There really is such a thing as a punk rock cruise.  It’s the Flogging Molly Salty Dog Cruise.  The cruise departs in November for the 5^th go round.  Its basically a traveling music festival with bands performing on multiple stages each evening.  There’s lots of other things to do like a casino, skateboarders and impromptu cabin shows.  And starting last year, I ran a craft cocktail speakeasy on two of the nights. The plan is to do it again this year on three of the four cruising nights.  And this year we have the amazing punk rock magician and good friend Mike Casey as an added bonus.  More on Mike later this year as I’m going to be in his home base of Raleigh NC a couple of times before the cruise and I’m sure we will be up to some antics at the Fox Liquor Bar.

Last year, I limited the menu to four cocktails.  Lorna’s Hammer, Mellon Korby and the Infinite Sadness, Aviation and an Enhanced Negroni.  You can read more about that episode in this post: https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/punkrocktails.com/30

My approach this year is a bit more ambitious.   I’m going to do 6 or 7 classic cocktails and then a variation of each of those that will be more unique.  The number of ingredients that this will entail will also allow for a pretty nice off menu selection.  This post is to provide an update on where things stand with the menu development.  Here’s what I have so far:

              Old Fashioned–Lorna’s Hammer

              Manhattan—Remember the Maine

              Daiquiri—The Kallina

              Pisco Sour—It’s Weird but I Like it

              Last Word—Unnamed gin cocktail

              Tequila Classic

              Undetermined Classic

The first two pairings are obviously solid whiskey cocktails.  The Old Fashioned will be made with rye in the classic, uncompromising fashion.  Remember the Maine is a fantastic variant of a Manhattan that I was first served at a bar called Tales in Zurich.  Its made with Rye, Sweet Vermouth, Cherry Herring and an absinthe wash.  Properly made, its got a fruity and bold taste with the anise from the absinthe lurking in the background.

The Daiquiri is a favorite of mine.  The version being served will be the simple classic method of rum, lime and sugar shaken and served up.  The variant, The Kallina, is a twist on the Plantation Pineapple Rum Daiquiri with some ginger liqueur and a special pineapple turmeric shrub.  I predict this cocktail will be one of the stars of the show.

The Pisco Sour uses the Peruvian brandy, lime juice, simple syrup with egg white and angostura bitters. The variant is based on a cocktail we had at Civil Liberties in Toronto.  Starting with Pisco, we will also use Apricot Liqueur, lime juice and an apple shrub.  If for some reason the egg whites are an issue, I’ll do a Pisco Punch as the classic.

For Gin, I’m going with the Last Word.  This is one of my favorite classic cocktails.  Its easy to make for a 4 ingredient drink, has great flavor and uses some interesting liqueurs.  As for the twist, I’m currently using Gin, Lime, Boomerang in place of the Maraschino Liqueur and Licor 43 in place of the Chartreuse.  I made it recently for some friends with good reception.  Oddly, a few of the imbibers found the aroma a bit “soapy”.  I didn’t so I’m not sure where that’s coming from…maybe the baked vanilla notes in the Licor 43.  So I’m going to use 4 dashes of cherry bitters to tone that aroma down a bit.

That leaves me with Tequila.  The most well known classic is the Margarita, of course.  I just think that’s a bit too close to what’s going to be served at the cruise bars so I’m looking for something else.  The Mexican Firing Squad is a strong candidate.  That uses Tequila, Agave, Grenadine and Lime.  It’s a tasty drink that looks great and should be easy to do a variation on.  But more to come on this.

Finally, I want to do one more classic.  Probably not whiskey as I have two already and given some of the ingredients in play already, I can do a number of off menu items.  I’m considering do a scotch cocktail like the Blood and Sand or the Penicillin, but scotch is a tough base spirit and I don’t have any good ideas on a variation.  Possibly I could just do both as most of the ingredients are already in play.

I’ll be seeing Flogging Molly next week in the UK, so I’ll go over this with Dennis to see what he thinks.

Happy 4^th of July