Ypsilanti’s Bellflower and Ann Arbor’s The Last Word were recently asked by the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) to develop cocktails to accompany virtual tours during their UMMA and Chill series. The specific task given to Bellflower was to create a drink kit that people could make at home during a tour of some of the museum’s more “twisted, dark, political, silly, nonsensical, weird and dry” pieces in the museum’s collection.
Bellflower bartenders Ronni Huey and Cory Schneider, after talking with curator of the collection, UMMA’s Stenn Fellow in Public and Digital Humanities and Museum Pedagogy, Isabelle Marie Anne Gillet, and taking the virtual tour themselves, came up with a delicious, new blood orange and Kentucky bourbon drink that they’ve dubbed “That’s the American Spirit.” (If you want to know more about Ronni and Cory, we’d encourage you to check out their startup, the Swig Mobile Bar, where they’ve been spending their non-Bellflower time lately.)
The virtual tour, called “Caustic & Bitters,” is free and open to the public, but attendance is limited. Two of the tours are already full, but there are still slots available for the 5:30 tour on February 27. If you’re interested, you can reserve a spot here. (You can also try to get on the waitlist for the 7:00 tours on February 19 and 27.) Should you wish you participate, you can also purchase a drink kit from Bellflower. The “That’s the American Spirit” cocktail kit contains:
- 2 tbsp Blood Orange Marmalade (1 tbsp per drink)
- 4 oz of 10 year old Eagle Rare Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (45% AVB) (2 oz per drink)
- 2 oz Lucano Amaro Italian Liquor (28% AVB) (1 oz per drink)
- 1 Lemon (.5 oz per drink)
- 2 Muddled Bitters Infused Sugarcubes (1 per drink)
For those of you who aren’t able to attend the UMMA tour, but would still like to try this incredible drink at home, we’ve decided to add them to our menu through the blood orange season. All you have to do is place an order, and pick up a box, which will include a link to a video tutorial, where we’ll walk you through the steps of making the drink. (You’ll need a tablespoon, a glass, a jar with a lid, a knife, and some ice cubes, but everything else will be included.) It’s fun, quick and easy, and the resulting drink is something that we’re incredibly proud of.
The “That’s the American Spirit” cocktail kits are $45 each, and come with all of the ingredients to make two drinks. (You must be 21 years of age or older to purchase.) And alcohol-free version of the drink, called “That’s the Spirit-Free American”, is also available for $38. It contains Spice 94 (4oz) by the non-alcoholic spirit company Seedlip, and a sweetened lemon juice (2oz), in replacement of the Eagle Rare and Lucano Amaro.
