There are times in life that call for dispirited drinks . Maybe you ’re celebrate the Fourth of July withred , white and grim refreshment . Maybe you ’re hosting a Blue Man Group afterparty . mayhap you care to pretend you ’re drinking melted Smurfs . ( We wo n’t estimate . ) Or mayhap you stupefy stuck with the blue end of some sort of bunch - source cocktail rainbow .
Whatever the ground , it can be a challenge to find dismal cocktail ingredients . Never fear , we can help oneself . Here ’s our guide to the good , the okay and the intimately undrinkable of the blue spirits world .
The adept : Magellan GinThe Jehovah of Magellan Gin grocery store it as the first by nature grim snare . producer sum up iris heyday at the end of distillation for color — no contrived coloring required . incentive : The iris impart not only a vivacious blue hue , but also a lumbering hitting of floral flavor . try out it in aGin & Tonicor in anAviationwhere it can act as around with another flush - heavy spirit , crème de violette .
Flickr/Rosana Prada
The Decent : Bols Blue CuraçaoThere ’s no disgrace in buying blasphemous curaçao . Sticky sweet and artificially blue as it is , the orange - flavor liqueur is the most easy accessible manner to blue - ify a cocktail ( save for just dropping in a few dashes of blue food coloring ) . And though it may be a lasting resident of the bottom ledge , it comes from a society with a storied yesteryear : Bols has been make liqueurs for one C of year . If you do choose to utilize it , confer with an expert , like Nick Bennett , of New York ’s Porchlight . He expertly counters the scented blue curaçao with smoky Lophophora williamsii and a virulent cinnamon syrup in hisGun Metal Bluecocktail .
The Bad : Hpnotiq and Alizé Bleu PassionHpnotiq was democratic among hip - record hop artists of the early nothing and unpopular among grade schooling teachers who were just examine to learn nipper how to write . The liqueur , a portmanteau of vodka , Cognac , various tropic juices and an unnamed blue kernel , is suitable only as a prop if you ’re cosplaying a wannabe doorknocker from 2002 . Same goes for Alizé , a portmanteau word of vodka , Cognac , ginger , cerise , passion yield and probably the same blue clobber that goes into Hpnotiq .
The Downright Traitorous : Rose ’s Blue RaspberryThe makers ( Dr. Pepper ) of Rose ’s Lime Juice ( which just slides by as a great style to improve a terrible beer , and necessity for making a Gimlet like Raymond Chandler — half noose , half Rose ’s ) also extend a depressed raspberry - flavored sociable . Just say no .
The Honorable Mention : Gïk drab WineGïk blue wineblewuplikecrazyon the cyberspace when it was released in Spain . The tinted vino ( colored with an all - natural dye ) was cooked up by entrepreneurs and the Basque regime ’s food research section in edict to capture millennial sake in all things Instagrammable . Unfortunately for curious stateside drinker , Gïk is only useable in Europe . But if you pass off to be traveling in Europe or have a generous protagonist in Spain , go forward and snag a bottle ( and seize one for us , too ) .
