Cocktail Tuesday: Michigan Mojito

Sorry for the long radio silence. Today, I bring you a drink that Scott invented tonight, the Michigan Mojito, which takes advantage of our lovely Michigan cherries.

As you can see, we had a good harvest of cherries today, and there may be an equal amount left on our little tree. A huge improvement over last year's harvest of 0 cherries.

Michigan Mojito

1 tbsp sugar

5-6 mint leaves

5 pitted tart cherries

1/2 lime

2 oz rum

Club soda

In a tall glass, muddle mint, cherries, and lime in sugar. Add rum and stir. Fill glass with ice, top with club soda, and stir.

The verdict: Tasty! Imagine a Mojito crossed with cherry limeaid.

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Cocktail Wednesdays: Bijou Cocktail

We haven't done a cocktail for the last couple of weeks because wee were frantically finishing the basement bar instead.  We had to finish in time for a party we hosted last friday.  Well, at least, we had to finish enough for it to be acceptable for our friends who knew wh had been under construction to come over.  I meant to update you on the progress but obviously I haven't done that yet.

My mom sent us the cocktail book Imbibe, by David Wondrich as a "bar warming" present.  The Bijou Cocktail on page 256 was my selection from this book for tonight's choice.  The original source for this one is Harry Johnson's Bartender's Manual from 1900.

Bijou Cocktail

1 oz Green Chartreuse
1 oz Italian Vermouth
1 oz Gin
1 ds Orange Bitters
Maraschino cherry, as garnish

Stir over ice, strain into a cocktail glass, add a cherry, squeeze a piece of lemon peel on top and serve.

The verdict: Another of our favorites, I find this one both warm thanks to the sweet vermouth and bright thanks to the chartreuse. I like the combination quite a lot and was surprised at how well it blends.  Scott says that it has a lot of similarities in feel to a Manhattan, but he likes it better.  I feel that the gin blends into the chartreuse and the orange bitters and possibly the maraschino cherry add enough sweetness to make Scott wonder if there was rum in it.

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"Imitation" Maraschino Cherries

Yesterday, I dove into preserving the cherries I had pitted. After everything I had heard about real Luxardo maraschino cherries, 12BottleBar happened to post about how to make imitation ones, which apparently require sour cherries to be most authentic. Since I had sour cherries, and I wasn't sure if they would really be good for jam, and we have real Luxardo maraschino liquor, I decided to dive in and make "imitation" maraschino cherries -- which are more real than the stuff at most stores that is legally labeled "maraschino cherries". First, I had to brine the cherries and make the cherry syrup. A lucky find of bottled sour cherry juice at the nice grocery store where I went to pick up our Michigan maple syrup meant that I did not have to sacrifice a third of the cherries for making the syrup. Bringing the cherries for a day helps to preserve them and allows them to soak up more of the syrup when they are transferred later. The syrup also had to cool and sit for a day before adding the maraschino liquor. By this afternoon, everything was ready -- except for a pretty container. I combined it all, and in a few weeks the salt and syrup will be balanced out and they will be ready to use.


Luxardo maraschino liquor with my imitation maraschino cherries.

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