MXMO ~ DRINK NERDY

I found this picture on Equestria Daily, then I screen grabbed and edited. 

The Back Story

When I saw the tweet go out about this month's MXMO, Drink Nerdy, I knew I had to participate.

In the last year, my four year old has exposed me to more geek culture than I actually care to admit. However, I will divulge that I went from having never seen a Star Wars film in its entirety, to having a deep knowledge of characters, weapons, story lines and I even came to have opinions about which I liked best. I have Pokemon Go, I know how to use it, Pikachu rides around on my shoulder and I can have an intelligible conversation about playing. I'm just a bit too old to have any personal attachment to the cards or games, so we're just getting started on the back story. OK, if I'm getting real with myself, it's not just because of my son, I read and loved all of the Harry Potter series and I read all of Game of Thrones. I even wrote a recipe subtly dedicated to it...but you'd have to be a real nerd to get it. So, it isn't really just my son, I have some pretty geeky tendencies of my own. And, clearly you do to. If you follow (or write) a blog that gathers up cocktail writing from other nerds, you're swimming in some deeply geeky water.

Nerd Geek Fan Culture

What I do understand now that I hadn't before, is that there are fully flushed out layers upon layers in these worlds. And even though all of the geek-doms differ, they all have that in common, and it's what draws us in. It really hit home when I saw one of my favourite comedians, Patton Oswalt, talking about his daughter loving the ultra geek laden world of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. Now the layers of this Meta tale really start to pile up.

I may have failed to mention that I also really love comedy. I listen to comedy radio, watch the same stand up specials over and over, have one of those inexplicable Loius CK crushes, obsess over Comedians in Cars getting coffee...Alright, I see how it looks but I swear that's all.

Patton Oswalt, generally considered to be the  King, (maybe a little more like Jon snow, not really a king but generally regarded as our, I mean THEIR leader) of the nerd-geek-fans, was talking about how he was too busy with his own geek worlds to get himself involved in his daughter's obsession with MLP FIM. He did so, while deftly revealing that he was actually a Brony. Yep, that's what they're called, Bronies, grown dudes (nerds) who love the world of the friendship ponies which operates on the same premise as all of the other geek-doms. It's a full world where every detail has been considered and coordinated. There are favourite characters, back stories, call-backs, continuing plot lines and villains, lots of super cool villains. My son and I are into it, really into it, nerd-geek-fan-Brony into it.
Well, not to long ago a new character appeared in the show. His name is Quibble Pants and he's a fanboy...voiced by Patton Oswalt!

As my four year old would say, "my mind has binned blowed"!    

The Nerd Drink

The episode is set at a comic-con type convention and Quibble Pants is there to debate the merits of his most beloved franchise, Daring D0, while having the ultimate fan experience. The king of nerd-geek-fans, plays a nerd-geek-fan on an episode about nerd-geek fans, I can't breathe.
During the episode, Quibble Pants and one of the mane characters from the show, stop for some refreshment, a nice cold Tiki drink. If ever I had a calling to create a recipe, this is it. I decided to add some more layers to this meta story by creating a real recipe for what's in the cup.

It's well known that ponies drink apple cider, one of the ponies is even named Applejack and actually produces her own. Great start, it's apple season here. But, it's clear that they are enjoying a Tiki drink. I doubt there are a ton of apple orchards in the south pacific. It is usually safest when trying to fuse two disparate styles, to start with an established recipe and work from there. Trying to make two totally new elements and mash them together is much more difficult. So, I began with a Dark & Stormy, because yum. And, then I added some apple elements in the form of fresh apple and apple brandy.
Also, because these geek things are so much about the subtle yet authentic details, I hand painted a mug. The result is a fun, easy drink that works in or out of season, with or without the mug. It's more ingredients than I usually like to have in a home recipe but given the nature of the challenge I thought it was worth it. It would be fine to use a single rum, I combined these two because one is Canadian and has a good bite and the other is quite rich. Apples and Angostura bitters can be found anywhere as can ginger beer. I'll offer a caveat on this one, skip the temptation to add pie spices, the bitters are enough to tie all of the elements together without over powering it.

The Griffon's Goblet

1 oz El Dorado 5yr
1/2 oz Screech
1/2 oz Laird's Apple Brandy
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
1/4 oz simple syrup
2 tbsps grated apple ( a sweet/sour variety or substitute apple sauce)
3 drops angostura bitters

2 oz ginger beer

Add all ingredients, excepting ginger beer, to a shaker. Fill 3/4 with cracked ice. Shake vigorously for at least 30 seconds. Double strain into a Tiki glass filled with crushed ice. Top with ginger beer. Garnish with apple wedge. 






Thank you so much to The Shrubbery for this awesome theme.

And of course a huge thanks to the wrangler!

MXMO