Anadyomene's Waves

Happy Tiki Month, folks! We here at Feu de Vie* are getting back into the swing of things and boy are there a ton of recipes yet to refine and post, let alone the recipe bunnies that pop into the head unbidden. Above all, we had to squeak this next recipe in before Tiki month ended for a whole 11 months.

*and I truly mean We - check out Boomer's first official attributed post!

For those not in-the-know, one of the best internet cocktail parties of the year is always Tiki Month, hosted by Doug at The Pegu Blog each February. Doug explains the origins in the first link better than this Jane-come-lately can. But, quite simply, Tiki is the advanced thermonuclear global timeshare, the Indiana Jones adventure of cocktails. The wistful sunsoaked beaches and hula skirts of Tiki were meant for the dreary, snowy winter months (that were yet chock-a-block with fresh winter citrus!). While some crazy spirits saddle up with NOLA cocktails like the Vieux Carre or Sazerac for Mardi Gras, others party the whole month with Jet Pilots, Mai Tais and Missionary's Downfalls. So while you may be doing Orpheus-knows-what with beads and the Krewe de Muses tomorrow, join the party and make yours Tiki!


Now then, way back when I promised all of you a second cocktail using my ethereal Meyer lemon falernum. My first, the Telesto (with falernum recipe ready and available for cri-Tiking), was an odd gin-rum-arrack riff on the Saturn style of low-proof blended recipes with orgeat. This time around, we're expanding the spirit range and attempting a tequila-based recipe using a tequila blend. Granted, tequila doesn't quite have the range that rum does, with all the variation in and around the Caribbean alone, but there are still altitude- and aging-based nuances available to play with.


The sinking sun glimmers gold and pink on the placid surf, her shell drifting towards shore....had she always been there, coasting the waves? The sailor watched in trepidation, the foam drip drip dripping from her locks. Her long fingers reached back and wrung kinks into the flax. The land was not her natural state.

Why yes, this is a Tiki cocktail in a clamshell birdbath. Why do you ask? #garnish

Anadyomene's Waves

3/4 oz blanco tequila

3/4 oz reposado tequila

1 oz Don's Mix #2

1/2 oz Meyer lemon falernum

1/2 oz lime juice

6 drops Bittercube Jamaican #2 bitters

Shake with crushed ice and strain over over larger cubes.
Garnish with untold waves of citrus zest (Meyer lemon, lime, grapefruit).

If using falernum without Meyer lemon juice added in, add 1/4 oz ML juice to the mix. As when working with all citrus, check the tartness, especially with the grapefruit, and adjust accordingly.

Go big with flavor here - you won't regret it. You want tequila with hogo, if you can find it. Get a big grassy, peppery blanco (i.e. Siembra Azul) and a rich, earthy funky lowlands reposado (i.e. Corralejo). Bottles bold in tequila flavor (and perhaps less sweetness) win in this cocktail.

Proboscis: candied pink butterflies made of crystalline sunbeams. Meyer lemon, pink peppercorn, ginger, grapefruit, faint grassy agave.

Tastebuds: a burst of sweet pink spice on the tongue dries to tartness over the palate. Agave emerges sip after sip. Even as it dilutes, you find more layers revealed. Pink lemonade, weak cinnamon, shimmer of dark spices cooking underneath.


That thing with the name? Let just say an ice strategy of crushed ice pressed into the form of a scallop shell in the glass would not go amiss. It came to me while breathing in my seaweed/sea air shampoo a year and a half after getting the recipe down. Darn Venus combust sneaking out through the art - and here I thought I was a tomboy..

Seriously, though, if you look at the structure, there are far more variants out there than you can swing a drunken Kermit at. The Golden-Eyed Tree Frog for one. So glad I didn't name this one after a Bajan lizard.

