Maybe I have too much time on my hands, though I can't see how that's true with my hectic schedule.

Maybe I am just naturally curious.

But I somehow got it in my head that I needed to "invent" a cocktail using the strangest possble ingredient I could think of. I chose beets. But you know what? Beet cocktails are not strange at all, in fact they are quite trendy. Just surf the web if you don't believe me. I did.

Mark Bittman featured a beet cocktail in his column. It's a version of a gin and tonic blushed red with a beet infused simple syrup served in a salt-rimmed glass. The whole concept did not really appeal to me. I am a G&T purist. But I did like his frozen beet stem as a swizzle stick!

Master Mixologist Michael Cecconi has one he calls a Root Cause. It's a beety-based riff on an a whiskey Manhattan. Clever and very intriguing...

I found a recipe for a Spiced Beet Cocktail in Bridget Albert's book Market Fresh Mixology. How does a Beet Mojito sound to you? Well that's already been done too by Chef Katsuya Fukushima at Café Atlàntico, in D.C.