Strange Fruit Juice
Non-alcoholic; POG juice, mango juice, lime juice, grenadine, and bitters
Bandicoots are small omnivorous marsupials native to Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and the surrounding Pacific islands. They have long thin snouts and sharp claws they use to forage for underground insects and larvae. In addition, they eat lizards, mice, snails, fungi, grass seeds, berries, and fruit.
As hard as it is to believe, bandicoots are not bright orange and usually don't wear jean shorts and sneakers. But that fact couldn't stop Crash Bandicoot from becoming an icon as one of the earliest PlayStation mascots. Genetically altered by the nefarious Dr. Neo Cortex, Crash ran, slid, and spun through a series of adventures on the Wumpa Islands, an archipelago named for the strange fruit that grows there.
The Crash Bandicoot games are not only personal favorites of mine, but also some of Elena Fisher's favorites as well. This love and appreciation for old school gaming is something Elena passed down to her and Nate's daughter, Cassie. When I heard that Cassie had finally beaten her mom's high score on Crash Bandicoot, I knew I had to whip up something special for her to celebrate. The Strange Fruit Juice is a non-alcoholic cocktail to be enjoyed by gamers of all ages, meant to answer the question we've all been wondering for decades: "What would wumpa fruit juice taste like?"
STRANGE FRUIT JUICE
Ingredients: 2 oz POG juice 1.5 oz mango juice 0.5 oz lime juice 0.25 oz grenadine 1 dash Angostura bitters Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with pebble ice or crushed ice. Shake and dump directly into a snifter or other similarly sized glass. Garnish with fresh mint, slapped to express the oils.
POG juice is a blend of passionfruit, orange, and guava juices originally created and produced on Maui, Hawaii. If you can't find a commercially available POG blend, you can make your own by combining those three juices in equal parts. For an individual drink, use 0.66 oz of each. You can also use fruit nectars in place of the juices, but they will often be sweeter.
Like most bitters, Angostura is actually alcoholic and has an ABV comparable to many spirits. Because of the incredibly small amount used, the total ABV of Strange Fruit Juice is well under 0.5%, below the legal limit for non-alcoholic beverages in many countries and not enough to have any intoxicating effects, even after multiple drinks. However, there are non-alcoholic bitters available on the market if you would like to completely avoid alcohol for whatever reason.
Store bought grenadine will be much more syrupy and sickly sweet than making your own so I absolutely recommend homemade if possible. Making grenadine is fast and easy and, even if you only use the pomegranate juice and sugar and skip the pomegranate molasses and orange blossom water, you'll still wind up with a much better end result.
The recipe for grenadine can be found here.