Inspiration

My Dearest thought that the Clock Out ability puts enemies to sleep in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Although they are technically immobilized, I really liked the idea and used it to inspire this sleepy-time tea blend-inspired drink. These blends tend to include botanicals like lavender, valerian root, licorice root, and sometimes even my Dearest's favorite, chamomile!

Workshopping

When my brain thought "green" it immediately auto-completed to "green melon". Yup, Midori is going to be the green agent here. But then how could we make it themed to the Clock Out ability?

See also the Inspiration section for how I landed on a blend of sleep-help botanicals as the theme to match the green.

Chamomile-Infusion

To impart that flavor of chamomile I put to test three spirits to find an appropriate base. Each one below was mixed in a handful of dried chamomile flowers and sipped every half hour until the flavor of chamomile could be appreciated.

Rye Whiskey (Rittenhouse ~ 2 hours)
Pisco (Barsol ~ 1.5 hours) - Winner
Mixto Tequila (Tortilla ~ 2 hours)

After infusing, I tested how each one tasted in a 3:1 ratio with the Midori melon liqueur to see which base spirit vibed well. The rye was too potent, the mixto tequila was too sweet and vegetal, and the pisco's floral-fruit notes contrasted well with the sweet melon.

Now that one sleepy-time herb was incorporated, it was time to find another.

Lavender-Infusion

The XBar recently acquired a whipped cream maker (that you can charge with N2O cartridges). After messing with time-based chamomile infusions, I opted to test out the whipper on some lavender. I evidently did not measure my proportions out (likely due to my excitement over a new bar toy), but the rapid infusion of lavender into a butterfly pea flower finished gin (in this case Conniption - Kinship) resulted in a lightly floral adjustment. The infusion added an unprecedented shine to the already vibrant flavor of the Conniption gin.

Now, the gin here is a purple one due to the incorporation of butterfly pea flower. Despite its vibrant purple hue, the green color addition from the Midori overpowered the purpleness, keeping this cocktail its mossy shade of green.

Other Herbs and Botanicals

The blends of sleepy-time tea at the WithAnX household include other botanicals like licorice, valerian root, marshmallow root, and more. Tasting them, I appreciated the ones that had a bitter component to them that seemed to complement the floral characteristics of the other ingredients.

I opted for a proportion of Suze, a gentian liqueur, to add some body and bitterness and an adjustment of the only bitters in the XBar's collection that features lavender (Crude's "Bitterless Marriage").

Flavor Analysis

Notes of lavender and chamomile float between the spaces left between the split base of bright gin and soft pisco. Despite the melon liqueur normally overpowering other flavors with its sweetness, there's just enough of it here to impart a healthy amount of color and a proper abutment to the gentian liqueur's bitterness. The aroma is prominently pisco and the flavor is bitter-sweet.

As the flavor evolves, the fruit skin notes from the pisco base blend with the nuanced infused botanicals to create a flavor with hushed notes of pear and pineapple.

Star Garnish

Several star-shaped garnishes were developed for the crystal star cocktails including colored and candied star fruits! By slicing star fruits and simmering in a pan with colored liqueurs we can infuse those colors into the fruit slices. Star fruit is noticeably yellow, so adding a bit of blue curacao to the syrup mix turned the candied slices green.

The emerald star is a darker green hue, so to add that extra darkness we keep the heat on a bit longer until the stained slices begin to darken. Mildly burning the syrup allowed the lime-colored stars to turn emerald and for the orange-tinted stars to turn ruby.