Welcome To Wonkette Happy Hour, With This Week's Cocktail, 216 Tiger Soda!

A very, very complex competition cocktail.

So. Many. Oranges.

Greetings, Wonketeers! I’m Hooper, your bartender. And I’m panicking. In two days, I’m entering a cocktail competition sponsored by the United States Bartenders’ Guild. If I win, I might get a spot on the regional team. I’ve been working on this recipe for days. I think I’ve nailed it. And I’m going to share it with you early, because I couldn’t have gotten here without you. Let’s make a 216 Tiger Soda. Actually, you can watch me make a 216 Tiger Soda, because nobody in their right mind would make this at home. Here’s the recipe.

216 Tiger Soda

House Orange Soda:

1 cup orange oleo saccharum syrup

3 tsp citric acid

5 cups water

½ tsp bergamot

¾ tsp orange blossom water

Natural food coloring

Orange oleo saccharum syrup:

2 oranges

1 cup sugar

½ cup water

Make the orange oleo saccharum: Peel the oranges, taking care to remove as much white pith as possible. Toss the orange peel with the sugar. Let sit for 24 hours. Add ½ cup of water and stir until the sugar dissolves completely. Strain out the orange peels.

Make the soda: Combine all ingredients except for food coloring. Add 5 drops of red food coloring and 2 drops of yellow food coloring until the desired color is reached. Carbonate using a Soda Stream or other home carbonation machine. Bottle and refrigerate for later use.

Cocktail:

¾ oz Orange Tiger Orange Liqueur

½ oz Orange Infused Aperol

½ oz OYO Barrel Aged Vanilla Vodka

¼ oz Wray and Nephew Overproof Rum

¼ oz paw paw syrup

4 dashes grapefruit bitters

Orange Infused Aperol:

750 ml Aperol

2 oranges

Make the orange-infused Aperol: Peel 2 oranges, being careful to avoid the white pith.

Make the cocktail: Stir all cocktail ingredients and pour into an iced highball glass. Add orange soda to taste. Garnish with a chocolate candy.

So, let’s talk about how this complex, slightly bitter handmade orange soda cocktail came into being. Orange Tiger, a barrel-aged orange liqueur made in Toledo, is sponsoring the contest. The cocktail must include at least ¾ oz of Orange Tiger. It must be a highball — a drink with a mixer, like Scotch and soda or rum and Coke. And the drink must tell a story — it needs to tell something about Cleveland, my hometown.

In a contest like this, I don’t just obey the rules, but emphasize them. This drink had to be an “orange” drink; the judges shouldn’t have to wonder where the orange liqueur is in the cocktail. Local stories matter? Well, let’s use some extra local ingredients, like a barrel-aged vodka from Akron and some pawpaw syrup. And let’s not sleep on the soda component of the highball — an orange soda made from scratch. Commercial bottled orange soda is … not good. Can we do better?

It’s a low bar. Sunkist and Fanta have a ton of sugar in them and no orange … anything. No juice, no oil, nada. I started my orange soda base by filtering organic orange juice, but it quickly became clear that this wouldn’t provide enough soda for the competition. I decided to use the peels instead of the juice for my soda. I’ve used oleo saccharum and super juice to extract huge amounts of flavor from citrus before; the same tricks worked very well here. Some citric acid to provide that artificial-but-addictive tartness of pop, and we were in business. Bergamot and orange blossom water added some needed complexity and bitterness that no commercial soda could match. I didn’t want to use food coloring, but the soda did need some help. It was a distressing shade of yellow without the color.

So what does this drink have to say about Cleveland? I did use as many Midwestern and local ingredients as possible, but those are nouns, and the contest is asking for adjectives describing my home. Cleveland is a city steeped in nostalgia. We worship a football team that was taken away from us last century. Our biggest tourist attraction is a museum. The roots of this city run deep. A bright orange soda from our childhoods, topped off with a little chocolate treat, seems like a fine way to honor this city.

Oh, and the cocktail is orange and brown. That can’t hurt.

Let’s talk ingredients:

Everybody crowd in for the ingredient shot!

Orange Soda: The constraints of the competition didn’t quite permit it, but I’d certainly squeeze your peeled oranges and strain them straight back into the soda base. Buying a SodaStream for this competition felt like a splurge, but having carbonated water on tap whenever you want is pretty nifty. I’m already planning to make house cola for myself. A carbonated margarita might have some charms as well.

Orange Tiger: I’ve never found a barrel-aged orange liqueur like this before; I’ve played with it as a Manhattan component before, and it’s got a lot of potential as a Grand Marnier replacement.

OYO Barrel-Aged Vanilla Vodka: The vanilla supports the orange flavors, and the barrel aging reinforces the dry barrel notes of the Orange Tiger.

Orange Infused Aperol: Aperol is great for any orange cocktail, but I wanted to amplify the orange notes even more. I steeped some orange peels in the Aperol before vacation, and the resulting bittersweet fruit bomb is a glorious addition to the drink. I hope there’s some left after the competition; if not, I’ll make more for my home bar.

Wray and Nephew Overproof Rum: This Jamaican rum reeks of overripe tropical fruit. It’s a monster of a rum that loves bitter citrus like grapefruit. A small measure of this adds complexity and sourness to a cocktail that could get lost in orange and sugar.

Paw paw syrup: Paw paw is tricky to harvest and doesn’t age well. But it’s a delicious addition to this cocktail — a little bit of mango, a little bit of banana, a little tart from some paw paw vinegar added for preservation. It’s a bit pricey, but a wonderful local treat.

Grapefruit Bitters: Some bitterness and added dimension to round out the drink.

Wish me luck!

My home bar is Hemingway’s Underground, the hottest cocktail bar in pretty little Medina, Ohio. I’m behind the stick Wednesday-Saturday, 4-10. Last call’s at midnight. Swing on by, and I’ll make a drink for you… or anything else from our little Happy Hour here at Wonkette.

OPEN THREAD!