Mixology Monday, September 2014: The Unknown

Welcome back, peeps! Mixology Monday has rolled around yet again and it seems like between today's recipe and last week's HAL 9000 Goes South for the Winter in a Pink Tutu, this is the month to Remember the Hell Kitten (you'll see), 2 years from its origin at MxMo 65, the first under the auspices of head kitty wrangler Fred Yarm.

This month our fine host is Chris of A Bar Above, an inexhaustible source for cocktail know-how, with the theme, The Unknown.

(Cue dramatic music)

Ok, ok… It’s not quite as dramatic as I make it out to be.

Basically the idea is to try something new, an ingredient or technique that you’ve never had experience with before and create a cocktail around it.
Here are a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing:

• Use a spirit that you’ve never used before. It could be a base spirit, modifier or that Belgian Ale that rings in at 15% alcohol.
• Use an ingredient that has always captured your imagination in the supermarket. Maybe that weird looking fruit that you always walk by at Whole Foods, or that unusual looking vegetable that you can’t even pronounce.
• Use a new technique that you’ve never tried, but have always wanted to. Have you been dying to make your own vermouth, amaro, or martini glass made completely out of flavored sugar.

Scamper down the rabbit hole when this link is active to know The Unknown. Don't say I didn't warn you!


Friday night, MoD's lair, planning session

MoD: Ok, my little research buddy, what've you got for me?

Boomer: You need to give me more walnuts. And mulled cider, yeah that's the ticket.

..because it's fall, or..?

Lady, have you taken a look at your ingredients rollcall lately? Have you perhaps considered doing tamer recipes for a year instead of something new and adventurous at every turn? Maybe cut down on the special orders of clitoria from Thailand?

Well I have to learn somehow.... Running into difficulties with ideas?

Let me put it this way: I've compiled a short list of things you haven't done yet.

Ok, this ought to be interesting. Shoot.

Truffles.

Not really a fan of shrooms..

Ok. Mustard.

Ooh, that's one I really wanna do. Just don't know if the idea's there yet.

Potatoes.

Vodka?! In this house?!

(have you seen the liquor cabinet?) No, potatoes. Fry us up some!

Let's get serious, babe.

Gefilte fish.

Twitter already ruled that one out for MxMo Preserves.

Dish soap.

Uh, honey..

Just making sure you were paying attention. Marmite and/or Vegemite.

That's more for sandwiches.

Fruitcake.

You're a fruitcake.

Oh I am!? Isn't that marvellous? Studded with candied fruit they could stop-motion CGI me.. I'd like to thank the academy..

You are indeed, little one.

Ok, the piece de resistance, you know this one would kick tail: fish eyeball!

*facepalm* Morimoto-san has a restaurant right in town, hon. It'd steal his thunder.

Well ok then, here. Try seeing things from my perspective.

Your seed mix? I don't think distilled millet would go over. Oh Boomer..

Sunday night, MoD's returned from the grocery store

Boomer: Any luck at the store?

MoD: Eh, nothing really called out to me. We've got cassoulet ingredients,
but I guess I'll have to come up with something around here.

Dang it. Sounds like an all-nighter. Did you at least re-up on salsa?

Alas, no. Selection was weak and the only thing that sounded interesting was a peach-pineapple salsa.

But you don't like peach.

Right, so I got a pomegranate for a red-fruit contrast and some other things: make it fresh and all.

Ooh, n.......

*eyes meet*

I'll get the shaker.


What's that? Salsa? In a cocktail? Wait, what fresh hell is this?

Pineapple-Pomegranate Salsa (inspired by this recipe)
1 cup fine diced plum or cherry tomatoes
1 cup chopped pineapple
3/4 cup pomegranate arils
1/2 cup small dice green bell pepper
2 T minced red onion
1-2 minced serrano peppers
1 t minced fresh spearmint
1 t minced fresh ginger
1/8 t ground cloves
2 T white balsamic vinegar
1 T lime juice
1/8 t sea salt

Combine all, cover, let rest in the fridge overnight.

