Mad Mar-TEA-ni Party: A NY Cocktail Club Meeting

When does an afternoon cocktail to-do become a Mad Mar-TEA-ni party? When you have to fall through the rabbit hole to get there... My particular rabbit hole took the form of the G train, which indeed has its share of the strange and curious. It took quite a long time to make it through, but when I arrived in Long Island City Wonderland, I was greeted by the Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit, a not-so-sleepy Dormouse named Jinx, Mad Hatter Trader Vicky, and several other Alices who happen to be members of the NY Cocktail Club.

Perhaps most welcome after the tumble from Brooklyn was a bottle labeled "Drink Me" filled with a refreshing dram, which, while it did not make me shrink, surely helped me relax.

After a bit of conversation and a poem two, the Caterpillar dropped by and offered the most delicious advice! While we sipped and contemplated his heady mixings, we munched on goat cheese and honey, endive filled with curried chicken salad, white meringue bunnies and other sorts of tasty treats.

Our host Trader Vicky then served up her special Mad Tea with a touch of chamomile and a pinch of insanity. After tea, we started Painting the Roses Red which we did while eating gluten-free cupcakes topped with outrageous raspberry frosting.

It was a wonderlandful adventure. I'm still thinking about the cocktails and imagining what might be behind the looking glass! Scroll down for the cocktail recipes and enjoy the feast of photos along the way.

And, thank you Trader Vicky for hosting such a fantastic cocktail club meeting and for sharing your mad recipes!

Cheshire Cat Cheese Ball

Dormouse Jinx

Two Alice covers: mod Alice ca. 1970 (left) and
a 2010 edition illustrated by Camille Rose Garcia (right)

Drink Me (aka Pago Pago)

Advice from a Caterpillar

1.5 oz gold rum

3-4 chunks of pineapple

.5 oz green chartreuse

.5 oz lime juice

.25 creme de cacao

Muddle the pineapple chunks together with the liqueurs and lime juice, add rum and shake with ice!

Advice From A Caterpillar (by Trader Vicky)

2 oz blueberry-infused bourbon
Dash of Laphroaig (or other smokey scotch)
Ginger beer

Mad Tea

Mint for garnish

Wipe the rim of the glass with scotch, add blueberry-infused bourbon, fill with ginger beer, garnish with mint.

Mad Tea (by Trader Vicky)

1 oz chamomile-infused rum

.25 oz honey liqueur

.25 yellow chartreuse

.5 lemon juice

dash of angostura

Shake with ice!

Painting the Roses Red (by Trader Vicky)

2 oz gin

.75 oz simple syrup

2 drops rose water

1 oz cream or half & half

1 oz egg white

Grenadine for garnish

Add all ingredients to a shaker except the grenadine. Shake with ice until you can't hear the ice any more (or the drink tries to escape the shaker!).  Pour into a cocktail glass. Using a dropper, drop, then swirl grenadine on the froth in the shape of a heart.