I try to incorporate balance in my life. You know…trying not to work more than 8 hours a day; try to get that ever elusive 8 hours of sleep; try to eat healthfully most of the time…aaaand try to keep my alcohol intake to not-drunk-all-the-time. I actually recently learned that Prohibition was grass-rooted by a bunch of women who didn’t like being beaten by their husbands who spent all the family money getting drunk at the local saloon (imagine that). Apparently, black in the day, it was common to just be drunk.
All.
The.
Time.
Only men were permitted in the saloons; and, typically, men were the main breadwinners. So in the 1830s through the 1850s, there was a very real, very endemic drinking problem in the United States. Think London’s Gin Craze, but with all the alcohols; only men, and the entire country. That was the landscape in which Prohibition was born. Alcohol consumption was three times what it is today. Time Magazine did a piece on Prohibition, where they very succinctly summed up the beginning of the movement: “[i]t was a women’s movement against abuse at the hands of drunk men.” Of course, the movement couldn’t just stay about protecting women and children from drunk assholes.
Right?
That would be too nice.
No. It morphed into another way to oppress minorities…like immigrants and African Americans. Mind you, at the time, the majority of immigrants were from Europe; and the particular group of immigrants ye gold old Protestant Americans didn’t like were the Catholics. Think the Irish and Italian; and to a lesser extent, Germans. So, the moment caught on with religious groups, southerners who, for whatever stupid racist reason didn’t want black people to have access to alcohol; and eventually politicians who had a financial interest in controlling what was, at the time, one of the most profitable industries in the United States, if not the world.
But we love our booze here, so Prohibition didn’t last long, with the final day being only 13 years (from 1920 to 1933). Indeed, its final day is a day often celebrated here in the states (12/5/1933). So what does Prohibition have to do with balance?
Well…a lot, actually. Completely abstaining from a certain thing—in MOST circumstances—is not sustainable. Obviously, completely abstaining from murder is never a bad or unsustainable thing; and if you happen to be a recovering alcoholic, abstinence is often times the only way not to slip back into bad habits. HOWEVER, by and large, for the most part, abstinence is not realistic. Like, eating cabbage soup and plain white rice forever sounds like (and is) a miserable existence. This is the reason fad diets don’t work. They are not sustainable.
SO.
I try to keep the drinking confined to the weekends. Now, recently, that has not been the case. I’ve seen myself gradually increase the amount I drink, and the number of days during the week I drink, and I’m not about it. Why did I limit drinking to the weekends? Well, I know I’m not very disciplined when I do drink and often slam 3 drinks before the alcohol has a chance to out-blood my blood stream. And I know precisely how awful I feel after I indulge too much. I certainly do not want that when I have to function at work during the week. Now—mind you, I’ve never gotten drunk during the week (unless I’m on vacation). But the other reason I’d confine drinking to the weekend was because it made it all the more festive and special.
Drinking during the week diminishes the festivity on the weekends—and I am DEFINITELY not about that.
Throw in the extra calories and ickiness you feel when you’ve broken your own promises, and you get motivation to get back to your old, healthier habits.
SO.
Mocktails.
There is a magic to cocktails. There is a process…a ritual almost…to making them. At least for me. You buy quality ingredients; you do everything you can to get the most flavor out of those ingredients (you express the citrus oils from the rinds; you bruise the fresh herbs before mixing; you shake with ice; or without; or stir). It’s…magical. And part of what makes cocktails so special to me.
So, why not take that same deliberateness and apply it to mocktails?
Use all the same equipment—and sometimes even some of the same ingredients.
Put the same thought and care into making mocktails as you do cocktails, and I promise, the only thing you’ll be missing is the hangover and regret (and, well….the alcohol).
So I did, and now I will be making it a series. I do have to say, though, that when I started the whole craft cocktail thing, I got a not small amount of followers saying they did not drink; or asking for mocktail recipes. Well, I’m into it so here you go.
And I feel one of the best ways to start off this Temperance journey is with a tiki drink. Their alcoholic counterparts are already largely fruit-juice based, so I feel you’d be missing out on the cocktail fun the least with these. Additionally, for many of these tiki drinks, it’s the non-alcoholic ingredients which give them the flavor and textures we all love. It’s pineapple juice that creates this delectable froth when shaken with ice. It’s coconut cream or milk that gives tiki drinks their richness. It’s grenadine that gives some of these drinks their beautiful blush colors. It’s orgeat that gives you that unmistakeable tiki flavor.
And, if you’re fine with adding a negligible amount of alcohol (like…not even enough to register on the ABV chart), try adding bitters—Angostura, Orange, Peychaud. And if you’re feeling extra cheeky, add a filthy cherry as a garnish.
This is what I came up with: The Tropical Depression (eh? EH? Like a Hurricane, but more depressing? LMAO…*sigh* I fucking crack myself up)
Here’s how to make it:
Ingredients
1 oz. Pineapple juice
1 oz. Passion fruit juice
1/2 oz. Coconut milk
Juice of half a lime
1-2 dashes Angostura bitters
2 ounces Fresca
Directions
- Pour everything but the Fresca and bitters in a shaker with ice and shake.
- Strain into an ice-filled high ball glass, and splash a couple of dashes of bitters on top.
- Top with the Fresca (and a drop or two of Grenadine if you’re really feeling it)
- Garnish with a pineapple and orange wheel.
- Enjoy *guilt free*
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