蓝色鸡尾酒跟1970年代和1980年代的迪斯科(kē)甜味酒饮脱不了干系——柠檬水、分(fēn)层和酸味剂。但实际上它们的历史要比这長(cháng)得多(duō)，而且正在迎来一个崭新(xīn)的篇章。波士在上世纪之交已经开始生产蓝色利口酒，甚至连手工调酒师圣经《萨伏伊鸡尾酒手册》（1930）都收录了多(duō)款蓝色鸡尾酒，其中包括蓝色火車(chē)（基本上是加了点颜色的白色佳人，配方為(wèi)50ml金酒、25ml柠檬汁、25ml橙皮利口酒和少许蓝色食用(yòng)色素）。不过，尽管调酒师们早就懂得了蓝色酒饮的吸引力，可(kě)到了现代调酒黄金年代，眼光敏锐的调酒师无疑不再青睐蓝色原料了。我们忙着重新(xīn)发现马提内、花(huā)花(huā)公子和遗言等鸡尾酒，轻浮和廉价利口酒被放逐到了酒架深处——取而代之的是苦精、黑麦威士忌和味美思。这个现代黄金年代还井喷式地产生了大量调酒大赛，因為(wèi)品牌争先恐后地想要赢得新(xīn)一代调酒师的忠诚度。42纬之下鸡尾酒世界杯是其中最激烈的大赛之一，决赛在新(xīn)西兰皇后镇举行，而蓝色鸡尾酒正是在这里得到了重生——多(duō)亏了品牌大使和大赛策划人Jacob Briars。

Blue cocktails are inescapably linked with the sweet disco drinks of the 1970s and 1980s – with lemonade, layering and sour mix. But in fact they have a much longer history and are in the process of writing themselves a whole new chapter. Bols was producing blue liqueurs at the turn of the last century, and even craft bartender’s bible The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) has its share of blue drinks, including the Blue Train (essentially a White Lady with a dash of colour: 50ml gin, 25ml lemon, 25ml triple sec, 1 dash of blue food colouring). But while barkeeps have long appreciated the appeal of a blue drink, fast forward to the start of the modern golden age and blue was definitely not an ingredient of choice for the discerning mixologist. At a time when we were rediscovering the Martinez, the Boulevardier and the Last Word, frivolity and cheap liqueurs were banished from the back bar – to be replaced with bitters, rye and vermouth. This modern golden age also heralded an explosion of cocktail competitions as brands wrestled for the loyalty of the new generation of bartenders. One of the most keenly fought was the 42 Below Cocktail World Cup, with its finals held in Queenstown, New Zealand, and it’s here that the blue drink was reborn, courtesy of then brand ambassador and competition mastermind Jacob Briars.

Briars认為(wèi)是三个因素组成的完美风暴造就了蓝色鸡尾酒复兴。首先，他(tā)拥有(yǒu)充裕的蓝色。“泰國(guó)参赛队在電(diàn)邮中犯了个错误，把他(tā)们要的两瓶蓝橙皮利口酒写成了两箱。等来到决赛地点并见过评委之后，他(tā)们发现蓝色鸡尾酒并不适用(yòng)。”于是，他(tā)的储藏室堆满了灵感和存货，静待属于他(tā)自己的蓝色鸡尾酒顿悟出现。然后是Briars对鸡尾酒界狂妄态度的失望。“它已经到了凡事都有(yǒu)太多(duō)条条框框的地步——鸡尾酒都是味苦、棕色和搅拌而成的；你不能(néng)用(yòng)伏特加等等。我坐(zuò)在那儿想，像Dale DeGroff这样的大师苦心孤诣，就是為(wèi)了让我们得到今天这个结果吗？当然不是。”最后一个因素是他(tā)的前同事Dean Callan——他(tā)最近买了一本Ted Haigh撰写的《古老烈酒与被遗忘的鸡尾酒》（2004）。“我们每去一家酒吧，他(tā)都会着魔似得点一杯僵尸复活2号，让我觉得有(yǒu)点烦。于是有(yǒu)一个晚上，我做了一杯僵尸复活蓝色号，目的是讽刺那些复古鸡尾酒，一切就这么开始了。”

Briars recounts a perfect storm of three factors that lead to his championing of the blue cocktail. First, he had an abundance of blue. “Due to an email error, the team from Thailand had requested two cases of blue curacao instead of two bottles. Having arrived at the event and seen the judges, they realised that blue drinks weren’t going to work.” His storeroom was therefore full of inspiration – and stock – when his own blue epiphany came. The second factor was Briars’ frustration with the pretentiousness that had entered the cocktail world. “It had got to the stage where there were so many rules – everything was bitter, brown and stirred; you couldn’t have vodka, etc. I was sitting there thinking, was this what people like Dale DeGroff had worked so hard to give us? And of course it wasn’t.” The final trigger was former colleague Dean Callan, who had recently acquired a copy of Ted Haigh’s Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails (2004). “He was obsessively ordering Corpse Reviver #2s in every bar we went into, and it was getting annoying. So one night I just made a Corpse Reviver #Blue to lampoon the seriousness of these vintage drinks, and it grew from there.”

