Picture this: You're meeting up with a friend in an area with which you're unfamiliar. Maybe you're visiting from out of town or simply on a different side of the tracks, but the important part of the story is that your friend takes you to a bar of their choosing, not yours.
You sit down and realize that this joint isn't exactly embracing the craft of mixing its drinks. Its half-empty bottles of vermouth sit proudly on the back of the bar unrefrigerated with the spirits, the soda gun is overworked, and there's not a bottle of bitters or a fresh piece of citrus in sight.
You're terrified of what the bartender might give you if you order any kind of serious cocktail, but you still want something a little more bright and lively than a glass of whiskey or a pint of something on tap.
This month's Mixology Monday is hosted by Southern Ash, themed Highballs. Highball drinks are exactly what you need in the scenario above, but let's pretend you're a bit bored with rum & Coke or gin & tonic. I have a few go-to's for when I'm in these dire situations, and I thank Mr. DiPappa for giving me the opportunity to share them.
As always, those posted below are a bit unorthodox and are designed to give you something a bit different, should you be in the mood. Your tastes may vary with highball ratios, but I tend to stick with 1:3 or 1:4 ratio of spirit to mixer if I'm making them at home.
Keep these in mind the next time you find yourself cynical in an unknown bar.
Citrus Vodka & Tonic
This combo smacks of gin & tonic, but offers up something a bit different. Less complex, but more fresh and fruity, you'll find yourself surprised at how well this one works.
Tequila & Coke
Be honest: the reason you like rum & Coke is because the rum disappears in the Coke. With a few exceptions, most well-priced rums at the bar cannot compete with cola's strong character. Enter tequila. Tequila still makes itself known while dipped in Coke, and I daresay is complimented by it. The spices and citrus oils with which tequila would otherwise pair well are present all at once here. I've made this drink for a few tequila-fan friends of mine, and the reactions have been revelatory.
Bourbon & Pepsi
Damn, did you manage to find one of the few bars or restaurants that serves Pepsi products over Coke products? Worry not. I occasionally find that Pepsi is better for certain things than Coke, and swimming with bourbon is one of them. First off, the whiskey is better aided by Pepsi's added sweetness, along with a trait of Pepsi's which I might call gaminess or funk. And in the end, the two ingredients bring out some of the baking spice flavors that they have in common, especially cinnamon.
This post deliberately comes on the heels of Tiki Month 2013. Why? Because although this drink isn't a tiki drink, it could be construed as Tiki Compliant® in a fairly low-class kind of way. Before you judge the recipe below, read on...
Anyone
who enjoys reading blogs and other online amateur writing can tell you the
bittersweet feeling of coming across a great blogger or website; the
sweet is that you've found a new source of information that you enjoy
consuming, but the bitter is that you often wonder how you've gone so
long without discovering that source.
I've just recently experienced the above with Ralfy of Ralfy.com, a
Scottish chap who primarily vlogs his reviews and thoughts about Scotch
whisky, along with other sundry advice and tips.
Ralfy is also
quite knowledgeable about the internet, much more than his age's
stereotype might have you believe. This knowledge includes internet
culture, and especially YouTube culture.
In 2012 there surfaced a YouTube video of a nice lady(perhaps
inebriated) named Chris Athey who decided to create an impromptu original
song proclaiming her love of SunnyD and Rum - simply a mixture of
rum and Sunny Delight.
In typical internet fashion, clever folk decided to endlessly remix
this remarkably off-tune diddy into overly-processed musical
masterpieces. Ralfy celebrates these works of creativity and, in a
moment of commemoration, tries out this much-lauded Sunny D and Rum drink.
Ralfy is not just an expert on whisky, but is also a learned rum
drinker. In a moment where Ralfy flexes his perhaps-atrophied
mixological physique, he creates his own version of Sunny D and Rum
using the sage choice of J. Wray and Nephew White Overproof rum.
I thought I'd give it a whirl.
