The South Will Rise Again

Being me, and thus afraid of The South, I had a hard time with this one. I had just made a growler full of creme de fraise from strawberries from the farmers' market, and wanted to incorporate that, since southern food is inextricably linked with ridiculously good and diverse seasonal agriculture. I couldn't escape the whole southern gothic thing, though, since a lot of my experience in the south involves poisonous snakes, poisonous bugs, alligators, New Orleans, Kevin Spacey, and being scared. I decided to combine my creme de fraise, which tastes more like fresh strawberries than the actual berries do, with the dark, vibrant, difficult to pin down flavors of green Chartreuse. It turned out pretty good, and I wanted to name it after it's inspiration Atropa belladonna, deadly nightshade (I was also reading a book about poisonous plants, and this seemed fitting), but some twit had already published an awful sounding drink involving vodka and three kinds of fruit juice he called the Belladonna, so I named it,

Atropa

1 oz. Creme de Fraise (see below, or buy in France)

1 tsp. green Chartreuse

chill in fridge or freezer, do not add ice.

Creme de fraise

2 lbs fresh strawberries, coarsely chopped.

1 bottle very neutral vodka (svedka or three olives are good and cheap-ish)

combine these things in a big jug and leave them sit, with occasional shaking for 2-3 weeks. Strain out the strawberries (throw them away, they are AWFUL, now), and add about 1/2 cup of sugar. Dissolve and taste. You may want to add more sugar, but I recommend minimizing it.

In this competition we introduced the now-cannonical form of the competition which was to make one made-up cocktail and also one classic. For my classic I made Cocktail a la Louisiane. Let me tell you: That thing is too sweet to drink. I modified the cannonical recipe for yankee tastes.

Cocktail a la Louisiane 2: The war of northern aggression

1 oz. rye whiskey

1/2 oz. Benedictine

1/2 oz. sweet vermouth

3 dashes absinthe

3 dashes Peychaud's bitters