We've launched the new forums! Read more here

Invented a Cocktail?

RayG

RayG

Well-known member
Albatross 2024 Club
Joined
Jan 11, 2013
Messages
2,471
Reaction score
1,447
Location
Astoria, NY
Handicap
14
Have you ever?

I never even paid attention that this section was here! I had some 'free time' here in the cubicle and noticed it and came in.

Simple question- have you ever invented a Cocktail? Not some random concoction that nobody liked... like mixing Blue Curacao and Green Chartreuse for shots (which we called 'Aqua Velva' for obvious reasons). But one you fiddled with and actually got it on a menu, or made it popular in your Bar?

I'll start, then...

We had a young lady ask around 3AM: "Why are there no Purple Drinks...?"

That was the best 3AM idea any of us had heard in quite some time. So, I got to doing some experimentation with various combos. But I got off on a wrong direction right away since I figured she wanted something slushy like a Frozen Margarita or Pina Colada. Everything also tasted like shyte. Tossed that idea. And finished up for the night with that nagging question. "Why ARE there no Purple Drinks?"

The next night, she came back in and wondered if we had come up with anything "Purple" yet. TBH, I figured she wouldn't remember anything, considering the state most of us were in the night before. "Did you want it frozen or something?" 'Nah, just something Purple'. Well, that answered a lot of questions and made it easier.

Took a look behind the bar and was thinking of the color chart. "What makes Purple?... DUH... Blue and Red. What's Blue? Curacao. What's Red? Grenadine. Simple enough. I mixed those two into a shot glass and it was... Purple... (surprise, surprise) But it was really dark, almost black shade of purple. and it didn't taste exactly ideal, either.

Now- what to use as mixers/fillers? I didn't want to have to fiddle with a lot of ingredients, so it was easy to make at a busy bar. I was a gin drinker, so I gave that a shot. Wrong move. Gin, Grenadine and Curacao did not work. But at least it was a bit less black purple.

Next choice was obviously Vodka. Better, but it was still a bit dark. Then used Club Soda in a tall glass and that was the magic step. Vodka, Grenadine, Curacao and Club Soda. When you held it up to the light it was clearly 'Purple' but much more transparent. We tried it with 7-Up instead of Club Soda, but there was a bit to much of a citrus-ey flavor. It wasn't bad, per se, just not quite as good as Club Soda.

So- use a tall glass, over ice- shot of vodka(or more if you choose- doesn't affect color), shot of Curacao, shot of Grenadine, fill with Club Soda.

It went on the menu the next day and became a pretty good seller for the Summer. It's light and refreshing. You know what we called it?

"Something Purple"
 
No, as I'm not a big drinker - but I fully support a purple drink.
 
  • On Fire
Reactions: Bus
There was a bar in Jefferson City, MO that we used to hit up when we were in town for a dart tournament that served shots called "Purple Hooters". Not sure what was in them, but I know we drank a ton of them.
 
purple drank GIF

purple drank GIF
 
1/4 drpepper
1/4 red bull
1/4 goldschlager
1/4 jaegermeister

Never had a name, but college man.
 
TRyan said:
A transfusion is a pretty popular purple drink
Click to expand...
Purple drinks are something completely different from where I grew up...
 
When I was a young guy in my early 20's we used to put lemon gin in Mountain Dew. We called it a Fu_kaDew. It tastes pretty good
 
I made one we called a Blow Pop. Basically an LIT no coke add a touch of grenadine and some amaretto. It tastes like orange hard candy. College girls loved it.
 
No the only thing I can make is an Old Fashioned, pour a neat bourbon and open a craft beer.
 
Drank a fair amount if purple Gatorade and cheap vodka in college aka Fadearade.
 
Bus said:
Drank a fair amount if purple Gatorade and cheap vodka in college aka Fadearade.
Click to expand...

Vodka goes with everything.....Sometimes if i go for a jog on a 35C friday in late afternoon....i have a nice Vodka, water and Mio strawberry lemonade. I mean....it's amazing
 
In college we had something called a black widow that was purple and sounds pretty similar.

People drink a lot, so anything you think you might have invented has probably been done, but it’s fun to experiment.
 
One of my buddies recently built a nice lake house which also happens to be on a golf course. We held our regular guys' golf trip there last year. I think we had 15 guys so we took up a lot of tee times and the beverage carts were extremely busy. On one particular beverage cart visit, one of the guys ordered yet another round of double Transfusions, and our young spirit guide informed us that she was running low on ginger ale. Rather than wait for her to resupply the cart, I suggested she use the ginger ale she had and supplement it with cranberry as needed (it ended up maybe 1/3 of the usual ginger ale and 2/3 cranberry).

The end result was an immediate hit, a little sweeter and slightly fruitier, but it also made the drink a deeper shade of red. Our spirit guide suggested we should name it since we created it and, after several ideas, we landed on one that honored the deeper red color and the Transfusion base. We called it a "Bloody Tranny". We were on hole 14 at the time, and by the time we got back to the clubhouse and visited the bar, they were already well aware of, and laughing about, the Bloody Tranny and were making them in large quantities.

We have another guys' trip back to the same location in a few weeks. I'm anxious to see if our drink survived the year. I will admit I've introduced it to our home club and have had quite a few of them.
 
