Sailor Costigan

Be warned: Bumbling beginner at work. I've been into mixology for, maybe, two years and much of the time I still feel like I don't really know what I'm doing. I've invented a few cocktails of my own in the past and I've been happy with them, but this is the first one that I'm submitting to the approval of others.

I'm a fan of all those classic pulp stories from the 1930s, and when I recently got round to reading some of the Sailor Steve Costigan stories, I thought a new Tiki drink was in order. Steve Costigan (created by Robert E Howard, more famous as the creator of Conan and the swords-and-sorcery genre, but that's a whole other story) is an Irish-American merchant sailor and boxer who keeps getting into humorous misadventures in the seaports of the South China Sea and thereabouts. Accordingly, I've tried to achieve kind of an Asian-Tiki theme with this drink (by going for a slight emphasis on spices), but with Irish whiskey as a base. If drinks like the Port Light, Starboard Light, Honi Honi and Eastern Sour can use Bourbon and Scotch, then I figure Irish whiskey with its fruity notes should be every bit as acceptable.

The Sailor Costigan

2 oz irish whiskey
1/2 oz Drambuie
1/2 oz cinnamon syrup
1/2 oz white grapefruit juice
1/2 oz lime juice
a chunk of fresh ginger, about enough in volume to fill a 1 oz jigger
2 dashes Angostura bitters

Muddle the ginger in your shaker. Shake everything with ice and fine strain into a double old-fashioned glass or a tiki mug half-filled with more ice. I haven't yet worked out a formalized garnish for this drink, but I like to include a few slices of ginger for the scent.

I'll gladly take comments and suggestions. Heck, even admonishments, I'm that starved for attention :)

And of course I forgot to check the "recipe" box above the thread title. Ah well.