Day 19: Pepto-Dismol

No coat, no soothe, no relieve

Mrs. Bottle loves Pepto-Bismol.  Our medicine cabinet is fully stocked with regular Pepto, Pepto Max, and Pepto in pill form for those times when a liquid is inconvenient.  She is always trying to get me to take it.  Upset stomach?  Take some Pepto.  Intestinal distress?  Take some Pepto.  Concussion?  Take some Pepto.  She doesn’t even care that it turns your tongue and your stool black.  I thought that she might love Pepto-Bismol more than anyone on the planet, but I was wrong.

The person who invented the Pink Creole must love Pepto-Bismol more. So much so that he (or she) created a drink that is a tribute to it. I don’t know why anyone would intentionally make a drink look like that unless they were in love with Pepto.  You may recall that this is the Week of Cream and all of our drinks this week will contain cream.   The Pink Creole only has a teaspoon of cream.  It also has a teaspoon of grenadine (damn you, grenadine!).  I can’t see any other purpose in adding such small amounts of those ingredients except to change the presentation.  They certainly didn’t noticeably impact the flavor.

The other components of the Pink Creole are light rum and lime juice. We went with real lime juice this time, as we were tired of accusations of being green plastic lime apologists.  I tried the real lime juice and the plastic lime juice straight just to see the difference as well.  The real lime juice indeed tasted better with a more authentic citrus flavor, but I don’t think it was any less sour.  It also didn’t make the drink as a whole any less sour. When Mrs. Bottle tasted the Pink Creole, her first words were “that’s awful”.  I didn’t think it was very good, either, but I wouldn’t say it was awful.  It was quite sour, though, with a strong alcohol finish. 

The recipe also called for a garnish of a black cherry soaked in rum.  I’m not sure why this garnish was necessary since you can’t see it submerged in the milky pinkness of the drink.  We didn’t have any black cherries sitting around, so we substituted a maraschino cherry soaked in rum.  When I bit into it, it reminded me of the first chew of a piece of Freshen-up Gum.  Instead of squirting a cool mint center, there was a rum explosion.

Rum Gum?

Overall Rating for the Pink Creole:

 

Taste: 2

Ease of Preparation: 3 – Requires some forethought to soak a cherry.

Presentation: 1

Drinks until blackout: 5 – A little over 25% alcohol

Ingredients:

1.5 oz Light Rum

1 tbsp. Lime Juice

1 tsp. Grenadine

1 tsp . Light Cream