I just got back from the Wild Goose Festival, and while there’s a longer blog post forthcoming, I wanted to go ahead and share our signature cocktail from the weekend: Goose Juice. Originally, I had planned to spend the weekend making Collins variants, but then I stopped for supplies and noticed Cheerwine (a cherry soda native to North Carolina) for only $1.50 per bottle. I’ve made cocktails with Cheerwine before, but given the limited ingredients on hand, a new combination was needed, so Goose Juice was born. Thanks to the Bar Chaplain Bar Cart™, we were able to take Goose Juice anywhere on the campground, and it was a hit everywhere. Here’s the recipe:
Goose Juice
– 1.5 oz Hayman’s Old Tom gin
– juice from 1/2 a lemon
– 3 dashes of Angostura orange bitters
– 4-6 oz of Cheerwine
Shake gin, bitters, and lemon juice with ice in a mason jar.
If you’re at home, strain contents into Collins glass over ice.
If you’re camping, simply leave contents in mason jar.
Top with Cheerwine and serve.
The recipe also lends itself incredibly well to batching and punchbowls, and I look forward to serving Goose Juice the next time Jessi and I entertain friends from the festival. If you don’t live in the Carolinas or somewhere with access to Cheerwine, other cherry sodas may be substituted. We also had limited success subbing in bourbon for the gin. Ultimately though, the original Goose Juice was agreed to be the favorite, so let’s make it a tradition.
See you next year, friends. I’ll bring the gin.
I work at a nursing home and a resident in our memory care unit told an LNA that she was full of goose juice, after she told me that I decided to Google it once I got back home. Sounds like a good thing to be full of goose juice! Haha!