Law of the Jungle, Part II (Animal Man, Tigra)

I thought I would have spilled all my “African nature”-inspiration into Black Panther and Gorilla Grodd, and of course into two non-superhero cocktail recipes, Punishment Island and Pygmy Dance… but there’s still some spark left…

This time both drinks utilize carrot juice. It’s pretty decent ingredient when used properly… and I’ve used it only in Human Torch and in two versions of Thing. Let’s see what we can create this time…

ANIMAL MAN

Late 80’s Animal Man really rocks, thanks to Grant Morrison (and Brian Bolland for the covers)!

How to capture Buddy Baker’s “essence” in a cocktail? All those animal powers, how to represent them… some sort of jumble with kwazillion elements…?

I tried few ideas, and they ended up just as you might expect from the muddle of million liqueurs… I banished them all from my pile of recipe drafts, and decided to create something simple and elegant instead.

So here it is, simple and straightforward highball… and it’s orange, just like Animal Man’s tights 😀

-2 parts extra dry vermouth

-1 part carrot juice

-1 part orange juice

-1 part Rose’s Lime Cordial

Shake with ice and strain into highball glass with some ice in it. If you want to garnish the drink, use orange wedge with blue parasol and blue straw (to complete Animal Man’s colour theme).

If you yearn for more kick, simply add vermouth.

[EDIT: new version of Animal Man available here. ]

In the case you find “Animal Man” tasty, you should check out Rogue: it also utilizes dry vermouth’s distinctive sting.

To counterbalance mild highball next one is nothing but mild…

TIGRA

She’s wild, she’s dangerous, her drink rips your throat (or head) if you’re not careful. The drink looks peaceful and harmless, little glass of orange juice… but she attacks you suddenly, like a lightning! Be warned, this drink requires “acquired taste”.

My vision of “Tigra The Cocktail” is more like a bunch of suggestions instead of one recipe, start exploring with this one…

-3 parts bourbon

-1 parts Green Chartreuse

-2 part carrot juice

Shake with ice and strain into old fashioned glass with some ice in it.

And here are the options…

-Too strong? Add carrot juice (please don’t tamper with bourbon/Chartreuse-ratio)

-Too harsh? Add some simple syrup.

-Too much anise? Select another drink ;P

-Too little anise? Add a dash of absinth.

I admit, this drink probably has very narrow audience… but there, I published it; not every cocktail has to appeal to large crowds.

That’s it for today. Something different next week… and it’s not jungle/animal-related, I promise.