When I married my wife, Tamara, in June, the Mazel-Tov Cocktail was the signature drink at our wedding.

The name was an easy choice— Mazel-Tov Cocktail, a zine published in 1995, was the first comprehensive work exploring the connections between Jews and punk. As the author of Oy Oy Oy Gevalt! Jews and Punk, I am a particularly big fan.

And while Tamara and I were planning our wedding, and considering a signature drink, a crazy thing happened: The Mazel-Tov Cocktail was in the news! Two days before Election Day, a Donald Trump supporter inadvertently said “mazel-tov cocktail” instead of “Molotov cocktail” on CNN. The Internet had a field day, and I explained the origin of the term in a Jewcy article. With Tamara’s blessing, I now felt compelled to name our signature wedding drink the Mazel-Tov Cocktail.

It turned out, our wedding venue already had a signature drink for the season. It was called a Pineapple-Ginger Smash, also known as a pineapple-ginger mojito. The cocktail consisted of light rum, muddled ginger, fresh pineapple, lime juice, and mint. It sounded nice, but Tamara and I never would have conceived of that combination of ingredients.

I was in a quandary; neither Tamara nor I drink much, but this was an opportunity to put our own stamp on our special day. The idea of creating a Mazel-Tov Cocktail had a personalized touch: punny, punky, and Jewish. The Pineapple-Ginger Smash sounded like an adequate option among many at the bar, but we had already thought about having a signature drink, and it felt like this cocktail was random, and had nothing to do with us.

The solution was ultimately obvious: As a compromise, we renamed the Pineapple-Ginger Smash the Mazel-Tov Cocktail. It didn’t have blatantly Jewish signifiers like Manischewitz wine, but dayeinu. Between the rum and ginger, it packs a punch, and the pineapple is sweet, but just tart enough to be perfect for a happy occasion. It turns out it pairs really well with a wedding where Golem is the band. And I was able to drive home the drink’s name with signs featuring the cover image from the zine Mazel-Tov Cocktail.

The Mazel-Tov Cocktail was a hit. I got to taste one in a bridal suite following the ceremony. Both bars ran out, until my mother urged the event manager to remedy the situation.

You can make your own Mazel-Tov Cocktail, for your punk (if slightly tropical) simcha! This recipe, inspired by our wedding, is based on similar ones from Food.com, Kitchen Sanctuary, and mostly Domesticate Me.

L’Chaim!

Ingredients:

3 tbsp cup pineapple puree OR one pineapple ring
1/2 tbsp of ginger, muddled
1 ounce light rum
6-8 mint leaves
1 tbsp lime juice
Shaved ice
A spritz of seltzer
Additional mint and lime wedge to garnish

Directions:
In a cocktail shaker, muddle the ginger, mint leaves, and lime juice. Add the pineapple ring or puree (you can blend fresh pineapple), rum, and a couple ice cubes, and shake vigorously to combine. Pour into a cocktail glass filled with shaved ice. Top off with seltzer, garnish with a fresh mint sprig and a lime slice. Serves 1.

Recipe photo by Christopher Duggan Photography. Drink photo by Michael Croland. 

The post Jewcy Recipes: A Mazel-Tov Cocktail appeared first on Jewcy.

What is a "mazel tov cocktail" pic.twitter.com/xmTiBnoaia

— Deadspin (@Deadspin) November 7, 2016

Mazel-Tov Cocktail was a Jewish punk zine (that Jewcy has covered!) put out by Jennifer Bleyer in 1995. In the zine’s opening letter, Bleyer said one goal was to “show that there is more to Jewish accomplishments nowadays than just Barry Manilow.”

In my book, Oy Oy Oy Gevalt! Jews and Punk, I called Mazel-Tov Cocktail “the first comprehensive work delving into the connections between Jews and punk.” The zine’s back cover featured a (mostly correct) list of punk artists who were Jewish, including members of the Ramones, The Clash, and Bad Religion. The most prominent interviewee was Fat Mike of NOFX. There were clever articles, a comic strip, a “Jewcore Photo Album,” and a recipe section (“The Nosh Pit”).

One highlight was the story of Traif Nation, a supposed hardcore band. In 2014, Bleyer told me that the article might have been “a farce.” The band members allegedly used to play a game in Hebrew school in which they shot “pork pellets” out of a “potato gun” against the blackboard. The article explained:

You see—this early delinquent behavior was obviously rooted in a very real social dilemma. Hebrew school universally being held on every Tuesday and Thursday, that excluded us from participating in afterschool activities such as: YMCA, Girl Scouts, ballet lessons, Little League . . . so what’s a poor kid separated from the mainstream to do but stand up and yell, “Daiyenu”? Soon we weren’t accepted by the goyim or the Jews we crossed for being anti-kashrut rebels. And all that pent-up frustration and anger flowered and evolved into Traif Nation. And if you ever come to one of our shows you just might get a mouthful of Spam!

In an interview for Oy Oy Oy Gevalt! Jews and Punk, Bleyer reflected that Mazel-Tov Cocktail was about “reconcil[ing] that you can feel good and positive about being Jewish, but it’s not your all-consuming identity. . . . And the whole thing that was interesting to me about exploring Jewishness and punk was just seeing how much affinity there really was.”

Mazel-Tov Cocktail did more than just lay the groundwork for future assessments of Jewishness and punk. It was the progenitor of the groundbreaking Heeb magazine, which Bleyer founded in 2001.

And if you feel the answer to this question needs to be drinkable, welcome to the 2016 election.

Image via eBay.

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