Medically-inspired cocktails
March 29, 2017 8:37 PM Subscribe
I'm looking for ideas for a cocktail, or cocktail presentation that will evoke medical concepts, e.g. pharmaceuticals, lab testing or immunization.
This is for a get-together on Friday, so I think I'm out of time to order any exotic props (and don't want to spend a lot besides). Right now I'm thinking about taping "urine specimen" labels to plastic cups and serving a yellow drink, if I can think of one. Classy, I know. I also thought about trying to buy some syringes at a pharmacy and using them in some fashion, like adding the Galliano float to a Harvey Wallbanger. Ideally I'd like the drink to be enjoyable beyond the thematic touches. Thanks!
This is for a get-together on Friday, so I think I'm out of time to order any exotic props (and don't want to spend a lot besides). Right now I'm thinking about taping "urine specimen" labels to plastic cups and serving a yellow drink, if I can think of one. Classy, I know. I also thought about trying to buy some syringes at a pharmacy and using them in some fashion, like adding the Galliano float to a Harvey Wallbanger. Ideally I'd like the drink to be enjoyable beyond the thematic touches. Thanks!
Don't forget the nutmeg!
posted by nicwolff at 8:58 PM on March 29, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by nicwolff at 8:58 PM on March 29, 2017 [2 favorites]
There's an "alien brain hemorrhage cocktail." I'm sorry, I'm on my cell so I can't link it, but it's googleable with that phrase, and looks very very cool.
Also any drink with tonic water, because quinine allegedly prevents malaria!
posted by Grandysaur at 8:58 PM on March 29, 2017
Also any drink with tonic water, because quinine allegedly prevents malaria!
posted by Grandysaur at 8:58 PM on March 29, 2017
Best answer: Oh this is such a fun idea!
Just putting it out there that there is already a delicious cocktail aptly named Penicillin (Scotch, honey and ginger).
If you're willing to go there, I think making a cocktail that looks like centrifuged blood would be right on theme. Start with a simple kir royale recipe (champagne and chamboard/or creme de cassis). You can serve it in test tubes as a shot, or in champagne flutes, and let guests mix it with cocktail straws. Call it blood plasma or something in that vein (hah)!
posted by Champagne Supernova at 9:07 PM on March 29, 2017 [2 favorites]
Just putting it out there that there is already a delicious cocktail aptly named Penicillin (Scotch, honey and ginger).
If you're willing to go there, I think making a cocktail that looks like centrifuged blood would be right on theme. Start with a simple kir royale recipe (champagne and chamboard/or creme de cassis). You can serve it in test tubes as a shot, or in champagne flutes, and let guests mix it with cocktail straws. Call it blood plasma or something in that vein (hah)!
posted by Champagne Supernova at 9:07 PM on March 29, 2017 [2 favorites]
If you can get any quantity of tongue depressors at one of your local pharmacies, they might make good swizzle sticks. If you leave garnishes like cherries and olives in the jar, you could make pretty good-looking prescription labels for them with a computer and printer.
You could also make wraparound labels to slip over the wine and liquor bottles, with old-timey patent medicine names like Nurse McCready's Surgical Bruise Lotion and Old Moroccan Miracle Liver Restorative (jot down on the back of the label what the real contents are).
I actually like the specimen cup idea, and I think a lot of people will get a giggle out of it.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:13 PM on March 29, 2017
You could also make wraparound labels to slip over the wine and liquor bottles, with old-timey patent medicine names like Nurse McCready's Surgical Bruise Lotion and Old Moroccan Miracle Liver Restorative (jot down on the back of the label what the real contents are).
I actually like the specimen cup idea, and I think a lot of people will get a giggle out of it.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:13 PM on March 29, 2017
Wearing latex gloves to make and serve the drinks is also a pretty cheap way to evoke a medical setting.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:15 PM on March 29, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:15 PM on March 29, 2017 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Any super-red drink (heck, even a leggy red wine or punch) served in a clear cup -- wrap the cup in gauze bandage roll from the first aid aisle.
posted by mochapickle at 9:38 PM on March 29, 2017
posted by mochapickle at 9:38 PM on March 29, 2017
Get a pack of the tiny 30ml medicine cups pharmacies give out with cough syrups and other liquid meds. Label 'childhood medicine'.
Fill them with one of the following: Chinese Baijiu, e.g. Moutai; Jeppson's Malort; Cynar; undiluted Raki of any kind.
Be prepared for those that partake to cough, gag, swear, and in some cases, cry.
posted by BrandonW at 10:45 PM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
Fill them with one of the following: Chinese Baijiu, e.g. Moutai; Jeppson's Malort; Cynar; undiluted Raki of any kind.
Be prepared for those that partake to cough, gag, swear, and in some cases, cry.
posted by BrandonW at 10:45 PM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
jello shot syringes (I like the red ones)
A tray of yellow jello shots (in the medicine cups Brandon Blatcher linked) with a specimen card like this one
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:52 PM on March 29, 2017
A tray of yellow jello shots (in the medicine cups Brandon Blatcher linked) with a specimen card like this one
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:52 PM on March 29, 2017
Best answer: Here are a bunch of disgusting anatomically-themed cocktails created for an event at the Pathology Museum in London: Stool Sample, Charred Remains, Fat, Urine Sample, Stomach Contents.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:59 PM on March 29, 2017
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:59 PM on March 29, 2017
This is more leaning towards your lab testing request, but I think you could find some great inspirations from the London based Breaking Bad bar. Scroll down for the menu.
posted by wile e at 11:34 PM on March 29, 2017
posted by wile e at 11:34 PM on March 29, 2017
Depending on how gross you want to get, whole frozen raspberries in a drink thaw out into a delicious red, chunky, surgery-discard looking mess. Goes well in lemonade, vodka wouldn't hurt either.
