1st place in the /r/cocktails original cocktail competition for May 2022 where the required ingredients were gin & Irish cream. I’ll admit that the required ingredients this month seemed odd to me at first. However, the Irish Cream I have is Baileys which is known for its flavors of cream and cocoa. I quickly realized that anything I made would be an Alexander riff of sorts. I went searching for inspiration and learned that the most famous Alexander (the Great) is widely considered to have introduced citrus fruits to Greece, specifically the citron and bitter orange. I knew bitter orange was already a traditional gin botanical, but I also had Grand Marnier which includes it as well. Adding those along with a bit of cream to thin out the sweetness, I was on my way. I had some spicy ginger syrup that was getting a bit old, so I included a splash of that as well. Finally, an orange twist to boost the orange flavors and brighten up the creamy nature of the drink. The name stumped me for a while, but I eventually learned of the story from Greek mythology concerning the Hesperides, nymphs which reside in a garden known for its golden apples. As it turns out, the fragrant bitter orange was such a phenomenon in Greece after its introduction that many accounts of the Garden of Hesperides began to re-intepret its golden apples as those same bitter oranges, so much so that the Greek name for the genus citrus is Εσπεριδοειδή (es-per-ee-doh-ee-dee), named after the legend. Finally, Nectar in Greek mythology is often considered to be a sweet drink of the gods which is capable of curing any mortal ailment. I figured the closest thing we have to that in this plane is ginger, cementing the connection. This drink should be considered a creamy dessert drink, but an unconventional one primarily owing to the ginger. You’ll still get the creamy sweetness and chocolate of an Alexander, but with an orange twist (pun intended) and a kick of ginger that carries throughout to keep things dynamic and interesting. Try this out as you raise a toast to Alexander the Great for bringing the wonderful citrus to the Western world all those centuries ago.