Month: June 2019

First ordered in Episode 27 the Supernova packs a punch. It’s a deliciously strong combination of gin, green chartreuse, Campari, and vermouth, and has a beautiful rust-orange color.

The Supernova

Look at that color!

Sweet vermouth is also known as rosso (“red” in Italian) or rouge (“red” in French) vermouth due to its red color. Like its name suggests it brings some sweetness to the drink, preventing it from tasting like pure alcohol.

Green Chartreuse is a beautiful, naturally green liqueur made with over a hundred different botanicals. It’s hard to replicate given its unique flavor, but given its price (often $50-60 a bottle) if you wish to substitute it try a 50/50 mix of elderflower liqueur and absinthe or Jägermeister. It brings some lovely floral and herby notes to this drink and blends wonderfully with the gin.

Campari has a very bitter citrus flavor that is quite similar to grapefruit. It has a beautiful red color and adds a ton of depth to this drink.

Glamour shots

Supernova [serves 1]

1 ounce gin
1 ounce green Chartreuse
1 ounce sweet vermouth (aka ” Rosso” or “Rouge” vermouth)
½ teaspoon Campari
Garnish: Lemon peel

Combine in a shaker with ice and shake well. Strain into a martini glass. Garnish with lemon peel.

Bantha Blasters are first ordered during Episode 24. They’re pink and green, and pop and fizz. Our real life version uses watermelon for the pink, melon liqueur for the green, and Pop Rocks for some great popping and fizzing.

Finished drink and a small bowl of Pop Rocks
A good ol’fashioned Bantha Blaster

This recipe uses seedless watermelon, vodka, simple syrup, lime juice, Midori melon liqueur, and, finally, Pop Rocks.

All the ingredients laid out
Bantha Blaster in the making.

Now, we had some real trouble finding Pop Rocks in our local grocery stores and ended up buying a few packages online. Sadly, the online packs did not have the flavor we wanted: Green Apple. The Green Apple is preferred for its green color, but other flavors will work if you also have trouble finding them.

First, cut up the watermelon into cubes and put them in a blender along with the vodka, simple syrup, and lime juice. Our watermelon was a little under-ripe so we used 2 ounces of simple syrup. Use less if your melon is nice and ripe.

A clear pink blender canister filled with watermelon and other ingredients.
And yes, this is blender was once used at a certain coffee chain.

Blend everything up until smooth. There will be watermelon “foam” at the top and more of a juice at the bottom.

Two tall glasses filled with ice cubes, each with a small amount of melon liqueur at the bottom.
The first layer.

Fill 2 highball glasses with ice and pour 1 ounce of midori into each glass. Using a fine mesh strainer or something similar, strain the watermelon mix between the 2 glasses. This will remove the foamy pulp so that you’re left with a smooth juice.

Two tall glasses filled with ice cubes, each with a small amount of melon liqueur at the bottom, and the watermelon mix on top.
Getting ready for those popping rocks.

Very carefully pour 1 package of pop rocks onto the top of each drink. Very carefully! If your Pop Rocks are particularly “fresh” or you live in a fairly dry environment the Pop Rocks might, well… pop quite vigorously when they hit the liquid. When we first made this drink a while back the Pop Rocks exploded everywhere and made a bit of a mess. For this photoshoot the house was humid and since the candy had to sit out while everything was made they didn’t react quite as violently.

A top down shot of the finished drink, topped with red Pop Rocks.
Shown here with Watermelon Pop Rocks.

Bantha Blasters [serves 2]

2 cups fresh seedless watermelon, cut into cubes about 1/2-inch in diameter
4 ounces vodka
1-2 ounces simple syrup, depending on how sweet your watermelon is*
2 ounces lime juice
2 ounces midori
1 small package Green Apple Pop Rocks**


Place watermelon, vodka, simple syrup, and lime juice in blender. Process until smooth. Fill 2 highball glasses with ice and pour 1 ounce of midori into each glass. Strain the watermelon mix between the 2 glasses. Very carefully pour 1 package of pop rocks onto the top of each drink.

*Simple Syrup recipe found here
**Or whatever flavor you can find.

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