HAPPY DAYS

HAPPY DAYS

Ginger Infused Vodka

Pineapple Juice

Soda Water

Today was indeed a happy day for me. Not only was it the first day of Autumn, my favorite season, but I got to spend it at one of my favorite places, Athens, Ohio. I was showing Ohio University to my niece Hannah, a senior in high school checking out colleges. I’m a proud OU alumni and we ended the day meeting a friend of mine from those college days who never left Athens. Known as “Emo” to friends, she had adopted five dogs by the time she graduated from OU and she couldn’t exactly go back to her parent’s place in Jersey.

Today, Emo is doing great, still in Athens and still rescuing pets. I drink a cocktail a day and she rescues an animal a day. She told me the story of the pet she had rescued that day, a mouse that her cat had brought in, as I smiled and drank a HAPPY DAYS cocktail. The cocktail was made for me by the bartender at Casa Nueva, an amazing worker-owned Mexican restaurant that uses local, fresh food. They also make their own infused vodkas. Infused vodkas are new to me, and I’m discovering that they are the best way to enjoy vodka. To make them, you steep different fruits, vegetables and other ingredients in vodka until they are ripe and ready for consumption. The creative Casa has used items like bacon and bubblegum, but the infused vodka I tried was ginger. When combined with pineapple juice, and soda water in the HAPPY DAYS cocktail, it was indeed happiness in a glass.

The HAPPY DAYS cocktail had a strong ginger taste from the vodka that was entirely pleasant, and not overwhelming. The pineapple juice gave it a tropical feel, but the ginger balanced it so that the cocktail wasn’t too sweet. If I didn’t have to drive, I would have happily had about three more. Sadly, the happy day had to end, but the memories, especially those of the infused vodka, will last forever.

Drink Up^

Cocktail Connie