The first problem was with SunnyD variations. Uninitiated fans may not realize that there are over a dozen flavors of SunnyD in the US alone. Being in the UK, Ralfy is using California Style, a version which isn't even sold anymore on this side of the pond, but sources tell me that the American SunnyD Smooth flavor is the almost identical to it, if not the same.
The problem was that I couldn't find SunnyD Smooth anywhere, and I looked in quite a few places. I found Tangy, Orange, and even a 20oz bottle that didn't specify its flavor. However, I tried this drink with all of them, and they're all good. And I also must say, I've been around the block of processed food and drink (I even have another blog about it), and I remember SunnyD California Style from my childhood; it wasn't so different from the flavors above.
The last hurdle in this drink was overcoming my cocktailian ego. Ralfy's recipe and preparation of this drink was decidedly obsolescent: under-iced, over-diluted, ungarnished. I went to work in my lab and experimented extensively *hiccup* to modernize the recipe and bring it into fashion. I tried things like making the booze-to-mixer ratio higher in booze, shaking the drink with ice and pouring onto more cubes, or crushed ice, or serving it up in a cocktail glass, garnished with a slice of orange, or even rinsing the glass with absinthe. None of these things worked. None of them tasted remotely as good as Ralfy's manifested rusticity, the thing for which he is known best. This drink is surprisingly good. The funk of the Jamaican rum cuts through the juice's artificiality perfectly while the absinthe perfumes the whole into an experience I wouldn't hesitate to call a tiki long drink. The recipe below is transcribed as best I can from how Ralfy prepared it on screen.
SunnyD & Rum (Ralfy Mix) 3.75 oz cold SunnyD (California Style/Smooth preferred, substitute with Tangy or Orange) .75 oz J. Wray & Nephew White Overproof rum 1 heavy dash absinthe Build in an Old Fashioned glass over the largest cubes/chunks of ice you have and stir. No garnish.
1.5 oz Lucid absinthe (used Lucid) 2 oz pineapple juice (used Dole) top with Sprite/7-Up (used Canada Dry Bitter Lemon, about 2 oz) 6-8 mint leaves 2 wedges lime
Muddle 1 wedge of lime and mint leaves in a tumbler glass. Add the soda, juice, and absinthe, then stir. Fill with ice, and add last wedge of lime as a garnish.
I bought Lucid because I was told it underplays the anise tones more than other absinthes on the market. Lucid was the first absinthe that one could buy legally since it was outlawed in 1912, but as such, I hear that its flavor profile is a bit subdued specifically for the American market. I hate lack of authenticity, but I hate overpowering anise even more, so I'm fine with this purchase (so far). This drink is about what you'd expect from a product's official literature. The absinthe thoroughly trounces both the pineapple and the bitter lemon (which is hard to do). I chose to use bitter lemon instead of lemon-lime soda because it's a more sophisticated product, frankly. Overall the drink isn't bad... the flavors do actually combine into something unique. The tanginess from the pineapple is there, but the absinthe bullies it around. The mint adds an herbal undertone that doesn't necessarily taste like mint. The bitter lemon provides a nice sharp base... I'm not sure how this drink could be made with something so syrupy and bland as lemon-lime soda. After the swallow, the absinthe refuses to let you forget about it.
Truth be told, my passion for booze started when I was of the age 21, and not before. (no, really...) Before that age (which admittedly wasn't that long ago) my passion was soda. My days were spent digging up soda news and posting on sodaforums. Today, I still enjoy a good soda, though my metabolism has urged me to slow it down from times past.
Particularly exciting is when I find new and limited edition products. My eyes scan the grocery store aisles and convenience store coolers and instinctively pick up on new colors or label designs (yes, I'm a sickening, brainwashed consumer), at which point I compulsively purchase them. As sad as it is, new products like these manage to get me the most visually excited in my day-to-day life, and the people that are closest to me would confirm that.
