Complex Numbers

Harvey Wallbanger Day

Prompted by "Invalid Item"  , another alcohol-positive observance... sort of.

    National Harvey Wallbanger Day  

Believe it or not, there are drinks I haven't tried. This is one of them.

According to the above link, a Harvey Wallbanger is made with "vodka, Galliano liqueur, and orange juice." Proportions aren't given, but I'm confident that a quick internet search, which I can't be arsed to do, would provide numerous recipes.

Now, don't get me wrong: I appreciate cocktails or whatever else you want to call mixed drinks. One of the great joys of life is creating new ones, such as the Star Trek themed libations I've collected here: "Ten Forward"  [18+] And I'd drink a wallbanger if it were available; it's just that as long as there are other options, some things just aren't on my radar, and this is one of them.

To understand why that is, consider the most popular liquors, all of which are often used as the basis for cocktails: vodka, tequila, rum, gin, and whisk(e)y.

Of those Big Five, vodka is, by far, the least interesting. Unless you get flavored vodka, it's generally neutral in character. The advantage of this is, clearly (pun intended), that it mixes well with other beverages. I don't hate it. I don't love it. It's just there to put alcohol into something that doesn't naturally contain it, such as, for example, orange juice.

Sure, there's some variation in quality between different brands of vodka, but in general, it doesn't have much flavor of its own. This is good if you don't like the other available flavors, or if you're just trying to get drunk.

I have a higher purpose in mind, which is to enjoy what I'm drinking while I'm drinking it.

So, as I'm sure we all know, if you mix vodka and orange juice, you get a drink called a screwdriver in the US (In the UK, I think it's less creatively called "vodka and orange.") A quick search turned up the fun fact that this very simple cocktail wasn't really invented until WWII, which surprised me until I remembered I did an entry long ago about the origins of commercially produced orange juice, which I seem to recall weren't much earlier than that. I even bothered searching for that entry, and here it is, from last year: "Orange You Special" 

As with the subject of today's entry, the origin of the name is disputed.

A Harvey Wallbanger, then, is basically a screwdriver with the addition of, specifically, Galliano, an Italian liqueur. And quoting from the headline link again: "The drink did not gain in popularity until the 1970's, when George Bednar of McKesson Imports Company promoted it, as a way to sell Galliano, which his company handled."

Thus, it's just another marketing gimmick. So was orange juice, if you read my earlier entry.

That's a good enough reason for me not to order one at a bar, and I have little desire to clutter my liquor cabinet with yet another flavored liqueur.

Besides, why get one of those when there are so many cocktail options involving gin, rum, tequila, or whisk(e)y?