身為(wèi)國(guó)际品牌大使，Briars有(yǒu)许多(duō)机会去传播自己的观点。他(tā)在全世界最好的酒吧点用(yòng)蓝色鸡尾酒，而且很(hěn)快就跟志(zhì)同道合的倡导者们建立起了同盟，包括伦敦的Gregor de Gruyther（蓝色玛格丽特创作者）、纽约市的Naren Young（迪斯科(kē)菲兹创作者，这是一款银色伏特加菲兹，使用(yòng)了少许蓝橙皮利口酒）和墨尔本的Jason Williams（他(tā)在Sweatshop的酒单上注明“加50分(fēn)澳元即可(kě)将任何酒饮升级為(wèi)蓝色”）。“我们都想制作出色的鸡尾酒，但他(tā)们不一定都是棕色和苦中带甜的。这是对它的平衡。”事实上，Briars觉得手工调酒师正在疏遠(yuǎn)他(tā)们的客人：“我认為(wèi)调酒师提倡的和客人想要的之间有(yǒu)着越来越大的差距，而蓝色鸡尾酒能(néng)够很(hěn)好地填补这一差距。”

As an international brand ambassador, Briars was well placed to spread his message, ordering blue drinks in the world’s best bars and quickly building up an alliance of like-minded advocates, including Gregor de Gruyther (in London, making blue margaritas), Naren Young (in NYC, the Disco Fizz – a silver vodka fizz with a dash of blue curacao) and Jason Williams, who offered to “upgrade any drink to blue for 50c” on the menu at Sweatshop in Melbourne. “We all wanted to make great drinks, but they didn’t all have to be brown and bittersweet. It was a counterweight to that.” Indeed Briars felt that craft bartenders were losing touch with their guests: “Blue drinks are perfect for whenever I see that gap between what bartenders are pushing and what customers want getting too great.”

从第一批僵尸复活蓝色号诞生到现在已经有(yǒu)八年了，蓝色鸡尾酒受到了越来越多(duō)的媒體(tǐ)报道，获奖级酒吧和调酒师也开始拥抱这一风格，从提供鲨鱼鸡尾酒的纽约PDT到提供珍珠奶茶蓝色珊瑚礁的伦敦Artesian。“它作為(wèi)调酒师之间的某种玩笑已经存在了多(duō)年，但在过去一两年突然达到了临界点，蓝色鸡尾酒正在占据各个酒吧。我认為(wèi)它向客人表明了你的调酒技术十分(fēn)过硬，所以你才有(yǒu)信心供应蓝色鸡尾酒。”Briars尝试了许多(duō)不同的蓝橙皮利口酒品牌和让鸡尾酒变色的其他(tā)方法，甚至跟澳大利亚一家小(xiǎo)酒厂合作生产定制品牌。但归根到底，他(tā)还是建议任何标准蓝橙皮利口酒都可(kě)以使用(yòng)。“问题之一是柑橘水果会破坏大部分(fēn)天然蓝色素——它们往往会呈现出灰色。它真的很(hěn)难处理(lǐ)。”他(tā)还指出，即使你认為(wèi)天然色素更多(duō)的那些利口酒也含有(yǒu)固定剂和人造色素，以保持它们的稳定性。“几乎所有(yǒu)利口酒都添加了色素，就我所知不含任何人造色素的产品只有(yǒu)查特酒和圣哲曼接骨木(mù)花(huā)利口酒。所以，老老实实地说你是染成蓝色的有(yǒu)什么不好呢(ne)？”

Eight years on from those first repainted Corpse Revivers, and blue drinks are getting more and more press, embraced by award-winning bars and bartenders from PDT in New York (with its drink The Shark) to The Artesian in London (with the Bubble Tea Blue Lagoon). “It crept along for years as a sort of bartender in-joke, but all of a sudden it has reached a tipping point in the last year or two and blue drinks are cropping up all over the place. I think what it indicates to your guests is that the quality of your bartending is so robust that you have the confidence to offer blue drinks.” Briars has tried many different curacao brands and other ways of colouring drinks, even working with a small Australian distiller to produce a bespoke brand. But when it comes down to it, he recommends any standard blue curacao. “Part of the problem is that citrus kills most natural blue colours – they often come out grey. It’s just very difficult to do.” He also adds that even those liqueurs you think of as having more natural colours contain fixatives and artificial colourings to keep them stable. “Almost all liqueurs have something added to colour them – the only two I know that don’t are Chartreuse and St-Germain elderflower liqueur. So what’s the difference with just being honest and saying that you’ve dyed it blue?”

