Tonight in the chatroom is a Thursday Drink Night with the theme of “brand new.” Since it is a brand new year, it is time to bring out an ingredient you have never used in a TDN drink before. Perhaps a dusty bottle like that Galliano that sticks out over the rest of the bottles on your bar. Or perhaps a new addition to your shelves.  Either way, show up after 8pm EST and show off your new (to us) ingredient!

Tonight at the Mixoloseum chatroom starting at 8pm EST is a w(h)ine-themed Thursday Drink Night. With the duality of the event title, the object is to create tasty wine-containing cocktails and name the drink after a complaint. Whines about relatives, bosses, or bunions are all fair game. Remember, an hour spent with us is still cheaper and more effective than one spent with your therapist!

Thursday night at the Mixoloseum chatroom will be a hot beverage-themed drink night. With winter setting in on some if not most of us, warm fortifying beverages are needed to get through these dreary colder days. Therefore, show up with your ideas, your ingredients, and your tea kettle on Thursday the 15th starting at 8pm EST! Hot toddies, mulled wines, and Negus are all welcomed.  Our legal defense team headed by Stan Jones, Esquire, has declared that Blue Blazer drinks should be done at your own risk and discretion though.

Tonight at the Mixoloseum chatroom will be a red and yellow themed drink night. With autumn well upon us, let us honor red and yellow, two of the primary colors of fall by putting them in our drinks! Reds like Campari, Cherry Heering, and Angostura Bitters, and yellows like Lillet, Yellow Chartreuse, Galliano, and Strega are but a few of the options. So join us from 8pm EST onward to share some newly created recipes!

• Erik Ellestad of the Savoy Stomp continues on with his tales of Italy with a photo safari focusing on drink menus and trends.
• Go comment on Matt Rowley’s post on the Whiskey Forge blog to get a chance to win a recipe card set from Tales of the Cocktail 2008! Matt also makes candied peels from the ever strange but aromatic Buddha’s Hand Citron.
• In With Bacchus’ Scott Spolverino quite enjoyed tasting Sweet Leaf Lemon Iced Tea although he’s not quite sure about the can’s artwork.
• Chuck Taggart of the Gumbo Pages shares his excitement about 11/11/11.
• Cocktail Virgin/Slut’s Frederic Yarm provides a summary of Harold McGee and Dave Arnold’s Science of Cocktails seminar at Harvard and a review of the Greater Boston Beverage Society’s Shakin’ It Up event which is a precursor to their Boston Cocktail Week in October 2012 (includes gossip about the new Fee’s bitters flavor for 2012). He also previews four Boston bars that will be opening soon including where Misty Kalkofen will be working, and he gives tasting notes of No. 3 Gin that he tried at a Boston release event at Eastern Standard.
• Darcy O’Neil of Art of Drink recreates the classic sodahouse Chocolate Phosphate drink with both acid phosphate and lactart.
• Alcademic’s Camper English relates stories, recipes, and photos from the Suntory cocktail competition in Japan — I am still blown away by one of the garnishes. Also part of his visit was a tour of Japanese whisky distilleries. Back at home in San Francisco, Camper reviews the new Azucar Lounge and previews Oakland’s Plum Bar. Finally, he makes some garnish-worthy pickled grapes from Can It, Bottle It, Smoke It And Other Kitchen Projects and writes about it on FineCooking.
• Tiare of A Mountain of Crushed Ice reviews a great rum she was introduced to at the UK Rumfest, namely St Nicholas Abbey 12 Year Rum from Barbados. With this “rich and fruity with a touch of spices, wood and caramel” rum, she mixes up one delicious Daiquiri.
• A Jigger of Blog’s Matt Hamlin tinkers around with the Bittermens Commonwealth Tonic Cordial. Instead of a soda or a sweet syrup, this alcohol-laden cordial provides a lot more options for cocktail making.
• Michael Dietsch of A Dash of Bitters passes on some helpful tips on how to host holiday parties in his Cocktails 101 series on Serious Eats. He also shares some cute photos of his home bar’s barback.

The theme for Thursday Drink Night is “Rick Stutz Dance Party” in honor of our very own Kaiser Penguin! The dance party itself won’t be held that night, but in a few months at Drink.Write in Washington D.C. This should not stop you from dancing your very own Stutzian jig in between juggling bottles of J.Wray & Nephew and Fernet Branca with Tom Cruise-like flair.  Some of the drinks created on the 6th will make the menu to be served at the event in December!