CBaker said:
People drink a lot, so anything you think you might have invented has probably been done, but it’s fun to experiment.
Click to expand...

True- and yes, there were things like "Bug Juice" out there that was HI-C (Grape) and Vodka... But that wasn't so much a cocktail as it was something you made in a garbage pail during house parties.

Another popular pastime was "Mr. Boston Roulette". Stick your finger in while flipping pages and you had to drink the one you landed on. There were caveats- No dairy or eggs. (You'd be surprised how many 'cocktails' used eggs or egg whites... blech). As well as if we didn't have a particular obscure mixer/liquor, we would just use Vodka.

On a side note- the bar I worked was the Number 1 consumer of the various versions of Chartreuse, for pretty much the country. Mostly because we did a LOT of experimenting. The 'Aqua Velva" as an example. As a result, the distributor would supply us with FREE bottles of the stuff. Including bottles that would sell for multiple hundreds of dollars. We would go through those in a night... just because. And not some mega sized bar, either. There were maybe 12-14 seats at the bar along with a small restaurant. Even on a Tuesday, it would be 2-3 deep with a pretty good "Regulars" ratio.
 
I did, inadvertently. I was trying to make an espresso martini. I added vanilla oat milk to try and get a creamy head. What I ended up making was basically a s’more in a glass. Vodka, Kaluha, cold brew, oat milk, shake and pour. Bloody lovely although 2 is probably the limit before they get a bit too overpowering.
 
Purple Drank or lean was pretty popular.

Lean is especially dangerous because it is easy to make. Lean consists of a combination of prescription cough syrup and a regular can of soda.
 
Yes, in college we were going to make brass monkeys (malt liquor and orange juice, a very poor man's mimosa) but while the minimart had plenty of malt liquor, they didn't have orange juice.

So I audibled and grabbed a few 40s of Olde English, an Orange Cream Mad Dog 20/20 and a what I think was a precursor to 4 Loko, think it was called celsus and it was a sparkingly orange flavored malt liquor with caffeine.... AKA redbull with 6% alcohol.

Drank about a third of the 40 down top off with the mad dog and top off with the Celsus. Called it a laughing Hyena. It lead to a very interesting evening, and honestly didn't taste bad despite the less then ideal ingredients involved.
 
Our group did one with Captain Morgan, Orange Juice and Sprite, quite tasty in the mornings!
 
RayG said:
Have you ever?

I never even paid attention that this section was here! I had some 'free time' here in the cubicle and noticed it and came in.

Simple question- have you ever invented a Cocktail? Not some random concoction that nobody liked... like mixing Blue Curacao and Green Chartreuse for shots (which we called 'Aqua Velva' for obvious reasons). But one you fiddled with and actually got it on a menu, or made it popular in your Bar?

I'll start, then...

We had a young lady ask around 3AM: "Why are there no Purple Drinks...?"

That was the best 3AM idea any of us had heard in quite some time. So, I got to doing some experimentation with various combos. But I got off on a wrong direction right away since I figured she wanted something slushy like a Frozen Margarita or Pina Colada. Everything also tasted like shyte. Tossed that idea. And finished up for the night with that nagging question. "Why ARE there no Purple Drinks?"

The next night, she came back in and wondered if we had come up with anything "Purple" yet. TBH, I figured she wouldn't remember anything, considering the state most of us were in the night before. "Did you want it frozen or something?" 'Nah, just something Purple'. Well, that answered a lot of questions and made it easier.

Took a look behind the bar and was thinking of the color chart. "What makes Purple?... DUH... Blue and Red. What's Blue? Curacao. What's Red? Grenadine. Simple enough. I mixed those two into a shot glass and it was... Purple... (surprise, surprise) But it was really dark, almost black shade of purple. and it didn't taste exactly ideal, either.

Now- what to use as mixers/fillers? I didn't want to have to fiddle with a lot of ingredients, so it was easy to make at a busy bar. I was a gin drinker, so I gave that a shot. Wrong move. Gin, Grenadine and Curacao did not work. But at least it was a bit less black purple.

Next choice was obviously Vodka. Better, but it was still a bit dark. Then used Club Soda in a tall glass and that was the magic step. Vodka, Grenadine, Curacao and Club Soda. When you held it up to the light it was clearly 'Purple' but much more transparent. We tried it with 7-Up instead of Club Soda, but there was a bit to much of a citrus-ey flavor. It wasn't bad, per se, just not quite as good as Club Soda.

So- use a tall glass, over ice- shot of vodka(or more if you choose- doesn't affect color), shot of Curacao, shot of Grenadine, fill with Club Soda.

It went on the menu the next day and became a pretty good seller for the Summer. It's light and refreshing. You know what we called it?

"Something Purple"
Click to expand...
A guy i know worked at his dad's bar here in town. I'd stop by now and then and he was always messing around with different concoctions.... Stopped in one night and he slid a glass across the bar at me and said to give it a shot.... it was purple... and it was pretty damn good (and i was strictly a beer drinker then) He called it Purple Haze. No idea what was in it but he did say there were numerous different types of booze in it. This was in the mid-90's.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top