即使在蓝色鸡尾酒的世界里也有(yǒu)指导方针。“最好的鸡尾酒中的蓝色应该是能(néng)够把你牢牢吸引住的。是的，蓝色原料具有(yǒu)挑战性，但是别担心，这是一个安全區(qū)域。”Briars说。僵尸复活蓝色号采用(yòng)的是利莱和苦艾酒，这两者对当时的客人来说都属于新(xīn)事物(wù)。PDT的鲨鱼鸡尾酒采用(yòng)了超烈朗姆酒（原料包括黄油泡朗姆酒、超烈朗姆酒、柠檬、菠萝、榛果丽、提基苦精、奶油，还有(yǒu)蓝橙皮利口酒）。纽约市Porchlight酒吧的炮铜蓝色则使用(yòng)了梅斯卡尔——特基拉的烟熏味近亲。“这些作品的成功在于它们的风味跳出了蓝色鸡尾酒的窠臼。出人意料的蓝色鸡尾酒是最好的。”Briars还表示，Tony Conigliaro在创作（非蓝色）鸡尾酒时采取的是类似方法。“Tony的准则是‘用(yòng)简单方式呈现不寻常的原料，用(yòng)不寻常的方式呈现简单原料 ’，我认為(wèi)这非常明智。对我们来说，关键在于用(yòng)蓝色引导人们进入酒饮新(xīn)世界。”一款做成蓝色、味甜易饮的鸡尾酒起不到作用(yòng)——太媚俗了。

Even in the world of blue cocktails, there are guidelines. “The best drinks are the ones where the blue is supposed to draw you in. Yes there’s a challenging ingredient here, but don’t worry, the water’s safe,” says Briars. In the case of the Corpse Reviver #Blue it was Lillet and absinthe, both new to drinkers at that time. With PDT’s Shark, it’s overproof rum (the drink contains butter-washed rum, overproof rum, lemon, pineapple, Frangelico, tiki bitters, cream – and blue curacao). In the Gun Metal Blue (Porchlight, NYC), it’s mezcal – tequila’s smoky relative. “The success of these drinks is that you don’t expect these flavours from a drink that’s blue. It works best when it’s a surprise.” Briars also cites Tony Conigliaro as someone who has a similar approach with his (non-blue) creations. “I think Tony’s mantra of ‘Unusual ingredients served in simple ways, simple ingredients served in unusual ways’ is very clever. For us, it’s about using blue to hold people’s hand into new drinks.” A sweet and approachable drink made blue just wouldn’t work – too kitsch.

所以，下次你在调制一款无色经典或者考虑向客人推荐什么的时候，不妨拿(ná)起那瓶蓝橙皮利口酒。正如Briars最后所说：“每次你给别人送上一杯蓝色酒饮，他(tā)们都会微笑。你会看到他(tā)们的眼睛為(wèi)之一亮，好像在说‘謝(xiè)謝(xiè)你，这杯酒看上去有(yǒu)趣极了。’”

So when you’re next making a colourless classic or deciding what to devise for a guest, perhaps consider that bottle of blue curacao. As Briars concludes, “Whenever you put a blue drink in front of someone they smile. You can see their eyes light up, as if to say, ‘Thank you, that’s a drink that looks like a lot of fun.’”

1. 僵尸复活蓝色号 / Corpse Reviver #Blue

Jacob Briars创作，2007 /  By Jacob Briars, 2007

僵尸复活蓝色号一开始只是想讽刺现代人对经典鸡尾酒配方的痴迷，后来在调酒界流传开来，成為(wèi)了一款名副其实的现代经典。Briars将这款酒的成功归因于它本身的简单（只是把经典配方的一款原料换掉——“你不可(kě)能(néng)把它搞砸”），以及严肃原料和轻松外观的结合。

Originally a sarcastic response to our modern obsession with classic cocktail recipes, the Corpse Reviver Number #Blue has since spread around the bartending community and become a modern classic in its own right. Briars puts its success down to the simplicity of the drink (just switching one ingredient from the classic – “you can’t mess it up”), and the combination of serious ingredients with a light-hearted appearance.

·25ml 孟买蓝宝石金酒 / Bombay Sapphire gin

·25ml 利莱白利口酒 / Lillet Blanc

·25ml 蓝橙皮利口酒 / Blue curacao

·25ml 柠檬汁 / Lemon juice

·1滴 苦艾酒 / 1ds Absinthe

充分(fēn)摇匀后滤入冰过的鸡尾酒杯，以柠檬皮装饰。

Shake well, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with a lemon zest.

