Saturday, June 09, 2007

Calling Mixologists

I realize it's been awhile since I've had a real NIH update, and this isn't one. This is on a slightly different topic.

I've been on a bit of a bar tending craze of late, doing a Cocktail of the Week for the last three or four months. Three of the last seven weeks we've been doing the official cocktails of the triple crown races, including today finishing off the Belmont Breeze, which is very wonderfully refreshing even though it has a lot of random ingredients.

That got me thinking that I would love to create a drink that I would tentatively call the Curly W. That is to say, an unofficial official drink for the Washington Nationals, and I was hoping to get some input from fans.

Some thoughts that I have:

1) Optimally the last ingredient on the list should be a splash of grenadine for color.
2) It should be an appropriate drink for a summer night. That is to say, probably three ounces of booze that is then topped off with some fruit juice and some combination of 7Up, club soda, or any other kind of bubbly liquid.
3) The drink should be well suited to enlarge to pitcher-sized, perfect for that backyard barn viewing or tailgating (even though the latter may become a thing of the past in the new park).
4) Any ingredient should be readily available both through the VABC and through a minimally stocked DC liquor store. Optimally something available in minibottles, to allow for a single or pitcher to be made without messing around with measuring.

So I thought I'd throw it out there to see if there are some thoughts about any ingredients that seem appropriate, anything that would have a local significance that I might not know, or if anyone is just a better drink creator than I am.