27th
I need your help.
I’m hosting a fabulous party at my apartment on election night. My friend Jon Wank suggested that we do “drinks of the swing states,” and I think it’s a fabulous idea. As of right now, the those states appear to be:
Colorado
Florida
Indiana
Missouri
Nevada
North Carolina
Ohio
VirginiaI would think we’ll do some Coors product for Colorado and some Budweiser for Missouri, but I’m not sure what else. That’s where you guys come in. It doesn’t have to be alcohol. In fact, I’d prefer if we had some mix of booze and EANABS (equally attractive non-alcoholic beverages for those who weren’t issued a handbook during freshman orientation at Stanford).
Any suggestions for Florida, Indiana, Nevada, NC, OH, and VA? Some of you must know about native liquids..
Ooh, this is fun.
Virginia has a huge wine industry, including fairly common bumper stickers that say “Make mine Virginia wine,” so you could genericize that into any old wine.
Cheerwine is made in North Carolina, and while that will be hard to find, you could just serve some type of cherry soda that might approximate it.
Florida, you could do orange juice and make screwdrivers (or not), or go Key West and do margaritas or daiquiris. And oddly, I learned that Yuengling is distributed in Florida after tasting it for the first time on my 21st birthday in Ybor City in Tampa. Klassy with a K.
So fun! Although Big Red soda is actually made in Texas, I definitely associate it with Indiana because “Big Red” is the nickname for Indiana University and a lot of stuff around there. My dad went to IU and he always kept it on hand, so I think it’s a legit favorite in the state. It’s a bizarre red cream soda. Fun stuff.
You could also do a boilermaker (a shot and a beer) in honor of Purdue…
Although I wholeheartedly endorse the Cheerwine suggestion, Sundrop is also an NC staple. It’s now made elsewhere but was bottled in NC for a longgg time and is for sure a local staple there. It might be easier to find than Cheerwine now that it’s owned by Cadbury Schweppes.
