Hello, and happy Friday once again. For this week’s drink, I felt like trying my hand at something new. With some success already with the pre-thanksgiving day cocktail, and the addition of a hot ginger lime syrup I received for Christmas, I decided to concoct my own original drink. What follows below is the “As Yet to be Named” cocktail:
2 oz Gin
about .75 oz hot ginger syrup
.25 oz. Vermouth blanco
juice of half lime
shake with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, garnish with lime wedge.
So my thought process behind this mixture was that ginger and lime make a natural pairing, and I really only needed to find the perfect base. Ruling out anything brown, I settled on gin after a quick taste test in the .5 oz measure. I felt it needed something, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was, so I settled on the vermouth blanco, since it was a fairly neutral vermouth that seemed like a natural jumping off point. Also, the juice of half a lime seemed like a nice touch to bring out the lime in the syrup.
With the ingredients nailed down, I went to mixing my creation. There is no nose to speak of, not even the ginger syrup shines here. The first thing that comes to mind upon the initial sip is how crisp and refreshing this is. The natural pairing of the ginger and the lime really shines through. Especially with the added lime wedge at the end. The heat from the hot ginger-lime syrup starts to make its presence known about midway through the sip with a slight heat tingle, which quickly mellows out. The vermouth acts as an agent to keep in check any flavor that immediately tries to overpower the sip. The gin comes through just enough to let you know there is booze in there, but it plays nicely with the rest of the building blocks here. Vodka would be a good base spirit here as well. As to the hot syrup, I liked what it brought to the table, though I found the heat to be a bit lacking. Although to be fair, I did infuse my own ghost pepper vodka, so my opinion might be slightly biased here.
When (and it is most definitely when) I make this again, I’ll continue to play with the recipe. I am thinking that the next time I mix this up, I’ll start with .75 oz of the ginger syrup, and then pull back on the vermouth, if not remove it entirely. Just to see what flavors stand out here. I also intend to try a version with a twist of lime instead of the whole wedge as a garnish. Or maybe a slice of jalapeño to kick up the heat. There is certainly a lot to work with here, now I just need a name for my creation…
(Banner image found here)
The Flaming Ginger probably won’t work for this one, but that has potential.
Probably just a Flaming Moe made with OJ, though.
I am a bad Mexican because I don’t understand the need to add heat to alcohol.
“Ruling out anything brown.” Fucking racist.
Hot Ginger Lime Syrup…wasn’t this first concockted by the Professor on Gilligan’s Island?
If only the Ravens had brought their A game like you’ve done here.
You should use Hendricks gin, in honor of hot ginger Christina.
Fronk as the banner pic. Nice.
Maybe rim the glass with some crystallized ginger?
Sounds tasty though.
This sounds like a good start. Instead of the vermouth, you could try an orange liqueur, or maraschino (the clear liqueur not the cherries), small amounts of a floral liqueurs (like elderflower or lavender) with the gin or a little allspice (or related, like becherovka) liqueur to go with the syrup. Also a good cocktail base to try out various bitters with.
Oh, and as for a name… The Ginger Hammer?
The perfect drink for anyone who is trying to boycott the NFL but wants to watch the Super Bowl anyway, and believes the Kavanaugh method applies (i.e. if you don’t remember it, you didn’t do it).
I have elderflower. I almost used that but decided on the vermouth. Adding that to the list of tweaks