The Ring of Fire
Nothing dramatic — just a cocktail recipe.
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The Story
I found my passion for mixology — as all kids probably do — at the gas station soda fountain. My father used to let us get a Big Gulp before going home (seriously, who lets kids have that much pop?), and he encouraged us to come up with our own flavour combinations. For some odd reason, he called these mixtures “suicides” (was the taste supposed to kill me?). We came up with some odd stuff over the years, my signature mix being 75% Diet Pepsi, 10% root beer, 10% Dr. Pepper, and a scant 5% Brisk Raspberry Iced Tea. As much as I adored this as a child, my adult self fully realizes how putrid that all sounds. I dare say my mixology skills have grown since then. But I’m sure you aren’t reading this to hear about my strange childhood, and I maintain that it should be absolutely illegal to write ten paragraphs before a recipe, so without further ado:
The Cocktail
The Ring of Fire
— 4oz. ginger beer or diet ginger beer
— 1.5oz. St. Germaine Elderflower
— two dashes of orange bitters
— splash of grenadine
— Luxardo cherry
Use a large block or ball of ice for presentation. Mix all ingredients together, and plop a cherry (or six) into the cup. Make sure to give it a good stir — St. Germaine is dense, and it needs to be mixed in.
The Tasting Notes
This cocktail is the perfect blend of fiery and flowery. With the ginger beer and the elderflower balancing each other out, the orange bitters give just enough added complexity to elevate this drink to the next level. And of course, we must pay homage to our Shirley Temple and Roy Rogers drinking days with the grenadine and cherries.
The Tasting Quote
“Did you know me and you, must be fireproof with all the hell that we’ve been through.” — Fireproof, by Coleman Hell
I feel like the obvious cliché with this would be Johnny Cash, but this cocktail isn’t about falling into a ring of fire and letting it burn — it’s about becoming resilient despite the heat. Drink this Ring of Fire cocktail, and become as fireproof as you need to be in the moment.
(Ok, disclaimer…. This drink doesn’t *actually* make you fireproof and neither does the song, so don’t go jumping into any fires.)