2. 炮铜蓝色 / Gun Metal Blue

Mike Shain与Nicholas Bennett创作，纽约市Porchlight，2015 / By Mike Shain and Nicholas Bennett, Porchlight, NYC, 2015

炮铜蓝色是一款完美的入门级蓝色鸡尾酒。它看上去像甜甜的迪斯科(kē)酒饮，但却以优雅的高脚碟形杯盛放，口感强劲复杂，带烟熏味。严肃鸡尾酒和活泼品相的绝妙结合。

The Gun Metal Blue is the epitome of a blue gateway drink. It looks like a sweet disco drink, but is served in a long-stemmed, elegant coup glass and is strong, smoky and complex. A wonderful juxtaposition of serious cocktail and frivolous presentation.

·45ml 维达梅斯卡尔 / Vida mezcal

·20ml 新(xīn)鲜青柠汁 / Fresh lime juice

·15ml 蓝橙皮利口酒 / Blue curacao

·10ml 孔比耶桃子利口酒 / Combier creme de peche

·10ml 苦肉桂糖浆（自制，苦味来自添加的龙胆根）/ Bitter cinnamon syrup (made in house with gentian added for bitterness)

将梅斯卡尔、青柠汁、蓝橙皮利口酒、桃子利口酒和肉桂糖浆加冰摇匀。滤入碟形杯，以橙皮卷装饰。

Shake the mezcal, lime juice, curacao, peach liqueur and cinnamon syrup with ice. Strain into a coupe glass and garnish with an orange twist.

3. 蓝宝石钻戒 / Diamond Blue

Charlotte Voisey创作，2011 / By Charlotte Voisey, 2011

这款来自Charlotte Voisey（威廉父子公司调酒大师）的鸡尾酒是為(wèi)了庆祝威廉王子和凯特·米德尔顿的婚礼而特别创作。蓝色灵感来自凯特的蓝宝石订婚戒指，这枚戒指曾经属于戴安娜王妃。

This drink was created by Charlotte Voisey (company mixologist for William Grant & Sons) to commemorate the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton. The blue was inspired by Kate’s sapphire engagement ring, which previously belonged to Princess Diana.

·20ml 亨利爵士金酒 / Hendrick’s gin

·20ml 紫罗兰利口酒 / Creme de violette

·10ml 蓝橙皮利口酒 / Blue curacao

用(yòng)1枚青柠瓣榨取的汁 / Juice from 1 lemon wedge

用(yòng)来加满的香槟 / Champagne to top

将除了香槟之外的所有(yǒu)原料加冰搅匀。滤入细長(cháng)型香槟杯，加满香槟，以少许可(kě)食用(yòng)的银箔（通常用(yòng)于装饰蛋糕）装饰。

Stir all the ingredients except the champagne over ice. Strain into a flute, top with the champagne and garnish with a light dusting of edible silver glitter (normally used for decorating cakes).

4. 洗衣日蓝调 / Washday Blues

Julian de Feral创作，2012 / By Julian de Feral, 2012

戈吉斯集团顾问de Feral為(wèi)英國(guó)曼切斯特希尔顿酒店(diàn)的云23酒吧创作了这款酒，目的是让客人们更多(duō)地尝试雪(xuě)莉酒和金酒——前面我们说过用(yòng)蓝色鸡尾酒来引导人们尝试他(tā)们不会想到的原料，而这又(yòu)是一个很(hěn)好的例子。这款酒的名字源自曼切斯特的“洗衣日”：在这个日子里，城中各个角落的居民(mín)都把洗过的衣服挂出来晒干。用(yòng)来搭配酒的跳跳糖听起来就像雨点打在窗格上——因為(wèi)洗衣日总是会下雨！

De Feral, a consultant with Gorgeous Group, created this for the Cloud 23 bar in the Hilton Manchester, UK, to get customers to try more sherry and gin – so another example of blue drinks introducing people to ingredients they would otherwise avoid. The name relates to Manchester’s “wash days”, when people across the city would all hang out their clothes to dry. When added to the drink, the popping candy garnish sounds like rain hitting a window pane – because it always rains on wash days!

·50ml 添加利金酒 / Tanqueray gin

·10ml 蜂蜜调酒（2:1）/ Honey syrup (2:1)

·10ml 蓝橙皮利口酒 / Blue curacao

·10ml 缇欧佩佩菲诺雪(xuě)莉酒 / Tio Pepe fino sherry

·10ml 柠檬汁 / Lemon juice

·2滴 蒲公英与牛蒡苦精 / 2ds Dandelion & Burdock bitters

用(yòng)来加满的苏打水 / Soda to top

将除了苏打水之外的所有(yǒu)原料摇匀，滤入装满新(xīn)鲜冰的高球杯，加满苏打水，以一片黄瓜装饰（切成云的形状）。上桌时搭配一小(xiǎo)管跳跳糖