Tastes like Happy - Vacation Coctails are the best!

I know you’ve experienced it. The first bright, crisp sip of your Sauvignon Blanc transports you to a summer afternoon. You can practically feel the sun on your arms and hear your friends laughing their hilarious raucous laughs. Tastes and smells have a special way of evoking memories that are especially vivid. Travels and warm weather are memories of which I am particularly fond, so I take every opportunity I can to lay the groundwork for happy remembrances at a later ( usually colder!) date.

Tastes like Happy: Vacation Cocktails - Bali

The unusual but surprisingly delicious combination of avocado and condensed milk blended with ice is my go-to memory cue for the café across from our hotel in Bali.

Memory is something researchers love to explore. A vivid memory evoked by a taste even has a name: Proustian experience. For those of you a little rusty on your Proust, it stems from a scene in In Search of Lost Time (or Remembrances of Things Past,) where the taste of a madeline cookie and lemon tea transport him vividly, almost magically to his grandmother’s kitchen. Dr. Stuart Firestein on Big Think points out that the memories triggered by taste and smell are always of a place in time, never a page of text say, or a scientific formula. Interesting!

 Taste Like Happy - Vacation Coctails - Kauai Dole Whip

An icy cup of a bright yellow pineapple “Dole Whip” is my memory in a microcosm of the lazy (and I won’t lie, sweaty) hours we spent between the ceremony and reception at our friends’ Kauai wedding.

I am hardly alone in saying travel is the best way to enjoy new experiences and make lasting memories. Taking the time to search out different foods and drinks when you are somewhere else is an easy way to “prime the pump” so you can access especially vivid memories later, say with a taste of a special bevvie.

So if you need a little encouragement to indulge on vacation, (particularly on a patio) take it from me and Monsieur Proust. Trying something wonderful will serve you endlessly. The first delightful taste sets the stage for a scene you will be able to revisit in memories every time it rolls across your tongue.

Tastes like Happy: Vacation Coctails at Earls on Robson in Vancouver.

The juicy first sip of a peach Bellini never fails to send me back to a happy afternoon in the sun on the patio of Earls on Robson in Vancouver. courtesy Earls

 

Although my strong preference is for a drink under a beach umbrella far from home, the Proustian memory phenomenon can be set any where, any time. Why not get creating beautiful sunny memories now, with this yummy new drink from the mixologists at Earls? If you order it at an Earls it comes in a cute little honey bear jar, but you can trust me when I tell you it works just fine in a regular tumbler!

Tastes like Happy: Vacation Cocktails - The Bees Knees

Image and recipe courtesy of Earls

 

Vacation Cocktail: The Bees Knees:

0.75 fl oz  House made honey syrup
1 fl oz       Fresh lemon juice
0.75 fl oz  Hendricks Gin
0.75 fl oz  Cointreau
3 dashes  Angostura bitters

Measure all ingredients into a mixing glass and fill with ice.
Top the mixing glass with a stainless steel shaking tin.
Shake the ingredients vigorously 12 times to mix.
Strain the cocktail into the honey bear jar (always over fresh ice)
Garnish with a lemon zest and a wooden honey dipper

Savour and enjoy, you are making memories here!