Sunset Cocktail: The Moonwalk on American Independence Day

1 oz Grapefruit Juice
1 oz Cointreau
3 drops Rose Flower Water
Barefoot Bubbly Extra Dry Champagne

Shake first three ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled Flute. Top with Sparkling Wine. (I added a Blueberry and a Raspberry as a garnish for color that didn’t show up in this pic)

When looking for a drink to make for this country’s illustrious celebration of independence i was torn about what to make. I did a cursory glance through all of the godawful red white and blue drinks out there then thought I’d make some kind of Idiotocratic (not ideocratic, there’s difference, bigly) statement with some kind of  trashy drink or an explosion like my Covfefe cocktail. But I gave it some thought and wanted to do something more… truly American, something from our proud past.

Lexington Common, 19th of April 1775 by Don Troiani.

The perception of what it is to be America has developed over the years, starting out as batshit crazy religious folks who fled their homes to practice their faiths in freedom (well, that’s the perception anyway), to rugged pioneers and adventurers exploring and developing a new world, to innovators and artists who revolutionized industry, art and music, to a world power awakened like a slumbering giant to enter the world’s battlefield and kick serious bad guy ass, to the terrifying world police with their eyes and fingers stretched into every corner of the earth, and now… back to batshit crazy religious folks, however not ones who want to pursue freedoms but ones that would rather plunge the nation into an oligarchical state of controlled ignorance. Where in this short but varied history would I find a good drink? I’d considered a Bourbon drink as it’s a wholly American Whiskey, or maybe a Rum based Flip to give nod to The Shot Heard ‘Round the World. No, I went with outer-fucking space.

According to Saveur:
“Joe Gilmore, legendary Head Barman at the Savoy Hotel’s American Bar, invented this cocktail in 1969 to commemorate the first moon landing. The drink—a combination of grapefruit, orange liqueur, and a hint of rosewater, topped with Champagne—was the first thing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin sipped upon returning to earth.”

The idea to do the Moonwalk was wholly inspired by one of my lifetime heroes, Buzz Aldrin. There is little in our history that expresses how the best of America can come together to than our first Lunar Landing (and our space program in general, no thanks to Nixon, that fuck) and I’m amazed that this happened within my lifetime. Granted, I was only 74 days old when they first walked on the moon but I was here! Buzz is still a strong and viable voice in the future of space exploration in his 80s and his Twitter feed is often hilarious.

Buzz Aldin has always been an inspiration and continues to be until this day. He’s amazing, kind of an asshole and a wiseass, has walked on the moon’s face, and is nobody’s idiot.