Dave Short

I’ve recently gotten into mixing drinks. Carrie and I are hosting a Halloween party on Monday night, and I figured I’d try my hand at coming up with a new drink to suit the occasion. I decided to go with something color-based, and so I went with orange. I call it Orange You Evil, because I love puns. The drink didn’t turn out as colorful as I had hoped (it’s more a light yellow than orange), but I think it has a good flavor. You’ll need:

• Tequila (silver) — I used Lunazul Blanco.
• Triple Sec
• Galliano
• Orange Soda — I used Dry Soda’s Blood Orange flavor. Dry Soda is a local Seattle soda that’s made with less sugar than normal. You could probably substitute Fanta or Sunkist, but the finished drink would wind up being more sweet than you might like.
• Orange Juice — I used bottled juice because I didn’t have any fresh ones to squeeze. If you wind up using sugary orange soda, you can swap the orange juice for fresh-squeezed and make it an equal trade, sugar-wise. If you prefer fresh-squeezed orange and Dry Soda, you could add half an ounce of simple syrup to even things out.

I used a 1.5-ounce shot glasss for making this drink.

First, fill a highball glass with ice. Add a shot of tequila and triple sec, then add about a quarter-ounce (1/6 of the shot glass) of the Galliano. Fill the remaining space with a 50/50 mixture of the orange soda and the orange juice. Garnish with a lemon wedge.

I had originally tried this drink with rum, but found it just too sweet. The tequila was a natural substition. I’d like to say there’s some sort of associate between Mexican culture’s Day of the Dead and blah blah blah, but the truth is I just thought tequila was the next natural spirit after rum. I really like the flavor balance of the tequila with the orange, and the Galliano helps to add some texture while still complimenting the other ingredients. Vodka might also work, but the other drink I’ll be serving at the party (Black Magics) already contains vodka, and I wanted some variety in my potent potables.