mrs. doyle

The theme for this month's Mixology Monday (MxMo CXVI) was picked by myself, Frederic of the Cocktail Virgin blog. The theme I chose was "Irish Wake," and it was a tough decision to pick this theme and make it the last. Mixology Monday has been around for 2 months shy of 11 years yielding 116 themed-events. Between lagging enthusiasm for bloggers to host events, low numbers of drink posts, and my waning desire to push the online cocktail party uphill, I had been considering this end for a year or so. Then at the tail end of MxMo 114 as I was trying to enter the roundup post link in December, I discovered that the Mixology Monday Word Press site had lost its log-in module and I was locked out. We did MxMo 115's announcements solely by Twitter and word of mouth, and it just did not feel right without a formal home base. It was a sign.

So for this final theme, the Irish Wake, I elaborated on my choice with the description of, "The Irish wake is a funeral tradition that is a send-off that begins at the time of death until the body is handed over to the church. It is viewed as a crucial part of the grieving process. My first Irish wake was a little over a year ago when Boston barman Ryan McGrale met his untimely demise. While the wake part with the family was sober, the mourning process with the Boston bartenders and the New York City ones who traveled up was most certainly not. Irish whiskey flowed... So what better way to celebrate the life and times of Mixology Monday and its 11 year run as the premiere 'monthly online cocktail party' than with Irish whiskey. For this theme, the approach is two fold. You can go traditional and generate or uncover a cocktail recipe calling for Irish whiskey. Alternatively, you can talk about a personal moment either where Irish whiskey played a role in life or where drinks in general helped the grieving process. Such stories were actually rather cool for MxMo 41 'Vodka is Your Friend,' so there is precedent for that, but it's not like we can break Mixology Monday for future events by straying from the rules."
There is a belief that mixing with Irish whiskey is a sin, and one of my old co-workers summed that idea up with his delicious Jameson cocktail the Sacrilege. I hold no spirit sacred, but I wanted to find a recipe that really highlighted the soft nature of the whiskey. In my search, I happened upon Eryn Reece's 2013 Mrs. Doyle in the Death & Co. Cocktail Book. According to a TimeOut article, Eryn named this after "the kooky old housekeeper from the Irish sitcom Father Ted." Essentially, Mrs. Doyle is an Irish Sour accented by a touch of Swedish Punsch. And for the photo above, I picked the best casket imagery that I could since the drink itself was not morbid in the least.

Mrs. Doyle
• 2 oz Redbreast 12 Year Irish Whiskey (Teeling Small Batch)
• 1/4 oz Kronan Swedish Punsch
• 3/4 oz Lemon Juice
• 1/2 oz Simple Syrup
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail coupe.

The Mrs. Doyle proffered lemon and sweet malt aromas with a honey-like note. Next, the lemon and sweet malt continued into the sip, and the swallow gave forth soft whiskey and a hint of tea and rum funk from the Swedish Punsch.

It is strange to type out my final line to my 87th Mixology Monday event that I have participated in, the 10th that I have hosted, and the 52nd under my cat herdsmanship. I would like to thank Paul Clarke for starting the event and for the participants of the 29 events before I started for making it such a welcoming environment, and for everyone who re-inforced the lost art of Roman numerals. And thank you to all the participants who have carried this phenomenon for over a decade. Sláinte!