Recreating Fictional Beverages

[KatieLoeb]

I was recently contacted by a writer for a local publication here in Philadelphia. She was interested in pairing local chefs and bartenders with fictional foods and beverages and having them interpret those recipes for a series of short articles. The result of this first collaboration is found HERE

As bizarre an endevour as this might seem, it was actually a lot of fun to do. Of course I didn't want to just slap something together. My name was going to be attached to it, so it had to actually be reproduceable and taste good. The idea of recreating a drink that was "like having your brain smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick" was challenging, but certainly possible. I went straight for a frozen drink, since the brain freeze would be a desirable effect. Finding suitable substitutions for strange ingredients that don't really exist was an exercise in creativity. But reading through the original prose, it seemed that a gin-lemon-herbal-minty concoction was definitely what was suggested in the text. A couple of batches later, I had tweaked the recipe to its final proportions. It's a batch frozen blender drink, meant for a small gathering of like minded courageous souls.

The next challenge is to find someone to recreate "Butterbeer" from the Harry Potter series. A quick Google search reveals that others have tried before. Anyone care to one up the already existing recipes? Any other nominations for other fictional drinks that are just begging to be brought to life? I'd be curious to hear about someone else's creative approach to this assignment...