Mixology Monday One Hundred and Six! This month’s theme is “Spring Break”. One of my favorite Twitter follows, Joel DiPippa, is hosting the rodeo this time around at the Southern Ash blog. The reasoning behind Joel’s theme this month is similar to my rationale for having Tiki Month in February: We are done with Winter. Even a mild one like this one. (Shut up Washingtonians! You had it coming.) We are invited to present a liquid interpretation of what Spring Break means to us, to hurry along that blessed celebration of the return of Spring.

So what does Spring Break mean to me? The classic, Hollywood-approved image of the holiday is of beach parties with people like this.

Sadly, all the ice in her Navy Grog seems to have melted…

Or these fine beach party goers…

You didn’t think I’d get through a Tiki Month without a Rule 5 post, did you?

One more image of the classic Spring Break, because rule 5 posts at the Pegu Blog always serve up something for everyone:

I apologize to the ladies for that girl who is in the way…

Do these images work for me? No. (Well…) By “no” I mean that I grew up on the beach. In the South. Beach vacations in March always seemed a bit silly to me, so I never partook in the whole “Mardi Gras outside Miami” thing. For me, the actual arrival of Spring is more associated with being able to get outside and (try to) hit the tennis ball.

Not pictured: Me

And my tennis drink, the single most refreshing sports beverage there is, is the venerable Gin Rickey. Gin, ice, soda. Done. It quenches thirst, drives away cramps, and softens the memory of that overhead you just butchered (possibly because this is your second Gin Rickey).

But this MxMo comes in the middle of Tiki Month, so I’ve spent quite a bit of time figuring out how to make a Tiki Gin Rickey. (And figure out a good name that wasn’t already cruelly plagiarized from me four years before I myself thought of it.) It is harder than it looks. Crossing a Rickey with a Tiki drink is a bit like crossing a peach with an aardvark. There isn’t a lot of common ground. Rickey’s are simple, clean, and strident. Tiki drinks are complex, indefinable, and melodious. I ended up keeping most of the clean simplicity of the Rickey, added a few classic Tiki background notes, and for judging purposes gave it the most ridiculously over the top presentation I could come up with.

Yes, it’s ridiculous. But I couldn’t shake the image of playing tennis in an Hawaiian shirt, then casually sipping from a pineapple half on changeovers…

“Man, could I use a Rickey’s Gin Dugout right about now!”

Now, the thing is, I succeeded beyond my expectations. This drink really kind of works, so I had to go back and do a practical version that you might make as something other than a lark.

It’s my first MxMo in ages, folks! I’ll try to not be such a stranger.

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