Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.
It always bugged me that January and October were the two most popular months to give up drinking. I mean, I get why. January’s the start of a new year. October, uh, rhymes with sober? I guess it clears the runway to booze your way through the holidays, too.
But January and October are each 31-day months in the middle of football season. February, for the most part, has 28 days. It’s the backdrop to the Super Bowl, which is an obstacle, but otherwise only regular season hockey and basketball among America’s big five sports. If you need a get-right month, February is your guy.
I won’t be partaking personally — look for some on-location stuff from Phoenix breweries next week if all goes well — but I still opted to start the month off booze-free. Fortunately, I had a cocktail kit from Wilderton, and a five-step, 15-minute recipe, with which to kick off February.
Wilderton is a non-alcoholic botanical spirit made with grapefruit, orange blossom and herbs. It looks like magenta whiskey and smells, kinda, like pickles. And it came with the recipe for Rosy Cheeks, a booze-less hot toddy variation made with tea, vanilla syrup and lemon.
Let’s see how it tastes — and if it’s a proper substitute for a regular cocktail.