Blue Ricardo | Cocktail Party

Blue Ricardo

We may pretend to be hoity-toity cocktail snobs, but the truth is that we’re suckers for a neon-colored drink or a ridiculous tiki garnish. Sadly, when it comes to good blue drinks, the pickings are slim; blue curaçao has historically not been an ingredient that most serious mixologists put much thought into.

When we found the Blue Ricardo in the pages of Imbibe magazine, credited to Fairweather in San Diego, we approached with hopeful-but-hesitant curiosity. Two sweeteners plus blue stuff doesn’t bode well for a balanced cocktail in our experience, and we expected to end up with a tongue-staining sugar bomb.

Thank goodness we were wrong! The Blue Ricardo is tart, sweet, lovely; the sweet elements are grounded by the rum and fresh lemon juice. The blue curaçao is added just at the end, melting beautifully into the glass and opening the first few sips with a sweet kiss of orange before transitioning into a bright, fruity sour. If you don’t have the blue stuff, you can use orange curaçao (or triple sec, or orange shrubb), with a drop or two of blue food dye added.

Ingredients

Instructions

Shake everything (except the blue curaçao) with ice, and strain into a tall glass filled with crushed ice. Top with the blue curacao and garnish with a lemon wheel and a straw.

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