The Golden Glow

Saturday morning I posted a truly fascinating recipe for a Jell-O mold from The Chiquita Banana Cookbook (1974) on Facebook and offered a prize to anyone who actually made it and posted evidence. Well, Bethany, of the fabulous Making It Modern web series, took me up on it and not only made it, but posted a live video of her sampling it. Her reaction was priceless and if you're on Facebook be sure to watch. We were so inspired that we did a live Periscope broadcast where we made our cocktail answer to this monstrosity in Jell-O! Here is the cocktail we made, incorporating as many of the flavors suggested in the original mold recipe as we could. Believe it or not, it's actually pretty good! There is little enough of the pickle juice that it just adds a tangy note and not an actual pickle flavor. Here's the original recipe for the mold:

And here's the cocktail version:

Golden Glow

2 oz vodka

1 oz Banane du Brésil liqueur

1 oz orange-carrot juice

1/2 oz fresh lemon juice

1/4 oz pickle juice

3 dashes of celery bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass!

I like to use vodka as a base spirit when I really want the other flavors in the drink to stand out. That was definitely the case here. Banane du Bresil is the only commercially available banana liqueur I've found that actually tastes like bananas and not banana candy. If you can't find it in your neck of the woods, there are recipes online for making your own banana liqueur that result in a great product! Ingredients like pickle juice sound awful, but a little dash can give your cocktail zing. Don't overdo it! We have an episode coming soon that utilizes balsamic vinegar in a drink with the same effect. 

If you have a "fascinating" recipe you'd like us to reimagine in cocktail form, let us know! We love a challenge!

And look for us live on Facebook video soon! Periscope is great, but we think most of our people are on Facebook, so we'll see you there!