Sunday, June 22, 2014

Summer Beverages: The Lunar Caesar

For my birthday, my mum got me a jar of moonshine.

 

The packaging was enough to endear it to me immediately, but I also found 'Ole Smokey' surprisingly smooth for something 100 proof. I just don't come across too many situations where I am inclined to sip strong spirits straight up though, so I started contemplating a potential cocktail application.

 

On a recent shopping trip, I saw a jar of pickled asparagus spears, and having seen them used as drink muddlers before, I got to thinking, what about a moonshine Caesar? I gathered up some additional ingredients and upon returning home, I descended to the lab.

 

Like a lot of people, the allure of the Bloody Caesar eluded me for quite awhile. Not being a fan of tomato juice in the first place, adding vodka to it in order to construct a Bloody Mary was never appealing to me. The idea of adding clam juice to such a cold beverage was not only counter intuitive to me, but actually a little disgusting.

 

But then I discovered a couple of interesting things: first, that the Calgary mixologists who created it did not extrapolate the Caesar from the Bloody Mary, they were inspired to make a cocktail version of Manhattan-style clam chowder. Secondly, someone explained to me how the ingredients themselves are really just a foundation; a delivery system for all manner of spices and garnishes, and how the combination of savoury, salty and spice combine to make a beverage that scratches an awful lot of different itches, especially on a hot summer day.

 

I've only ever constructed Caesars at someone else's place, under experienced direction and supervision, so I was a little nervous about starting from scratch. I was delighted to discover that combining the moonshine above with

 

And a glass rimmed with this:

 

Along with a spoonful of this:

 

And garnished with this:

 

...made an absolutely delightful cocktail, suitable for enjoyment with company on the longest day of the year. I'm not married to Lunar Caesar as a name, but with moonshine as the active ingredient, it fit better than Blue (Moon) Caesar, or perhaps the white lightnin' could make Zeusar a possibility... At any rate, please leave a comment below if you have a better suggestion. Slainte!

 

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