Mixology Monday Roundup: Drink Your Vegetables

It’s Mixology Monday wrap-up time! As your host, I’m truly having an amazing time with MxMo LXXII: Drink Your Vegetables, reading about all the exciting drinks and imaginative ways of combining booze with veggies. The turnout for this event shows the diversity of cocktail enthusiasts, and I’m very pleased to see some regulars, as well as some first timers who found inspiration in this theme.

First up is JFL of Rated R Cocktails, who answers that crunchy question, “What’s up, doc?” with Bugs Bunny, a rye-based carrot number to appeal to even the sharpest rabbit.

If it didn’t already feel like a vegetable patch around here, Raffaele Bellomi of The Shorter Straw brings us a trifecta of vegetal delights. The Green Wiseman (pictured) is fueled with gin and rocket. (That’s arugula here in the States.) Il Sangue di Maria is an unusual cachaça-tequila combo with celery and cherry tomato. Bitter Cup is a striking Pimm’s with fresh citrus, the traditional cucumber, and a big burst of Angostura Bitters.

Next we have a pair of Martinis by DJ HawaiianShirt of Spirited Remix. The Martini au Chef de Cuisine has a lacing of red onion than might just conjure my Gibson-loving great aunt from the great beyond. The companion piece, the Martini au Jardinier, is an herbal number. Parsley seems a quasi-vegetable, eaten as such in tabbouleh and pancake restaurants.

Scott Diaz of Shake, Strain & Sip entices us with the artichoke-based Cynar in his Choke On This Drink. With rye, vermouth, bitters and fig-infused cognac, I’m sure I’d choke with pleasure.

If the Fogged In Lounge seems a little low and salty from time to time, our honored visitor Matt L. Miller helps us out with the Low Country Celery, a dirty genever Martini with a little celery action and a spicy green bean.

Raul Zelaya of Death to Sour Mix brings us The Cherry Belle, and a rather sophisticated belle too, with pisco, sake and radish. Wow.

Ian Lauer of Tempered Spirits uses tomato syrup and Cynar to deconstruct a complete culinary concept as a cocktail with Ciao, Provence! I’m getting hungry.

As a scotch fan, I’m intrigued by Moscrop by Mark Holmes of Cardiff Cocktails. An unusual blend of peaty malt, sweet romano pepper juice and chili-infused vermouth, it looks a tasty thing of smoke and bite.

The incomparable Fred Yarm of Cocktail Virgin Slut and our fearless MxMo leader whips up a handsome Going Back to Mezcali by Donato Alvarez: smoky, herbal, sweet and of course vegetal. I’m intrigued by the way it looks like red like Aperol and tastes of cucumber. And is the rhubarb in Aperol a vegetable? Looks like chard stems but we eat it like a fruit. Sort of like the cucumber being a fruit but we eat it like a vegetable. OK—enough of that or my head’s gonna explode.

Nick of The Straight Up presents his Gentian Dream, an all-aperitif-and-bitters extravaganza featuring artichoke (Cynar), rhubarb (Aperol), celery bitters, and an herbal elixir supergroup.

Booze Nerds’ Christa and Shaun bring us a pair of cocktails featuring offbeat vodka infusions: celery root in The Night Market (which has sweet potato shochu as well), and watercress in The Hippy Chick. I’ve shown the HC here cuz I can’t resist a green drink.

More crazy infusions! Steve and Paul of Cocktail Buzz infuse moonshine with parsnip and soju with carrot as shown to rooty effect in their Logan 5.

I think if I had a Lazy Sunday Punch, a blended tequila drink from Elana of Stir and Strain, I might never get out of my chair. Floral notes, grapefruit and a cucumber spear seem to add up to a refreshing afternoon of idleness.

Andrea of Gin Hound lays down some of the hippest beets ever. There’s the fascinating, Fernet-driven Ode to Bax Beet Pinot, and then she goes and makes her own beet beer on which she bases the Beet Beet Cooler. How cool is that?!

More beets! Zach, who writes The Venture Mixologist, gives us the elegant, cachaça-based Beet Down.

And just when I think I’ve seen every Bloody out there, Jacob Grier of Liquidity Preference posts the Indonesian-themed, Batavia arrack-based East Indies Bloody Mary. Total cocktail dementia.

At the other end of the spectrum, Tri2Cook, with typical quiet charm, brings us an as-yet-unnamed sweet potato-bourbon whiskey cocktail. Sounds tasty like Southern cooking.

Speaking of Southern style, Joel DiPippa, who writes Southern Ash, presents The Sanguinary, which might be the rye cousin to Zach’s Beet Down. Really diggin’ all the beets.

What veggie cocktail party would be complete without a sangrita? Lindsay Laubenstein of Alcohol Alchemy comes to the rescue with a tomato version, Barrio Tequileria’s Housemade Sangrita.

Stewart and the folks at Putney Farm blow me away as usual.  For this challenge, they make an infused gin with their own veggies and stuff. And then they make a drink with it. It’s called The CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Cocktail. I’d support that any day.
 

David of Things I’ve tried to make does us the honor of making his first post a Mixology Monday. His yet-unnamed grapefruit-chili tequila libation looks like a tasty way to begin a blog.

Muse of Doom writes in from Feu de Vie (at the stroke of midnight—how singularly appropriate) with the slightly wry I Stubbed My Toe on the Way to the Arena, featuring smoky scotch and a familiar tomato-based condiment.

 
And my own Mexican Pumpkin Fizz offers a winter squash for all seasons, with tequila and chilies.

I would like to thank everyone who participated for all their awesome drinks, articles and effort. I’d like to thank Mixology Monday moderator Frederic Yarm who makes it all happen. And thank all you readers out there for dropping by to see us do this incredibly fun monthly cocktail writers’ event. Cheers!