(Durandor) “The human’s name was Mariana. She was a druid in the most obvious of ways – grand antlers wrapped around the crown of her head, flowing green robes embellished with soft moss, tiny flowers cascading through her wavy hair, and carved staff Noor later learned was made from the wood of rainbow eucalyptus.”
Oh Noor, my first PC.
I did next to nothing to prepare for my first DnD session 6 years ago; I read a smidge of the Player’s Handbook and settled on the Dragonborn race and Druid class – both choices made because an animorph-dragon-humanoid sounded cool as fuck.
That meant Noor had little to no character (i.e. perspective, personality, history) when I first started playing DnD. But, as the campaign progressed, I fleshed him out and shaped his background, part of which involved a Druid named Mariana who adopted him
All that to say, character development is an amazing creative process and gloriously nerdy.
The Mystic (obviously inspired by Mariana) is a smoked, bourbon-based cocktail with lime, honey, cinnamon, and thyme. It’s a delicate drink if you follow a 2:1:1 ratio, with the honey balancing the lime nicely and the cinnamon not overpowering any other flavor.
I also smoked it in the Viski Alchemi cocktail smoker I got for Christmas. The Alchemi is easy to use and a real show boater if you have people watching you make cocktails. The smoke it adds is very subtle (versus, say, smoking the top of a cocktail). It added a nice woodsy element to The Mystic.
The Mystic
Ingredients:
- 2 oz Bourbon
- 1-1.5 oz Lime juice (depending on how tart you like it)
- 1 oz cinnamon honey simple syrup
- Garnish with a fresh sprig of thyme and a touch of cinnamon on the rim of the glass
- Optional: In a few of the drinks I made, I used a dropper full of Bittercube’s Blackstrap Bitters and it added a nice extra touch of cinnamon and molasses.
Recipe:
- For the Cocktail:
- Prep your glass with the cinnamon rim by putting a little bit of lime on part of the rim and then dusting with cinnamon.
- Add everything except garnish to a shaker and shake over ice until chilled.
- If smoking the cocktail: Pour the contents into the prepped Viski carafe and swirl it around. Pour into chilled coupe glass (or low ball with a large chunk of ice) and garnish with thyme.
- For the cinnamon honey simple syrup:
- Add 1 cup of honey, 1 cup of water, and 3-4 cinnamon sticks in a small pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and let the cinnamon a few minutes. Let the syrup cool with the cinnamon sticks. Strain into a jar or swingtop bottle.
The Bourbon Dragon 