Ok, right. But how do you put it in a cocktail? Like this!


Maria Dances to Tito Puente
4 oz (liquid) juiced pomegranate-pineapple salsa
1 oz habanero-infused blanco tequila
1 dash orange bitters (Angostura)

Shake all without ice to combine, then pour into a Collins glass with a few cubes of ice. Garnish wildly with salsa ingredients - mint is especially nice.


Despite the smaller ratio of the tomatoes, you still get a good tomato-ey body and flavor, just with lots of other flavors poking through. Bright pineapple to start, with a tinge of citrus, vegetal green to keep things savory, ginger rounding and a fabulous mint nose with delectable heat on the back of your tongue. You can almost taste the corn chips with which you would scoop the salsa. The bitters also add a savory dimension (kinda like Worcestershire sauce) which helps your palate recognize the drink as being in the Bloody Mary family.

Now granted, you could just skip the salsa step and go straight to juicing the ingredients for a large batch, but it is interesting to taste how a fresh salsa could be transmuted into a Bloody Mary style cocktail.


Boomer: Wait wait wait, so what was the new thing? You've done tomatoes before (even if one was ketchup). The tequila's not new. And you know you've done similar compote-y stuff already.

MoD: Right, but one was cooked and and I never put the fruited guacamole in a drink.

Boomer: But what then?

MoD: Pomegranate, salsa, Bloody Mary style. That should be enough for one night.

G'night everyone! Thanks to Chris for hosting a devious devious theme and to Fred for rounding up all the hellcats and hellchillins - mind the spicy tequila - woo doggy!

Mixology Monday, March 2014: Preserves, part 1

It's not easy, bein' green..

Ahh...see? I told ya (you? Someone. I told someone..) I'd be back in good form, posting in-time for Mixology Monday once the vernal equinox had passed. And frankly it feels quite good to be back in the swing of things, the creativity engine done rested and ready to get back to regular recipe-making. Many thanks to my dear Boomer for getting last month's post out, even if too late to the party; he does me proud -- though there are those rare times where I see him eying the Scorpion bowl while unstuffing his snorkel set from his pouch.. It's a good thing hamsters have oversized livers.

But anyways...

We've got a great theme this month. Craig of A World of Drinks, who blogs all the way over in China and offers an intriguing perspective on shaking the good shake in an ingredient/resource landscape a bit different than what you might find elsewhere, is our host this month. He brings us a theme that hits both the Easy and/or Crafty buttons simultaneously: Preserves.

For this month's challenge I would like to take us back to the humble beginnings of the cocktail bar, the days when bartenders didn't have the luxury of daily deliveries of ingredients from around the world. In these times bartenders would have been uncertain when they would again have the privilege to work with special ingredients so would naturally try to make the most of them. As a result of this restrictive access to many ingredients we today take for granted many methods used in home kitchens for years began to find their ways in to bars. Such methods of preservation such as syrups and preserves have been staple ingredients behind the bar ever since, while others such as shrubs and sherbets were relatively short lived.

The aim of the challenge is to go back to the days of the preserve, pick an ingredient, seasonal or not and treat it as if you won’t be seeing it again for quite some time. Syrups, sorbets, jam, shrubs and the like are all fair game, anything that will preserve the integral character of your favourite ingredient.

As always, dear reader, when active, this link will point you to the summary post of this month's festivities.


As seems usual anymore, it takes a little bit to get the old wheels a'spinnin when it comes to MxMo themes. But one morning as I was waking up and deciding to get down to brass tacks, running the ideas of jams, jellies, shrubs and all through my head...the lightning bolt (savory in flavor), of course, struck: PICKLE PUNCH!

