The Blue and Mellow Drink

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—

    While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

“ Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—

            Only this and nothing more.”

                      

                -Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven

Springtime showers and late May flowers typically bring snuffly noses, watery eyes, and an endless bombardment of sinus pressures. Pollen falls like star dust. The sensation of change trickles down cheeks like cool spring rain. Goosebumps cascade along the spine. The skies are an ember gray and laced with dark emotion.  The smell of lavender and daisy fill the room, but I can’t smell their intoxicating scent. The bed sheets lie gently over the top of my torso as I close my eyes, praying the coming of darkness and sleep. I take a breath through my nose. Nothing. Stopped by my inability to breath with regularity. My head is pounding. Cement that seems to be filling my sinus cavities. Times trudges slowly as the day ticks calmly forward. I curl up and try to sleep, but the light refuses to dim. Folks, I’m sick. 

It’s cold and flu season here in the Midwest. Pollen floats by like snowflakes in December, and the air is thick with the heaviness of life and the coming of rain. Like clockwork, I perpetually get a cold towards the end of May and into early June. My sinuses swell, and I feel like I’m dying. I can’t breathe, and my throat feels more like a scratching post than a channel way for air. After the guys getaway trip to Cincinnati this past Memorial Day weekend, I was greeted with a generous case of the sniffles. As an adult, being sick is worst. All I want to do is lie in bed for hours on end, but the hovering notion of responsibilities and the plethora of unfinished work that isn’t being done makes it worse. I get sucked into this vortex of imaginary pressure. My solution: I just sit and have an emotional breakdown. Whenever I spiral into one of these breakdowns, I reach for one of either two things: apple juice or a Blue and Mellow. 

My addiction to lemon-lime soda is a borderline obsession. I order it in every restaurant. There is something strangely comforting about the perfect balance of lemon and lime flavors. It’s a fresh burst of flavor as the bubbles fizzle gently towards the top of the glass. That moment is tantalizing. The particular soda I used for this recipe came from the Homer Soda Company, a local business that sells nostalgic bottled sodas. Lemon-lime soda is the other half to the Blue and Mellow. I came up with this drink when I began food photography over a year ago. It was late summer, and I was crazing soda and blue Gatorade. Not just any flavor of blue Gatorade, the icy blue colored ones in the tall bottles you only can find at gas stations. That flavor is my favorite. Critics may claim that it tastes the same as all the other blue colored Gatorade, but they would be completely incorrect. There is a defining difference between the two. You can’t beat the sour tartness mixed with the sweeter notes of honey and acai. When you pair it with lemon-lime soda, perfection has been achieved.

This drink is perfect for the upcoming summer months. It’s cool and refreshing. A touch of lemon juice pulls the flavor profiles all together in a symphony of carbonated joy. Even better, this drink is only three ingredients. I usually make the Blue and Mellow in one glass batches. I would suggest even making it in a punch bowl and serve it at your next backyard BBQ or lazy evening sitting on the front porch while watching the twilight sky saturate into complete and surreal darkness.

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The Blue and Mellow

Ingredients

1 20oz bottle Cool Rush Gatorade

1 12oz bottle lemon like soda

1 teaspoon lemon juice

½ cup ice

Lemons and cherries to garnish 

Directions

Pre-step: Turn up the stereo and grab a box of tissues because today is a sick day.

Step One: In a mason jar or any 16oz jar, pour in 12oz of the lemon like soda. Pour in the remaining 4oz of Gatorade. Add the lemon juice and top with ice. Serve immediately.