Stranger Things has me ranting about 80’s movies with an EXTRA weird drink | How to Drink

Stranger Things Season 3 is on the way and I'm talking about the show, my favorite 80's flicks, and making a drink I call The Upside Down. Rad.

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I'm obsessed with Stranger Things. Sometimes I think the show wasn't written by actual humans but rather highly sophisticated AI Learning Algorithms developed by the Department of Defense based on data mined from my ( and other kids of my generations) dream ala Videodrome because it seems so absolutely perfectly suited to my tastes it's kinda frightening... but I know that isn't true, because the show was written by two totally real human's called The Duffer Brothers. Let's just get this out of the way: I played a lot of Dungeons and Dragons as a kid. And as an adult. And also Vampire the Masquerade (all the White Wolf stuff), and Warhammer 40k, and Warhammer 40k RPG, and FATE core, and some weirder stuff that's escaping my memory at the moment.

I rode a bike everywhere. I had a walkman. I obsessed over the movies these kids obsess over. I spent countless hours in arcades and shopping malls. There's nothing unique about this, just pointing out that wowza does this show strike a chord. The casting too! Wynonna Rider and Sean Astin and Paul Reiser, brilliant! It's like they've stepped out of Heather's and Alien's and the Goonies to join the cast. They carry with them valuable nostalgia currency that helps propel the show. Which is savvy. I'm totally being manipulated here and it's totally working and I don't even care.

Season 3 brings us the mall, the epicenter of 80's life. It brings us a mayor played by Cary Elwes (the princess bride! Robin Hood!). Probably an even bigger music budget (seriously, what are they spending on this?!) and I can't wait. I'm on the edge of my seat. Let's get this on!

The drink I'm making is called an Upside Down and it's a spirit forward tequila based drink that's got roots in the Old Fashioned with a connection to the Sazerac and it makes use of squid ink which is weird but sensible and awesome. Here's how you make it:

The Upside Down
.25 oz. -or- 7 ml. Chocolate Liqueur
.5 oz. -or- 15 ml. Maple Syrup
2 oz. -or- 60 ml. Blanco Tequila
2 dashes of Peychaud's Bitters
Stir over ice
pour into empty rocks glass (no ice)
Drop several drops of squid ink into the glass
Twist a lemon peel over the top (discard the peel)
and enjoy.


Most of the tools and gear I use on the show can be found on my gear page at: bit.ly/H2DGear BUT, here's a couple of links that everyone is almost always asking me about:

Koriko Weighted Shaker Tins: amzn.to/2MvyOWs
Koriko Hawthorne Strainer: amzn.to/2IAZrHr
Leopold Jigger: amzn.to/2KsBu6B
Imbibe! By David Wondrich: amzn.to/2Kv1dLN
Liquid Intelligence by Dave Arnold: amzn.to/2N885jP


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bit.ly/H2DBlog

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Music by Glen Crytzer: bit.ly/2KjujSg

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