Among TheBig3, Pepsi is always the one that is most aggressive with issuing new products (I've always enjoyed their flavored colas.), but this is particularly so with their brand, Mountain Dew. (The new stylization of the logo is actually "Mtn Dew", but that's stupid so I won't type it anymore) Between Code Red, Livewire, Pitch Black I & II, and a slough of others, the amount of variations on Mountain Dew seem to be endless... and I approve!
Like 2008, Pepsi is running another DEWmocracy campaign in 2010, where they issue several prospective new flavors of Dew, we drink as much soda as we can, and we go vote on our favorite, which then becomes a new permanent product.
The new DEWmocracy campaign has begun, and the candidates are out for our scrutiny:
Typhoon (fruit punch flavored)
Comments: Nice!!
Distortion (lime flavored)
Comments: This could be a good sign. For ages people have gone to Taco Bell for Mountain Dew Baja Blast on tap, which is a variety of Dew which is exclusive to Taco Bell. Oh yeah, and it's delicious. I doubt this Distortion is the same product, but it's a step in the right direction, as far as I'm concerned.
White Out (smooth citrus flavored)
Comments: This is strange, of course, because Mountain Dew is a citrus-flavored soda. It turns out that this is a grapefruit flavored variation(several other grapefruits sodas are white), which is an interesting and possible good turn for the brand. I like it.
I nabbed a 12-pack of Typhoon to try first. It's unfortunate that I had to buy so much just for a taste, but that's how I react with new soda.
I was very excited about this flavor, because I'm quite the fan of fruit punch in most of its iterations. Unfortunately, this product falls short. I was hoping for it to be tangy but sweet, fruity but still Dew. What the result is, instead: a product that's much too sweet with a fairly dull flavor.
In reality, what Pepsi probably did was very much like multi-brand car manufacturers do today; they use components of one brand to save money in another. Pepsi owns Tropicana, and so I imagine they took some of their bottled Fruit Punch* and poured it into the Dew. The result is very lackluster. I hope the other flavors are worth keeping.
Incidentally, my friend Alex was able to get his hands on all three, and so I shall post some of this thoughts here. Call it a guest writer on Spirited Remix:
I tried Typhoon first. It smelled a lot like a package of Tropical Starburst. The taste was immediately very strong, but faded quickly. The Mountain Dew detracted from the fruit punch , I think. While the flavor wasn't particularly satisfying, its quick fade was still dissatisfying and ultimately left it tasting watered down a few seconds after each sip. Ultimately, I would not purchase it, but I don't know that I would classify it as bad.
White Out was second, and it, unfortunately, does not have this recommendation. While my wife was turned off by the color, comparing it to dirty water, I thought it was actually kind of nice. Like drinking a cloud. Unfortunately, White Out had none of the charm of any clouds I've met. The flavor was slightly grapefruity (a taste I cannot abide) and slighty dishwasher fluidy (a taste that, while better than grapefruit, I'm also not a fan of). Fresca, the only other grapefruitesque soda with which I am familiar, at least leaves you with a crisp and subtle taste. White Out overwhelms you with terrible and never lets you go.
Distortion is the only of the DEWmocracy beverages that I would actually consider buying. It has a strong lime flavor (although, again, the Dew actual does it no favors). "It doesn't make me want to gag" hardly seems like a strong recommendation, but, given what I had just gone through with White Out, it was the first thing that sprang to my mind upon drinking it. It's not great and it's not crisp, but it is drinkable. It tastes like a legitimate soda. Typhoon tastes like an amateurish effort by a recent Soda School graduate, while White Out tastes like God playing a sick joke on me.
So Distortion wins the DEW-off. It wasn't particularly close, despite Distortion's middling score. It is probably worth mentioning, however, that, after my wife and I had sampled each of them individually, we mixed all three flavors together into one glass. It was surprisingly better than any of the flavors individually.
*The only decent picture of Tropicana's bottled Fruit Punch product, which is strangely absent on the internet, is this, and that's even only the label (it's the 20 oz bottle version found in vending machines). The picture is from Soda Finder, a young chap who loves soda even more than me, and you can order your favorite obscure sodas from him. Call him your carbonated guardian angel.
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