There are plenty of preserved items out there, not all of them automatically considered cocktail ingredients, but if used in the right way, well, why not? And on that note, to add a personal meander, genuine musings and unintentional links galore: like I mentioned on the Aquamarine, spring perhaps brings me back around to a certain set of ingredients like Meyer lemon juice or Skinos or Hendrick's, moreso than any other season. Not only that, but it seems my mental palette with this recipe has expanded beyond mere flavors to MxMo themes and recipes: unlikely ingredients, condiments and even Bein' Green. Not much of a point to the list, but I figure it's good artistic practice to step back and note idea sources where it fits, my ideas or others'.

The aside aside, Pickle Punch brought up a recipe idea or two I was tinkering with for the last couple of years, but more for summer, dealing with lily-pad-like garnishes: one branching off into something tranquil and Monet-like, then another becoming much more funky, with the working name Frog Pond*.

*note: there's actually already a cocktail called Frog Pond by our/MxMo's own Fred Yarm and it is creatively OFF-THE-HOOK from the funky flavors to the perfect visuals. *bows down*

This one tastes like someone should be plucking a mouth harp in the muggy background while others shoot skeet - but in the best way possible!

The Squeaky Frog aka Pickle Punch

1 part homemade pickle brine

1 part Skinos mastiha liqueur 

2 parts Meyer lemon juice

2 parts Hendrick's gin

2 parts blanco tequila

4 parts strong green tea

homemade pickles or a delicate froggy gherkin tip resting on a thin slice of fresh cucumber

Shake all on light ice to chill, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass or punch cup. Garnish.**

**the above-pictured garnish may have been a cuke fluke. Having attempted to recreate later with an actual pickle and more fresh cuke slices, it appears that the one above may have floated due to being a slightly-dry end piece. Pre-dried slices (of the thin-but-still-sturdy category) might be the answer. Maybe dry the pickles like banana chips?

The Hendrick's and pickles' English cucumber come to the fore immediately, undergirded by a weird vegetal aspect from all the other ingredients. Pickle spice dances throughout, but isn't overwhelming. I like it for what it is: it does have a refreshing quality and a punch-like balance, all while creating this specific vibe of tepid, algae-covered bayou - yes I just described my own cocktail that way. Manhattan or even G&T perfection it ain't, but it might be worth trying (or batching) for a lark, just to experience a very precise achievement of flavor - which might then give you new ideas of your own!

Stay tuned for one more MxMo recipe, 1-UPs for your patience.


Quick homemade bread & butter refrigerator pickles
1 cup 1/4" sliced English cucumber rounds
salt
3/4 cup rice vinegar
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 T mustard seeds
1/2 T coriander seeds
1 t allspice berries
tiny pinch tumeric
even tinier pinch red chili flake

Add your cucumber slices to a colander and lightly toss with salt to coat. Set the colander over a bowl and cover, letting rest an hour or more. Once the slices are adequately drained of excess water, rinse away the salt, pat dry, and add to an adequately-sized sterile mason jar (not too big, you want the brine to cover the slices).

Meanwhile, in a pot on the stove, add the remaining ingredients. Bring the ingredients to a boil, dissolving the sugar, then turn the heat off and let cool. Once cool, add to the mason jar and cover the slices. Put the lid on tight and set in the fridge to work its magic for at least four hours, preferably overnight. Eat within 2 weeks - they might be lucky to see Day 2.

I basically combined these two recipes into a happy medium, wanting to keep the sugar and vinegar equally-balanced as you would do in a shrub.

Aquamarine

Aquamarine

1 1/2 oz Irish whiskey

3/4 oz bianco vermouth

1/2 oz rhum agricole blanc

1/2 oz green chartreuse

1/4 oz tequila blanco

1 bsp pear eau-de-vie

1 bsp blue curacao

2 dashes rhubarb bitters

2 dashes Bittercube Jamaican #2 bitters

Stir. Strain. No garnish.

For all the March birthdays out there, especially the Pisces. Still, I'm sorry: somehow, it tastes like a more-richly-vegetal-but-clear Shamrock Shake. Yes, I'm telling you you'll taste mint and cream, despite (because of?) the ingredients. And it's both delicious and complex!

