July 15, 2022

Something Good #66: The Smoky Something Good

A little over a year ago I decided that this newsletter deserved a cocktail of its own. I reached out to my friend Michelle Marek, now of Gia, and asked if she could conceive of one for me. The result was the tart and delicious (much like this newsletter?!), gin-based Something Good cocktail, which I outlined in Something Good #24. This is a perfect summer drink, and with the season in full swing, it seemed right to re-introduce it to my readership.

But, reluctant to just reprint an old issue of the newsletter, I reached out to Michelle and asked her if she had any thoughts on how to put a new twist on the cocktail.

This was her reply:

As it turns out, I’ve had a bottle of nice Vida mezcal sitting in my liquor cabinet since my last visit to Los Angeles. Deeply smoky and just a little bitter, I always found it a little bit difficult to sip… but as a cocktail mixer… well, this could get interesting.

So I got to work, and re-created the Something Good with mezcal in place of the gin.

It was delicious! Smoky, sweet, sour—I dub this variant the Smoky Something Good and I hereby christen it the cocktail of summer 2022.

Here’s how you make it. Please be aware that the ingredients can be divided without much trouble—you don’t have to make a full kilogram’s worth of rhubarb syrup. (But you won’t regret it if you do.)

First, obtain one kilogram (a bit more than two pounds) of rhubarb. Make sure the leaves are removed, or risk getting kidney stones.

Chop it all up into little pieces.

Add the rhubarb to a medium pot, along with 500 ml (2 1/4 cups) of water and 400 g (2 cups) of sugar. Remember to adjust according to the amount of rhubarb you have.

Add heat and let come to a boil. Let it all simmer for 10-20 minutes until the rhubarb or more less dissolves and the whole thing is a big, flavourful mush1.

Strain it all into a bowl or jar. The result should be a sweet, pink-hued syrup.

Let it cool, or speed up the process by placing the bowl in a larger bowl of ice (place the bowl itself, not the contents).

Now, get yourself a glass. Add some ice cubes. Add a shot or two of mezcal (tequila will work, but it won’t be smoky. Or go with the classic gin). Add about two tablespoons, or more to taste (but not less), of the syrup. Top it off with some soda and a squeeze of lime. Toss some round slices of lime in there too. If it’s not looking pink enough, top it off with a drizzle of the syrup.

Best enjoyed in an alleyway, park bench or lakeside, at that time of the day when the shadows are long.

It has been a very interesting 48 hours for our movie You Can Live Forever. At some point, a ripped copy of the film was discovered by somebody on the very active Brazilian lesbian internet. A five-second excerpt was posted to TikTok; it quickly garnered close to a million views and over 140,000 likes.

Within hours, the movie was translated into Portuguese, fan-subtitled, and quickly spread like wildfire. The result has been thousands of people watching this pirated version of the movie, and posting memes, fan edits set to Taylor Swift songs, and passionate reviews all over the internet.

Seeing so many people react to it, often deeply emotionally, and create their own interpretations and re-dits is really all a couple of filmmakers can ask for. (Well, that and funding for our next feature.)

Although we would prefer not to have our film living on YouTube (we’ve requested it be taken down there, but this is an endless game of whack-a-mole), we can’t wait to see more reactions.

You Can Live Forever plays next at Outfest LA at the DGA Theater on July 23. You can get tickets for the in-person screening here, or for the (legitimate) online screening option here.

Bonus track:

Every week or so I’ll send you Something Good. I’m low on #nojacketsrequired submissions; won’t you send me one? Also, my offer from SG64 still holds. Also also, please send me pictures of your Smoky Somethings Good if you make one. Thanks again to Michelle Marek for the recipe.

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