Time for our roundup of truly awesome cocktails from this month’s Mixology Monday. We had the pleasure of hosting and our theme was “Hometown Hooch”. If you want more info on the theme, see here. But, in short, we were looking for cocktails that feature some of the bloggers favorite local spirits, and we were not disappointed.

We had many submissions from cocktail hotbeds of Boston, the Pacific Northwest and the Bay Area. But we also had some excellent cocktails from all over the US and serious representation from Europe. It seems the whole world is making local, craft booze. We think that is a good thing.

We will start with the Bergman Zombie (see the first cocktail image) from Robin at Kitchen Shamanism, a very good Scandinavian cocktail blog (worth a visit). The Bergman Zombie features Facile Stockholm Punsch, a version of the venerable Swedish Punsch. We are fans of the funky notes of Batavia Arrak in Swedish Punsch, so we will certainly be trying this one (we are always looking for excuses to mix a Tiki Drink).

Next up is the North of 7 Rhubarbian from Delicious Cocktail Time. It seems that Ottowa is making serious strides in local distilling and DCT featured the Triple Beam Gin from North of 7 Distillery. Combined with Lillet, rhubarb syrup and lemon juice, the Rubarbian combines local gin with seasonal ingredients. Rhubarb plays very well with gin and Lillet- so this sounds good to us.

Our Master of Ceremonies at Mixology Monday, Fred Yarm of Cocktail Virgin Slut gave us some old school local hooch along with some serious history. Seems that back in the day (like, the 19th century) many local distillers made bottled “punches” of booze, fruit and spices. Fred found a local product called “Hub Punch” and after a little time, Boston’s Bully Boy Distillers made a modern version. Fred’s Hubba Hubba, takes the Hub Punch into the 21st century (the post is worth a read, cocktail history never disappoints.)

Staying in Boston metro, GarnishGirl gave us the aptly named Boston Mollasacre using local Folly Cove Rum from Ryan & Wood. Turns out that Boston was once a hub of rum production before whiskey became our national spirit. But even as rum production faded, there was still a LOT of molasses left around…with surprisingly dire consequences (take a look). Regardless, we love molasses, and combined with rum, ginger beer and lime, it’s hard to go wrong.

Moving west to Seattle, the Shrubbery gives us two tasty cocktails featuring their strawberry champagne shrub (we want some of that!). The first cocktail is O’Keefe’s Wild Rose, featuring Hedge Trimmer Gin from Sun Liquor and Rose Sugar from Libertine Tacoma. The second cocktail is the aptly named Strawbeery Punch, a beer-based punch using Naughtly Nellie from Pike Brewery. Sounds like a perfect summer sip.

Ok, its back again to Boston and Bully Boy Spirits. This time, Drink Something Completely Different gives us the Old Boy’s Club cocktail using Bully Boy Boston rum (Boston and rum again…hmmm) with Boston bittahs, elderflower liqueur and a dash of Green Chartreuse. We look forward to trying this (and we do have all the ingredients except the Bully Boy) and seeing how the rum, elderflower and Chartreuse play together. Truly something completely different…

Let’s traverse the continent yet again and return to the Pacific Northwest and check out a few cocktails from one of our favorite blogs, Booze Nerds. If you want to know what’s going on in spirits in the Northwest, the Booze Nerds have you covered (and we mean totally covered). The first cocktail is the Wedgewood Cooler using Copperwork’s Barrel Aged Gin with lime, mint, Yellow Chartreuse and a splash of seltzer…you had us at “barrel aged gin and lime”….Their second cocktail the Primrose Path uses Westland Sherry Wood Whiskey, Whidbey Island Distilling’s raspberry liqueur and chocolate bitters from Scrappy’s– all local. (And they include links to a number of other local suppliers, excellent).

Now to Texas, and a drink from Gary at Doc Elliot’s Mixology. He makes the I’m Not Dead Yet (Just Married) cocktail, an old-fashioned style cocktail using local Rebecca Creek Texas Whiskey with agave, Mission Fig bitters (which sound amazing) and an orange twist. We would be happy to go to Texas just to try this…and perhaps make a side trip to Franklin BBQ in Austin.

One of our favorite cocktail bloggers, Andrea at Ginhound takes us to a beach in Denmark and uses their truly “local” hooch, D Argentum dill aquavit from Den Ny Spritfabrik. The Beach cocktail uses the aquavit, cucumber, rose tincture and a bit of Nori dust- all with a beautiful presentation. We have cucumber coming in the garden and you can bet we will be matching it with some aquavit later this summer.

Our friends at Southern Ash in Little Rock often feature spirits from Rocktown Distillery in their MxMo posts, and this month was no exception. In fact, they went deep and made a riff on the (oft-maligned, yet often enjoyed) Long Island Iced Tea using Rocktown rum, white dog, vodka and gin for their Little Rock Iced Tea. We have been known to toy with LIIT variants for MxMo, so this one gave us a smile.

Now back, yet again, to Seattle and Scott at Shake, Strain & Sip, another delightful cocktail and spirits blog that is worth a visit. Scott makes two cocktails featuring local gin. The first is the Bubble Bath a cocktail with Batch 206 Counter Gin, Scott’s own Rose’ Vermouth (very cool), lemon, peach a bit of lavender and sparkling wine. We like the sound of this one (read on, you will see we like gin, lavender, lemon and sparkling wine). The second cocktail, the Fashionably New combines Copperworks Malt barrel aged gin (a second appearance this MxMo), honey, Scrappy’s and Angostura bitters and an orange twist. We are seeing more old-fashioneds made with gin or genever these days, and a barrel-aged gin seems like a very good approach.

And now we go all the way to Romania and Marius of the Arcane Potions blog (love the name). His cocktail, the Pe Un Picior de Plai features Tuica, a local unaged plum spirit that is still made in backyards (the EU may frown on that, but they are no fun). Marius compares the flavor of Tuica to Pisco or Cachaca. The cocktail finishes with apricot liqueur, lemon, Tonka bean syrup and creole bitters. A very local and yet very global drink…cocktails are special that way.

We will finish up here in the Bay Area. Chris at A Bar Above makes the Sonoma Rush cocktail using Rye Whiskey form Sonoma Distilling Company, yellow Chartreuse, lemon, local honey, celery bitters and his own celery for garnish. And since we just happen to have a bottle of Sonoma Distilling rye staring at us, we will certainly be making this and looking forward to tasting how celery plays with whiskey.

Finally we have our two “Hometown Hooch” cocktails featuring local gin. Our first, the Abeilles et Lavande, is a lavender-tinged take on a French 75 using Venus Spirits Blend No. 1 Gin. Our second is the Wunderlich Park, a very Norcal Martini variant using St. George Terrior Gin, Pineau de Charentes, Bittermen’s Hopped Grapefruit bitters and a lemon twist. Tastes like a redwood forest smells in the morning….

Whew…feels like we just travelled around the world. And in our own MxMo way, I guess we just did. Cool. (If we missed any entries, please let us know). Until next time…