For a long while I'd had a draft post with only the title, Aquamarine. Similarly, I've wanted to devise an Irish whiskey/cachaça recipe because the high school percussionist in me adores how Brazilian rosewood marimbas often accent Irish folk music - though that's a recipe better realized at another time. Given how I generally prefer a good rhum agricole blanc to something like Leblon, I figured I give that combo a whirl while pulling in some of my favorite early spring cocktail ingredients (fast become a trend for me): bianco vermouth, pear eau-de-vie and rhubarb bitters (in addition to Irish whiskey and rhum agricole being stars of some Ti(n)sanity posts from this time last year). Plus, some elements simply demanded inclusion, if only because of the name and that St. Paddy's Day draws nigh.

Now, I'm sure you're looking at all the ingredients above and shaking your head, because it is an obnoxious list (which would probably run you close to $200 plus a week's time for potential mail-order if you wanted to collect-bottles-from-scratch). But, I have tasted the recipe if you broke it down to base parts of whiskey, vermouth, rhum, chartreuse and rhubarb bitters - and it's only 66% there. The other small ingredients truly give a proper rounding and depth - the tequila, eau-de-vie and curacao (yes, the curacao has a flavor, it ain't vodka) add extra vegetal and fruity notes with their sweetness taming the heat from both the chartreuse and rhum, while the bitters balance out the added sweetness. And...well, there's more, but it's better developed at the next Ombudsman session.

Suffice it to say, to hell with current attitudes: elegance rocks and generally produces greatness (and the Manhattan is a supreme muse-rich cocktail, despite it being untrendy in some quarters), but a muse has gotta do what a muse has gotta do, whether it's neophyte (or even cognoscenti)-friendly or not.

For those brazen hearts who wish to take up the challenge of this drink, some notes on ingredients:

• Tullamore Dew 12 years - a dry Irish whiskey like this sets the cocktail up for success.
• Martini & Rossi - aggressive vegetality is a plus.
• Neisson - the rough, funky 100pf doesn't get lost.
• Azul - a blanco with vegetal notes is again what's best.
• Schladerer - it's an eau-de-vie we're after, not a brandy or a liqueur. Dry, but so flavor-intense it becomes sweet. Anyone else using an eau-de-vie like this for a rounding accent? I'd be happy to give a shout-out.
• Eyeball the curacao - you know what an aquamarine gem look like, so use that as your final color target.

Sláinte!

Mixology Monday, August 2013: FIRE! part 1

It's time for Mixology Monday (number LXXVI if you're keeping count) once again! As host this month, I'll keep it simple this time around. The announcement post is here, just a few posts down, and our theme? FIRE! (round-up post here)


My inspiration this month? In addition to the Fire element, the concept of split-spirit cocktails has been bouncing around in my noggin' ever since the return of MxMo a year ago, with the Equal Parts theme -- I even considered making that the theme (but that seemed a bit too close on the heels of another cocktail structure challenge, Flip-Flop). Also? I just added my first bottle of ouzo (Metaxa) to my cabinet and I'm liking it quite a lot, so that's going in the hopper as well for both of my Fire cocktails.

This first cocktail keeps the flames neat and tidy, utilizing a flamed orange zest not just for finesse, but for
those tiny little sparks that make all the meaning*.

Apollo's Arrow

3/4 oz blanco tequila

3/4 oz ouzo

3/4 oz fino sherry

3/4 oz white grapefruit juice

dash Benedictine

flamed orange zest for garnish

Shake all but the zest on ice and double-strain into a chilled pillar-like flute glass.

Flame a bow of orange zest over the drink and shoot sparks on it.