There's a bar here in Melbourne called the Croft Institute that uses the creepy medical aesthetic. They have syringe shots, drinks stored in beakers, the odd wheelchair in the seating, few medical/scientific benches etc etc. but on preview likely too hard to source that kind of thing by Friday, sorry.
Could you print out some doctors surgery/public health type posters, get some big bottles of hand sanitizer and face masks and so on?
posted by procrastinator_general at 12:08 AM on March 30, 2017 [2 favorites]
There's a bar here in Melbourne called the Croft Institute that uses the creepy medical aesthetic. They have syringe shots, drinks stored in beakers, the odd wheelchair in the seating, few medical/scientific benches etc etc. but on preview likely too hard to source that kind of thing by Friday, sorry.
Could you print out some doctors surgery/public health type posters, get some big bottles of hand sanitizer and face masks and so on?
posted by procrastinator_general at 12:08 AM on March 30, 2017 [2 favorites]
Best answer: If you get rid of the box from a boxed wine like Franzia (classy, I know), you have a heavy duty plastic bag with a spigot. (I've heard it referred to as a bladder, incidentally).
You could then make it look like one of this IV drip/banana bag things. To make it more tongue and cheek, you could label it hangover cure (like this).
This how to article also talks about how to reuse the bag. Ideally, you would get something to help "hang up" the bag, and then you'd have some kind of tubing. You could then dispense the wine into cups or whatever.
If you want it to look like a banana bag/saline bag, you'd probably be best off using a white wine. However, if you used a red wine, then you could say it's a bag of blood for a blood transfusion. Franzia's "sangria" boxed wine would probably be a good color match for blood. I think it's not quite as dark as there other red wine. I don't drink alcohol any more, so I have no idea if this is even available any more, but it probably is, or at least something like it.
A freestanding coat rack could be a good thing to hang the "banana" bag or "blood" bag from.
posted by litera scripta manet at 7:24 AM on March 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
You could then make it look like one of this IV drip/banana bag things. To make it more tongue and cheek, you could label it hangover cure (like this).
This how to article also talks about how to reuse the bag. Ideally, you would get something to help "hang up" the bag, and then you'd have some kind of tubing. You could then dispense the wine into cups or whatever.
If you want it to look like a banana bag/saline bag, you'd probably be best off using a white wine. However, if you used a red wine, then you could say it's a bag of blood for a blood transfusion. Franzia's "sangria" boxed wine would probably be a good color match for blood. I think it's not quite as dark as there other red wine. I don't drink alcohol any more, so I have no idea if this is even available any more, but it probably is, or at least something like it.
A freestanding coat rack could be a good thing to hang the "banana" bag or "blood" bag from.
posted by litera scripta manet at 7:24 AM on March 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
For any whiskey-based cocktails, use an Islay Scotch instead--Ardbeg, Laphroaig, etc. (Or just serve some Islay Scotch by itself.) They have a ridiculously strong iodine flavor and often have that “new box of band-aids” or “recently burned-down hospital” taste.
(N.B. These aren’t especially cheap, but a little goes a long way.)
posted by miles per flower at 8:01 AM on March 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
(N.B. These aren’t especially cheap, but a little goes a long way.)
posted by miles per flower at 8:01 AM on March 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
Beakers and test tubes to drink from are, I think, pretty standard for this kind of effect in silly bars.
posted by praemunire at 8:39 AM on March 30, 2017
posted by praemunire at 8:39 AM on March 30, 2017
My favorite cocktail, the trinidad sour, has been described as tasting like a "medicinal Sweet-Tart." That's underselling it, but I'd definitely giggle at having them served from a chilled NyQuil bottle into the little dose cup cap. Or, even better, out of some vintage-looking apothecary glassware.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 9:19 AM on March 30, 2017
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 9:19 AM on March 30, 2017
It seems to me that along with the last episode of M*A*S*H, there was a rush of having vodka in IV bags (to put booze in glasses, not veins).
posted by SemiSalt at 10:39 AM on March 30, 2017
posted by SemiSalt at 10:39 AM on March 30, 2017
If you can your hands on some scalpels (there are disposable ones that come with advanced first aid kits; I'm sure they can be purchased as 'refills')...
Glass tumbler, three fingers of whiskey, drop a scalpel in there as a swizzle stick, and done.
edit: bonus points, leave some latex gloves lying around
posted by porpoise at 11:32 AM on March 30, 2017
Glass tumbler, three fingers of whiskey, drop a scalpel in there as a swizzle stick, and done.
edit: bonus points, leave some latex gloves lying around
posted by porpoise at 11:32 AM on March 30, 2017
Definitely gin & tonic!
Most of the herbal liqueurs, like Becherovka and Chartreuse, are said to be good for the digestion, as well as other things that might ail you.
posted by gingerbeer at 11:50 AM on March 30, 2017
Most of the herbal liqueurs, like Becherovka and Chartreuse, are said to be good for the digestion, as well as other things that might ail you.
posted by gingerbeer at 11:50 AM on March 30, 2017
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posted by nicwolff at 8:57 PM on March 29, 2017