Last Thursday here on the Mixoloseum chatroom, we had an autumnal themed drink night. Seasonal ingredients included fresh apple, fruit brandies, and even a pumpkin syrup! Without further ado, here are some of the drink highlights from the night:

Kaiser Penguin himself, Rick, came up with a muddled apple Hanky Panky of sorts that garnered the highest amount of re-tweet action that night. Perhaps more Fernet than Ada Coleman would have added, but the apple probably soothes the savage amaro beast a bit:
Apple and Pain
• 1/4 Apple
• 1/2 oz Fernet Branca
• 1 oz Carpano Antica
• 1 oz Gin
Muddle the apple with the Fernet Branca. Add rest of ingredients, shake with ice, and double strain into a rocks or cocktail glass.

KeithP of the Speakista blog also included fresh apple in his Pennsylvania-named drunk:
Rittenhouse Square
• 1/4 Apple
• Lemon Peel
• 1/2 oz Maple Syrup
• 2 oz Rye
• 1 oz Calvados
• 1 oz Lemon Juice
Muddle apple, peel, and syrup. Add rest of ingredients, shake with ice, and double strain into an ice-filled Collins glass. Top with lager beer.

Wordsmithing Pantagruel’s Ed proffered a dark rum and spice number that was lightened with the ever tasty TDN classic, Ting — a Jamaican grapefruit soda.
Fallen Friar
• 2 oz Zacapa 23 Rum
• 1 oz Bénédictine
• 1/2 oz lime
• 2 dash Angostura Bitters
Shake with ice and strain into a rocks glass. Top with Pink Ting soda and garnish with a lime wedge.

Zach Pearson contributed a pair of drinks, and the Indian Summer was my favorite. The drink calls for Inner Circle, a flavorful Australian rum. Perhaps a robust overproof Caribbean or Demerara rum could substitute if you cannot source Inner Circle.
Indian Summer
• 1 1/2 oz Inner Circle Black Rum
• 1 oz Bonal
• 1/4 oz Apry Liqueur
• 1/4 oz Angostura Orange Bitters
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with 2 drops of Scrappy’s Chocolate Bitters.

Finally, I (Frederic of CocktailVirgin) did a little kitchen work and prepared a pumpkin syrup. It came out rather funky and herbal and I felt that pisco was the perfect match for it. French vermouth functioned to dry out the balance a bit, and a rinse of Becherovka added some extra fall spice (sub Allspice Dram if you lack this Czech liqueur).
Headless Horseman
• 1 oz Pisco
• 1 oz Pumpkin Syrup (*)
• 1 oz Dry Vermouth
Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass pre-rinsed with Becherovka.
(*) To make pumpkin syrup, grate a 1/2 pound of sugar pumpkin to produce 1 cup of shredded material. Add pumpkin and 1/2 cup of sugar to a pot. Heat on a medium flame for 5 minutes while stirring. Add 1/4 cup (2 oz) water and simmer for 5 more minutes. Let cool and strain. Produces a syrup that is under 1:1 in sweetness. Skipping the water addition will produce a syrup closer to 1:1 which will work well in Sours and other drinks (or to make the Headless Horseman in a sweeter fashion).

With the first NFL game of the season being on Thursday, the Drink Night that evening will have a fall sports theme. The event description is, “What drinks make you think of football? What would you pack for a tailgate? Bring ‘em here for TDN: Football! YAY FOOTBALL YAY!” Cocktails named after teams, famous players, stadiums, game plays, and penalties are all fair game. Buttonhook, Icing the Kicker, and Zebra cocktails are some drink name ideas for you to ponder over the next two days. For our European brethren who think football is played with a black and white round ball, remember, there was the NFL Europe League…

Details: Thursday, September 8th. 8pm EST onward at the Mixoloseum chatroom. Bodypaint, viking helmets, or foam cheesehead hats are encouraged.

Behold one of the earliest historical references to the first American highball that appeared in the New York Times on October 22, 1927. Five days later, bartender and cocktail book author Patrick Duffy’s letter to the editor would appear that claimed that the drink was not first served in Boston, but in New York  a year or two before when it was brought over in 1894 from England by actor E. J. Ratcliffe.

With the history aside, what is a highball? Basically, it is a class of drinks that are composed of a base spirit and a mixer built and served in a tall glass. Originally, the highball was probably first made with Scotch and carbonated water.

So get out your tall glasses and starting thinking on how to refresh. Bring this creativity to the chatroom on Thursday 7/14 at 8pm EST to around midnight or so. Will we see the next generation of Long Island Ice Tea or a J.Wray and Soda with a Fernet float? Come and find out!

