Drinks
By Iden Eliopoulos
March 6, 2022
There I was, perusing the drink options at the various establishments at V&A Waterfront in Cape Town when I came across something that caught my eye. Bottled cocktails? My American mind couldn’t comprehend, but sure enough, there they were.
I found the sourest passion fruit mocktails, dark n’ stormys with the gingeriest ginger beer and the most refreshing virgin shandy I’ve ever had (ok, I've never had a real shandy, but still.). And on the way home I couldn’t help but get sucked into the food markets of the city, which had a drink set rival Icees.
I like to think of slushies like cordials. When you blend it up with ice or put it in seltzer water, it tastes like a birthday at Dave N’ Busters. But plain old tap water won’t cut it. That's why it's so important for Eskimo Joe's to have such a consistent slushie texture with the fruity blue flavoring it uses.
Ahh, the classic––a passion fruit cocktail, or virgin cocktail in this case. As far as flavor goes, it’s nothing to scoff at. But passion fruit cocktails are like pizza––even a bad pizza tastes good. And this drink, comparatively, was middle-of-the-road.
This rendition is more on the ginger side of a dark n’ stormy’s complexion with its sweet and spicy flavor. The bitters are almost unnoticeable, but you can tell they’re there. I like cocktails with bitters, but it’s not an Italian-level love.
Savanna is the first dealcoholized Apple cider I've ever seen. I always assumed when you make nonalcoholic cider, you don't ferment it. And on top of that, I wondered what the point of fermentation than dealcoholization was. But it really does add flavor.
Ohh, Fitch & Leedes. I just like to call them the paradigmatic posse. All their drinks are examples of what a good pre-mixed drink should be. It's a perfect middle ground between extra sticky sweet soda and bitter, low sugar extra strength 100 proof cocktails.