemon juice and syrup and stir.

Add club soda and stir carefully stir again.

Float with the "purple-blue-infused" gin.

Butterfly Collins - sometimes tea bagging can be impressive...

Kshitij - also a rather new bartender from India, took another route:

This isn't the actual cocktail - just an impression - courtesy goes to the Manfort @ goobertech.net 

45 ml Ron Zacapa Solera 23 años

10 ml Crème de Banana (best house-crafted) 

15 ml Mozart Dry Cocoa Spirit

10 ml rich syrup

15 ml sour orange juice

Garnish with dehydrated banana chip

A drink, straight forward enough to have in any season. A blend of aged Solera rum, paired with mild fruity flavours of banana & cocoa. The complementing aromas with the support of a gentle sweetness would entertain perfectly a gloomy spring afternoon. Or just imagine a calm & serene beach,  sipping the drink in a cocktail glass - the rums' warm soul making it a perfectly cozy embrace.

So here you have it - 3 different attempts of drinks, which celebrate the spring break...

Please comment, what do you think about them...