Everything emerges on the nose, the flamed orange zest not so overpowering in that regard. On the palate, the ouzo is a smooth, rolling anise on a tequila-sherry base with grapefruit softening; the anise doesn't knock out your tongue in the process, nor do the zest oils or grapefruit bitterness. The Benedictine adds a slight herbal depth which develops with more time in the glass. It depends on your choice of spirits, but while intending for this to be a light, crisp and refreshing libation, the more time elapses you might get a trace of jamminess from the zest or the maple-like notes from the sherry might assert themselves.

As you can see from the structure of the drink, this is a riff on the grand old classic Corpse Reviver #2, but switching flavors to be tequila-focused. I had all my components assembled, so when it came time to mix this structure seemed like a good starting point...and ended up being a good finishing point too. You might also note the liqueurs are also switched up in that anise-noted ouzo is a larger component while sweeter Benedictine adds a grace note, all while not unbalancing the grapefruit. I should also mention there is an earlier, more pineappley, tequila riff on the recipe, Corpse Reviver #5 -- one of the fortunate things about working with ouzo is how it guarantees some toe-free step space!

Stayed tuned, one more cocktail for MxMo is yet to come! Where there's fire, there's smoke!

*[Updated to add: while not turning this into a book, if you get the Paglian imagery/references, bug me, will ya? I'm sure we could talk our ears off.]

Mixology Monday, September 2012: Equal Parts

Did you know? It's Mixology Monday! A venerable institution among cocktail bloggers, MxMo has been the web's premiere rotating monthly cocktail party, now on its 65th iteration. The event, on a hiatus since February but long-helmed by Paul Clarke, has been passed to the great Frederic "Fear the" Yarm of Cocktail Virgin Slut to take up the charge.

Feu de Vie didn't even exist the last time MxMo took place, so it's a thrill to be a part of it this time.

To start things off again, this month's theme is Equal Parts. The challenge, as described on the Mixology Monday site:

For this month, I have chosen the theme of equal part cocktails — those simple drinks where only one jigger is needed despite how many ingredients are added. These recipes have gained a lot of popularity as classics like the Negroni and Last Word have resurfaced, and variations of these equal part wonders have become abundant.

Find or concoct a drink recipe that has an equal parts recipe. Garnishes do not count, and if you want to be a non-purist and include a dash of bitters, that is fine too. 

When active, this link will send you to the summary post of this month's festivities.


This is going to be an odd post, both for the multiple recipes and because the inspiration as linearly-read happens backwards. The Hello Katie and Oh Good, My Dog Found the Chainsaw are a response to the Hell Kitten not being as spirit-centered as this MxMo's "Equal Parts" theme might expect, and a number of their elements derive from the Hell Kitten and not vice versa.

Hello Katie

So I wanted to keep thematic with the Hell Kitten, but with more structure. As far as major Equal Parts formulas go, you have the how'd-they-come-up-with-that? Last Word, the classic class-of-its-own Negroni, the split-spirit-with-vermouth Saratoga, and the split-spirit-Sour Between the Sheets. I decided on a Between the Sheets variation, mainly because it's just so darn comfortable. It's one of the first serious cocktails I ever ordered - mainly as a conversation piece, but without flavored spirits or otherwise over-sweet. Also: I haven't yet gotten to the original Last Word cocktail (and my herbal liqueur collection is lacking); I am Negroni-formula'ed-out at the moment; and if I want to pull elements from the Hell Kitten, I've already done a tequila-vermouth combo. A fruit juice carryover would suggest a Sour at that.

So, I grabbed the tequila, strawberry, and citrus (when it had grapefruit..) from the Hell Kitten, but in doing so wanted to veer to a slightly different set of flavors from El Clavel Rojo. The white Rémy V and red tequila por mi amante, plus Galliano's vanilla and the original cocktail's name, "Hell Kitten", all added up to wanting to name this one "Hello Kitty" - but apparently that name's been grabbed a few times already.

But then I looked at the ingredients again and realized they're a good introduction to my major spiritous loves that I've blogged about thus far, if the relevant tags are anything to go by. If not Hello Kitty, then how about, *waves*, Hello Katie? I do generally do the anonymous act on here and Twitter, but you can call me Katie or Kate. And though I'm sure Feu de Vie has been a bit under the radar so far, I'm glad you stopped by for a visit and do hope you return!

