Fifty-Fifty Clown
Fall feelings and what I've been listening to come together for a weird drink (that I would drink again)
I have been delinquent. I just haven't been making drinks as much at home recently. Too much travel. Too much other stuff. But...you know, it would be nice to get back into the rhythm and what better time than the holidays (lol)?
So, I want to make something, but I have a bit of dilemma. I’m flying east for 10 days tomorrow. No citrus around.
That’s okay. We can work around that.
And I want something seasonal,
Pears are in season.
And like I said, I have no citrus around so what should I be mixing with.
Tequila. The answer is always tequila.
So you know, that is an idea…
I was at St. George recently picking up their gorgeous Lot 23 (come over, let’s drink some) and they had so many pears. So. Many. It’s not like the pear liqueur just falls out of the sky after all. But I haven’t done anything with it in ages.
However it is a great late fall/Thanksgiving/Christmas flavor. Pears, underrated. So I’ve been itching to do something with pear. What stands up well with it?
Normally, you know me, I’d be pulling out the rum, and there are some rums that I think would be very fun in an instance like this. I also think a good smoky scotch would be excellent…but idk, I feel like I rely on that trick too much. Gin…not for this. Vodka? Ha, I’m good.
No, good old agave spirits are a good call here. Tequila is…having a moment, let’s say? Now I don’t keep anything fancy around and I have not gone down that path, but it certainly seems like it’s the spirit everyone is into right now (insert distracted boyfriend meme).
Plus, I’ve been having a lot of fun with all liquor beverages recently. Yes they pack a punch, yes, it’s great to dial it back sometimes, yes you sometimes need a martini and no substitutes. Which got me thinking about ways to do this, and the music I’ve been listening to.
Early in the pandemic I feel deeply into Heaven or Las Vegas by Cocteau Twins. In addition to just being an essential and brilliant record, there was something about the escapism of it that really spoke to me in that moment. And the song titles are wild. I’ve always loved “Fifty-Fifty Clown” and well, that seemed natural for bizarre experimentation, so you know…why not name a drink after a great song?
Half and half is a tough, and occasionally frequently unforgiving ratio. But in the right instances it is quite nice. Is this the right instance? God knows, that’s why we play with it!
So doing a 50/50 but…it could still use a little something else. Enter the overpowering, but occasionally useful black walnut bitters. Now with other bitters I’m pretty generous with my “2 dashes” but with black walnut bitters, I mean it. Honestly, you could get away with one if we are being honest. They will make everything taste like black walnuts. You’ve been warned, no proceed…
1.5 oz spiced pear liqueur (as has been noted many times before, this is a St. George household)
1.5 oz whatever anejo you don’t mind mixing with (Olmeca Altos for me)
2 dashes black walnut bitters (Fee Bros, but I’m not dogmatic)
This is a long-stirred drink. Put everything in the whole mixing glass, dump in a bunch of ice, and stir for a while. Now keep stirring. Now stir some more. The ice is your only dilution people, so go until you feel comfortable. The pear liqueur is only 20% though. So you got that going for you at least. I strained it into a rocks, but you know, you do you, whatever small glassware you go.
There you go, you got yourself a Fifty-Fifty Clown. It is…surprisingly drinkable? I feel like it could use one more thing, like an expressed orange peel but see above about the lack of citrus.
Anyway, hope you have a good Thanksgiving, with your given or chosen family.
This is Trader Jane’s, a periodic newsletter about drinks (mostly tiki) and other fun writing. Follow me on Substack for at this point, random and infrequent but still fun posts (if we are being honest), and follow me on Twitter and Instagram and Threads and Bluesky (and god knows what because social media is broken) for more timely updates on my beverages (and for lots of other things of course!)
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