On Thursday in the Mixoloseum chat room, the theme was beer cocktails and the energy level was rather high. Perhaps because beer is such a fun cocktail ingredient to play with as it imparts a wide variety of malt, roast, floral, bitter, sour, and funky notes depending on what style is utilized. And perhaps because this Thursday Drink Night was a few days before the Mixology Monday: Beer event and some of the participants wanted to craft a recipe for that. Here are some fine examples of the drinks that were made last week:

KeithP of the Speakista started things off with the Mambo No. 5 using a stout float for both carbonating and adding a rich malty note to complement the sherry and Meletti amaro. I found it interesting that Keith utilized a double gin style base akin to what is often done in the rum world, and their botanicals probably complement most stouts’ hops rather well.
Mambo No.5
• 1 1/2 oz Old Tom Gin
• 1 oz London Dry Gin
• 1/2 oz Solera Sherry
• 1/2 oz Meletti
• 1 tsp Rich Simple Syrup (2:1)
Prepare the drink Julep-style with crushed ice, top with 2 oz of stout, and add a straw.

Ed of the Wordsmithing Pantagruel blog contributed a few good recipes to this event. The one I liked the most was the Bruges Sling that complemented a cherry Lambic beer with fruit notes from lemon juice, Grand Marnier, and orange bitters and spice notes from Bénédictine, Angostura, and gin. While your garden might not have pineapple sage and pineapple mint like Ed’s, perhaps a nice regular mint sprig would do the job in a pinch! Read about his other drinks of the night on his post.

Bruges Sling
• 2 oz Gin
• 1/2 oz Bénédictine
• 1/4 oz Grand Marnier
• 1 oz Lemon Juice
• 2 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters
• 2 dash Angostura Bitters
Shake with ice and strain into a tall glass. Top with 2 1/2 oz Kriek Lambic. Garnish with a sprig each of pineapple sage and pineapple mint and add a lemon wedge.

Dan Chadwick of Kindred Cocktails brought together the magical combination of Scotch and Cynar and lightened the drink with a bit of pale ale. Between the malt notes of the beer working with the Scotch and the hops complementing the Cynar botanical notes, the pale ale far exceeds what soda water could have done to this recipe.
Choke Let Malt
• 1 oz Scotch
• 1 oz Cynar
• 1 dash Aromatic Bitters
Build on ice in a rocks or highball glass. Top with 2 oz dry pale ale.

A Drinker’s Peace was another multiple drink contributor that night. My favorite was his Rosehops which couples floral notes from hibiscus syrup and Bittermens Burlesque Bitters with hops notes from hopped bitters and Indian Pale Ale. The aroma of the grapefruit garnish does a fine job preparing the tongue for the IPA and other ingredients. Perhaps using Hendrick’s, Berkshire’s Ethereal, or North Shore for the gin might even tie in some bonus floral elements.
Rosehops
• 1 oz Gin
• 1 oz Lillet
• 1 tsp Hibiscus Syrup
• 6 drop Bittermens Burlesque Bitters
• 1 tsp Aromatic Hop Bitters (sub Bittermens Grapefruit)
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Top with IPA beer and garnish with a grapefruit slice.

Sunny and Rummy also used the funky and fruit notes of a Lambic, except that he chose an apple instead of a cherry one. Spice notes from ginger liqueur and rich ones from Cognac and maple syrup round out his take on the classic French 75 champagne cocktail.
Flemish 75
• 1 1/2 oz Cognac
• 1/2 oz Domaine de Canton
• 1/4 oz Maple Syrup
Shake with ice and strain into a champagne flute. Top Lindeman’s Pomme Lambic.

Finally, Zach Pearson presented a few drinks. The one I liked the best was the Black and Mild that utilized Compass Box’s Orangerie for some smoke, malt, and fruit peel flavors to tie together the orange juice and dark beer elements in the drink. A little richness and strength from Cognac and spice from Boker’s Bitters, and the Black and Mild seems like a tasty treat!
The Black and Mild
• 1 oz Cognac
• 3/4 oz Compass Box Orangerie
• 1/2 oz Orange Juice
• 1 dash Boker’s Bitters
Shake with ice and strain into a highball glass. Top with 4oz Jester King Commercial Suicide (or another dark, English mild).

Go see the rest of the drinks on the Mixoloseum Twitter including recipes from TDN alums Dr. Bamboo, SeanMike (a/k/a HighwayStar), and myself (Frederic of CocktailVirgin). And check the Mixology Monday: Beer wrap up post later in the week (perhaps by Wednesday night or Thursday) on CocktailVirgin.