Drink the Blue Lagoon Cocktail for a Taste of Summer Anytime T he Blue Lagoon cocktail with its bright blue hue is unsurprisingly a popu...
Drink the Blue Lagoon Cocktail for a Taste of Summer Anytime
The Blue Lagoon cocktail with its bright blue hue is unsurprisingly a popular summer
drink. The vibrant blue, reminiscent of the tropical waters typically surrounding idyllic
islands of paradise comes from blue Curaçao. What is surprising though is where it was
created, because it wasn’t in some far away beach bar in the Caribbean.
This cocktail came to life thanks to Andy MacElhone. If the name sounds a bit familiar,
that’s because he was the son of Harry MacElhone, the legendary inventor of some of
the most famed drinks in the world including the White Lady, Sidecar, and Monkey
Gland. Like his father before him, he fashioned this tropical cocktail at Harry’s New
York Bar in Paris, France. However, the date is a bit hazy. Some cocktail experts say it
happened in 1972 while others insist it was in the 1960s when blue Curaçao was first
launched into the European market.
It's not as muddled a history as many other cocktails. In fact, it’s as clear as the blue in
your highball glass. To make an authentic Blue Lagoon cocktail, one of the best things
you can do to make it pure paradise in your glass is to make your own homemade
lemonade to mix it with. It’s simple enough to fashion. All that’s required is to squeeze
the juice from three large lemons, mix with water and sugar to your level of sweetness
and allow to sit and chill for the flavors to fully penetrate. Some even heat this mixture
through first to allow the sugar to melt down and then chill it.
Of course, if making lemonade isn’t your cup of tea (or cup of lemonade should we say?)
then you can always use a store-bought version to speed things up. You’ll want to put an
ounce of vodka and an ounce of blue Curaçao into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake it up
and strain it into an awaiting highball glass brimming with fresh ice. Fill it the rest of the
way with the lemonade of your choice and then garnish it with a slice of lemon or
orange. Some even add a cherry for good measure.
You can experiment with other flavors too by simply trying out a flavored lemonade. Or
try adding in a dash of lime cordial or raspberry cordial, a popular method in Australia.
No word on whether the Aussies try both at once in the Land Down Under but it’s
certainly worth a shot, pardon the pun. And you never know what your cocktail
tinkering may lead to, perhaps even a name for yourself in the iconic history of cocktails.
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