:: mxmo cocktail chronicles wrap up ::

As I described in my announcement post, it seemed appropriate at Mixology Monday #100 to pay tribute to the man (and his blog) that started it all, Paul Clarke (of the CocktailChronicles). It was also good timing that Paul's reason for not posting much to his blog and for participating much in Mixology Monday, namely his book The Cocktail Chronicles, was just published a few weeks ago! A lot of the book's focus was how the concepts of simplicity, elegance, and timelessness helped to predict or describe which drinks had lasting ability. Therefore, why not pay tribute to recipes that do just that! Without further ado, here are the participants for the historic 100th edition of Mixology Monday:
• Leading off the charge is Doc Elliot with a Whiskey Sour using Belle Meade Bourbon and egg white; simplicity with 4 ingredients and timeless due to the 19th century recipe not changing much indeed!
• I, Frederic from CocktailVirgin, threw in next with a drink recipe straight from Paul's book, the Gin Fizz Tropical, that was a West Coast bartender's modification of a Charles H. Baker drink in the style of a Ramos.
• Pete from Meticulous Mixing delves into the elegance of the Martini; Pete notes that Paul's recommendation for 2:1 is a solid recipe but tries a range from 1:2 to 7:1 to find out how the drink's flavor profile morphs by proportion.
• Katie of the Garnish Blog (and fellow Bostonian!) tackles the Old Cuban which surprised her how young this drink actually is as opposed to how old of a style it carries; she even searches to find that Paul Clarke wrote about this drink back in MxMo III!
• DJ Hawaiian Shirt surprises me by not doing a remix of a drink, and instead discusses the history of the Gimlet on the SpiritedRemix blog. From scurvy-prone sailors to lush detectives, this drink holds ground today, and DJ even argues for why Roses isn't something to fear.
• Event 100 brought out a first timer, namely Leigh from the Salt and Bitters blog! She tackled the Seelbach that's 2 years shy of its century mark, and she opts to switch the Cointreau for St. Germain.
• Kafka from KitchenShamanism delves into Trader Vic's 1947 Bartender's Guide for a simple but elegant tropical libation, the Congo Cocktail. Sort of a blended Piña Colada minus the pineapple part that would certainly be welcome in these waning nights of summer.
• RatedRCocktail's JFL needed some convincing by me to participate. I told him that simple, elegant, and timeless Tiki drinks were definitely fair game. And JFL answered the call with Fog Cutter and even ties the classic's motley assortment of spirits in with the Long Island Iced Tea that he has been paying tribute to lately. The L.I.T. will unfortunately probably end up timeless as well despite not being all that elegant (even if you ask for a top shelf version... and I charge you $17 for it). Unless perhaps you approach it as a 4-spirited Daisy with kola syrup and orange liqueur as the sweeteners?
• Stuart of PutneyFarms considers timelessness and elegance with the Martini variation, the Hoffman House. However, variation is not the right word for 2:1 with orange bitters and a lemon twist is just about right for my Martini save for my equal parts moments.
• With a little convincing and an audio recorder to capture the answer, I finally got Paul Clarke to participate in the first Mixology Monday since he handed over the reins three years ago with his well named drink the Disappearing Act for MxMo LXV in September 2012. Here, 35 events later, he gives extra dignity to the Gin & Tonic by changing the format into the GT Swizzle via craft tonic syrup and lime.
• Andrea of GinHound selected one of my favorite gin-egg white drinks, the Clover Club and also offers her variation using red currant syrup and grapefruit juice as well!
• Joe of Southern Ash should have been earlier in this lineup but I missed it at first since he had tweeted it to me. Here, Joel returns to one of his early drink epiphanies, the Gin Rickey and riffs on it, too! Just imagine this entry between Kafka and JFL's.
• BartendingNotes snuck this one in as I was making my first pass of the entries on Tuesday afternoon. He was inspired by Paul picking the Negroni as one of the five great drinks to riff off of, and here, he takes a Gaz Regan turn with a Jägermeister for sweet vermouth one! Will finger stirring become timeless (even if it's not elegant)?
• TartinesToTikis snuck in before my Wednesday at noon second last call with a tribute to Sasha Pretraske. Simple tweaks on the Bee's Knees and Gimlets show how close to the classics things stuck in 2002.
• Coming in after the last last call (so no image above) is Dagreb of NihilUtopia who ponders his changing tastebuds through the years and how the Gibson is one of his straight spirits gin drink of choice lately.
• One of my favorite parts of the event is the memorable lost cats that rejoin the herd on their own time scale, and here it is old school Jacob Grier reflecting on the Golden Years of blogging along side Paul and making the Tango #1 from The Savoy Cocktail Book. Then again it took me about 6 years of reading his blog before I made it out to Portland to sit at his bar, so a week late (and learning about it by spotting it on my Facebook feed) doesn't seem so bad...

Perhaps that'll wrap things up or perhaps there will be a few more cats to herd (but they won't get me to fire up photoshop and make more images though). Looking back on my time with Mixology Monday, I started with the dirty sounding MxMo XXX after having followed the event for a few before I had a blog to write in (and was still writing on LiveJournal). Since that start in August 2008, I have participated in 71 events and hosted 7 including this one. Thinking back, I do recall the glee I had when Paul accepted my theme of "Tea" that I ran with in January 2010! So it felt like a great tribute to throw the theme in honor of MxMo's founder. In reflecting on this event, two personal drinking experiences with Paul stood out. One was the first time I met him at Tales 2009 at the Diageo Happy Hour where he served me one of his own creations, the Dunniette which I still think holds true today (since I have seen others serve this combination under different names). The second was more poetic -- I cannot even remember what I was drinking. It was Sunday night at the end of Tales 2010; Andrea and I had an early flight out the next morning (a mistake never to be repeated), but instead of getting some sleep, we decided to spend the late night hours with Paul at the Monteleone's Carousel Bar -- chatting and slowly spinning around and around. Until the spinning stopped. Wait, we closed a bar in New Orleans? The world did continue and we have met again, but like that poetic moment, it is always good to pause at the wonder of the world. And for now, that wonder is hundred of these wonderful online cocktail parties! Cheers to Mr. Clarke and his glorious book, and cheers to all Mixology Mondayers past, present, and future! The bar will probably start spinning again tomorrow, but for tonight, let's finish this last drink with a toast!