Hangover time

Celebrate St. Paddy’s Day with a PDX cocktail

By Caroline Cummins

March 17, 2008

So today is Irish Pride Day, er, St. Patrick’s Day. Like Cinco de Mayo and Mardi Gras, this holiday has devolved into an excuse for twentysomethings to get drunk. If green beer isn’t on your evening menu, you may want to turn your stomach with the Portland Hipster Cocktail, courtesy of the blog My Life on the Rocks:

To prepare the cocktail, I took 3 oz. of the PBR reduction, 2 oz. of the tobacco-infused rye whiskey, 1 oz. of Meyer lemon juice, put it all in a cocktail shaker over ice, shook the hell out of it, and strained it off into a martini glass. It tasted wonderful, really outstanding, and it even gave me that scratchiness I get at the back of my throat when I’ve spent too long in a smoky bar.

The idea in this ironic concoction was to create a drink that exemplified Portland: the city’s weird fascination with Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, the smoking habits of its younger set, and its foodie predilections. Except that nicotine in liquid form is toxic, much to our intrepid blogger’s regret: “I was laid out by my own creation. A tasty one, but an experiment that I won’t be reproducing.”