Vivid Green Sodas Drink Furiously

 

How fitting with another Teenage Mutant Ninja Moneymaker out that Jones Soda Co. has concocted their current special release that has the glowing hue of Mutagen. The good news is the soda won't genetically modify you or you loved ones, artfully-named turtles or otherwise. Nope, this gloriously green soda shouts its flavors in neon--it's Hatch chile and lime. As the label suggests, the pepper temp is at best a low burn, one that kind of warms up your palate as you get to the bottom of the bottle. You get a bit of the smoky characteristic Hatch is known for, but not a ton--I doubted the chiles are roasted before being infused, or however their "natural flavors" are extracted. The color comes from Yellow 5 and Blue 1, btw, but this is soda after all. It's not like you drink it for your health.

It is mighty tasty and just fun to consume, though. How pleasing is that vibrant green? And if you're going to give in to the flabbergastingly successful Hatch Chile marketing campaign--how one valley conquered the rest of New Mexico's chiles, not to mention their Anaheim cousins, I'll never quite figure out--you might as well get a smile out of it.

The consumer-provided "Reel labels" are a hoot, too. Each bottle offers a QR code so you can upload an image and maybe one day your photo will grace something retina-burningly chartreuse too.

For further research--seeing how well this Hatch Chile and lime works as a mixer in a cocktail; I'd have to imagine a splash of mezcal couldn't hurt.

A Macaroni-less Feather in the Cap

This cocktail is a Yankee Muddle Dandy, and it was born on the 4th of July. Yes, it is a pink drink for Independence Day, but that's just how we roll at our house, commie pinkos that we are (I mean, if Obama is a socialist, what does that make me?). Even with the sun in hiding for the day here in Santa Barbara, we decided it was time for a drink meant for summer and grilling. We didn't try it this way, having done just one test batch, but it would probably be great with a jalapeno/serrano in the muddling process to give it a bit of zing, too. Seed or not depending upon how hot you like things.

Yankee Muddle Dandy
(makes 2 cocktails)

1/4 a shaker full of watermelon sliced thin
leaves from 5 sprigs of mint
juice of one average-sized lime
4 oz. Hangar One Mandarin Blossom vodka
1 oz. Citronge
mint tops and watermelon wedges for garnish

Slice up some watermelon thin (this is why god made personal-sized watermelons--so you can butcher them for cocktails and still feel good about yourself) and put that in a cocktail shaker. Fill about 1/4 of the way. Pull of the leaves of 5 sprigs of mint and add to the shaker. Juice the lime directly into the shaker. Muddle, and don't be polite about it--you want to bruise those mint leaves so they express their oils and want the melon to mush a lot. Add the vodka, Citronge (or a Cointreau-ish liqueur of your choice), and a lot of ice. Shake the shaker well.

Get out a strainer, as it will be easy to get mint floaties or seeds into the drink if you're not careful. Pour into two, chilled up/martini glasses. Float the mint top and afix the watermelon wedge--so make it a dainty wedge--to the glass rim.