“Link… I would have expected no less from the man I chose to be my husband.” - The Sage of Water Princess Ruto, The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time

Inspiration

Princess Ruto awaits for Link within the Water Temple prepped with her charming wit as always. She’s kind of got a claim on Link as her future husband, and I’m not sure whether LInk is totally down with that. Come to think of it, all the ladies seem to flock to the Hero of Time. Hm.

For Ruto’s Spritz of Water, I’ve combined the flavors of tart blue raspberry and champagne to mirror Ruto’s intense feelings towards our protagonist while also preserving her status as a royale, erm royal (excuse the cocktail pun).

Workshopping

Infusion of Water

• 22 oz (650 ml) Vodka

• 30 Blue Raspberry Candies (Jolly Rancher)

• Green Apple Flesh (3 apples-worth)

• Infuse for 7 days, then strain.

Extinguish your thirst from the Spritz of Fire with this spritz for the Sage of Water! (See because water can be used to extinguish fi– yeah okay, you got it.) The idea for how to flavor this spritz came partially from chat, but also from my desire not to use blue curaçao again for a blue drink. Blue raspberry (not a naturally growing fruit by the way) gets its color namely from food dyes. Using it to add the color right from the candy felt kinda like cheating the system a bit. It’s not like I added the dye, the candy just comes that way.

Not only was I determined to completely dissolve some blue Jolly Ranchers in vodka, but I also wanted to see if I could accent the flavor to be more than just blue raspberry. Turns out that Jolly Ranchers include a proportion of malic acid, an acid that some call the “green apple acid” due to its role in making green apples taste the way they do. Chopping up a few of these and adding to the infusion didn’t interrupt the blue color and in my opinion, brightened up the flavors a bit. It took things from tasting straight up like candy, to be a bit fuller and less sticky. The green apple slices also took on a nice blue color and tasted much sweeter than they would be on their own.

At this point, if you’ve thought to yourself, “what else could I use this for”, don’t worry, I’ve got you! You can sub this out for anything that calls for blue raspberry vodka to add an extra flavor component to the base recipe. Use it to make a blue vodka soda, a Star Wars themed Youngling Slayer, or add in equal parts to lemonade.

By the way, I prepared this infusion and the others during their own livestream seven days before the cocktails debuted! (Get it? Seven days, for seven spritzes and for the seven years Link was asleep in the Temple of Time! ~ Anyways, if you want a visual guide, watch us make the Infusion of Water here)

The Spritz of Water

The ratio for this spritz was rather easy to settle upon. I choose to believe that anything candy will normally go with anything bubbly (that’s basically what soda is after all). It might also be that the malic tartness of a blue raspberry Jolly Rancher just pairs that well with the mineralistic and creamy qualities of certain champagnes. In structure, this is really similar to a Kir Royale but with more of the non-champagne ingredient.

Flavor Analysis

Sweet and forward on those obvious notes of raspberry (and the color blue). The flavors of cream and mineralistic citrus abut a green apple-like sweetness that delicately fades to a residual stickiness like that of candy.