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Past sins have marred my drinking present. As I have stated before, I am not a big whiskey drinker. It’s always a challenge for me to choose a whiskey based drink. But Gustavo felt strongly about the Louisiana Mule from the Morgantown Bar, and I followed his lead. There is nothing stronger than a man’s strong feelings about a drink. If someone close to you believes so much in a drink, then you have no choice but to follow. I looked at the calendar, and Mardi Gras popped up – it was no coincidence that I was tasting the Lousiana Mule a few days before Mardi Gras. The drink mirrored the excess of Mardi Gras, and it had the nice feeling of an old-timey cocktail, one that brings about delightful inebriation through excessiveness of senses and straightforward sincere liquor.
Burning the rosemary.
Gustavo had been mentioning the burning rosemary for almost a month now and that definitely had piqued my interest. An actual rosemary is burnt on top of the drink and then thrown in. It all starts with Evan Williams, a nice straightforward whiskey that many times can go around as the house shot with a can of cheap beer. In the spirit of good-old-fashioned-simple-cocktail-making only two more ingredients are added: a homemade ginger syrup with lemongrass and a balsamic syrup. No shaking, just a gentle combination that adds to the spirit the necessary tastes that bring about about proper inebriation. The burning rosemary stick tops the drink, both literally and figuratively, bringing about an intense olfactory satisfaction. In addition, the freshly burnt rosemary stick brings a certain warmth to the drink, which is served with no ice in a nice snifter, that adds to the sophistication points of the drink.
The remnants of the Louisiana Mule.
I sipped the Louisiana Mule’s warmth slowly on a very cold night. I needed something warm and invigorating, and I found it in the Lousiana Mule. A newcomer in the Bushwick bar scene, the Morgantown bar offers great comfort and a sense of hospitality, which was transmitted by the eager bartender that night, Lily Zhang. Asked her thoughts on the Mule, she proffered, “[It’s] an experience of senses. “
Looking through the Louisiana Mule lens.
I sipped on the Louisiana Mule and every sip created a strong memory of my sensory reactions to the drink. The warmth as I was sipping it, the smell of the burnt rosemary and the tang of the ginger as it was blending with the whiskey; all these senses came together beneath the sound of Tom Waits, creating a sensuous night in one of the newest bars in Bushwick.
Bushwick Mixer is a weekly column somewhere at the crossroads of pop culture and mixology in the bars of Bushwick. Hashtag your photos of Bushwick cocktails with #BushwickMixer and let us know why they should be tasted by the author of the column.
Gustavo Ponce, photographer for Bushwick Mixer, is currently exhibiting his incredible photographic talents in a show at Morgantown. The lovely work of Katie Killary, another exceptional Bushwick Daily photographer, can also be found there.
The Louisiana Mule is served at the MorganTown Bar, 44 Wilson Ave for $9.