Hello Katie (top),
Oh Good, My Dog Found the Chainsaw (bottom)

Hello! -Katie

3/4 oz tequila por mi amante

3/4 oz Rémy Martin V (eau-de-vie)

3/4 oz Galliano l'autentico liqueur

3/4 oz Meyer lemon juice

Shake, strain, chilled coupe, Meyer lemon twist.
Small crack of Himalayan pink sea salt if desired.

The tequila por mi amante is mellow and laidback in its strawberry flavor, Rémy V harmonizes and balances, Galliano's low anise note best emerges here, followed by a creamy sweetness, and the Meyer lemon's aromatics are a lace shawl over the strawberry and spice while not being overly tart and palate-burning like regular lemon in a Between the Sheets.

The Hello Katie's variant, the Oh Good, My Dog Found the Chainsaw, uses cachaça in place of the Rémy V (and a Meyer lemon twist in the shape of Stitch ears perhaps?). A more "street" cachaça like 51 Pirassununga tends to dominate while a higher grade like Leblon is much gentler like the eau-de-vie and whose grassy notes frolic with Galliano and the Meyer lemon nose - and perhaps bring out the strawberry even more.

Hell Kitten

Think of this as the love-child of Hello Kitty and The Most Interesting Man in the World. That or it's the cocktail version of pink Victoria's Secret sweatpants with "P I N K" arced across the rear.

It all started with the thought that I could showcase some spare hibiscus tea ice cubes as an ingredient. I had made them in my Tovolo 1-inch cube trays, which, interestingly enough, hold a little over 1 oz of liquid per cube if filled to the brim. (a ha! Units for Equal Parts!) Exact 1 oz cubes wouldn't be out of the question. But what then? How about a fast, furious and cute riff on the El Diablo?

Hell Kitten

2 oz habanero-infused blanco tequila

2 oz ginger ale

2 1-oz strawberry juice ice cubes

2 1-oz hibiscus tea ice cubes

Strawberry or strawberry-habanero blossom garnish

To a rocks glass add tequila, then ice, then top with ginger ale. Give a quick stir to get the drink pink. Really PINK.

Garnish with a strawberry, or, if you're really craving heat, a small strawberry inserted inside a seeded/veined habanero, cut with petals to look like a flower, as pictured (drink fast because it will infuse).

Notes:

• I used this recipe for habanero tequila. Mind the infusion carefully and taste-test after each hour. Even with a seeded and veined habanero being infused, it picks up plenty of heat by the 2-hour mark (a tiny taste test at that mark gave me a serious capsaicin high). 3 hours was just about right.
• Please please please please PLEASE practice scrupulous safety techniques when handling these little buggers (the habaneros). Use rubber gloves, protect your eyes, clean anything they touch before anything else touches it. I thankfully avoided it and don't want to know what a stray swipe of 350,000 Scoville units in the eye feels like.
• As for the structure, usually a highball is a 1:2 ratio mixer:spirit or vice versa. It's a bit overloaded on the mixer side with the ice, if only to manage the heat and to account for the time it takes for the ice to melt (and, 2 ice cubes doesn't make much sense amount-wise - 4 works a lot better).
• In addition to hibiscus ice, since the Equal Parts part of the theme would make it difficult to double-up on the same mixer, I also made strawberry juice ice cubes. If lacking a juicer: puree fresh berries, double-strain through a fine sieve and cheesecloth. The juice will remain thick, regardless of pulp removed, but that thickness is good for adding body to the drink, which moderates the tequila's harshness. (also, the leftover pulp is gangbusters if added to pancake batter)
• Ginger ale instead of ginger beer: the sweetness to balance the heat, and why cause confusion where the heat's coming from? The name does include Kitten after all.