From wines to tequilas, rums and vodkas, whatever your drink of choice, these days, you can find a Black woman who is the brains behind it.
The latest release we’re excited about comes from a collaboration between LiveWire Cocktail Company and Shannon Mustipher. The Brooklyn-based author of Tiki: Modern Tropical Cocktails, Mustipher is also a cocktail consultant, spirits educator, and founder of Women Who Tiki, celebrating the concoctions of women bartenders. She knows her stuff. So when the chance came through LiveWire to adapt a cocktail from her book for distribution, the Tigershark, she was glad to.
“When LiveWire approached me for a collaboration, I was excited to put something out in the market that would fit the brand’s M.O., which is to offer cocktails built on easy and familiar templates with a special approach to picking out unique ingredients and flavor profiles to make it a notch above the typical well drink,” she shared in a statement with ESSENCE.
The result is Holy Tyger, which she describes as a “beach drink,” perfect for Summer Fridays (or really any day of the week). The combination of flavors, lemongrass, made with Straight Bourbon, Rockey’s Liqueur, coconut, lime, and Jamaican #1 Bitters, offers a one-of-a-kind cocktail.
“I chose bourbon as the base, and made it tropical by fat washing the spirit with unrefined coconut oil,” she says. “This does two things — first and most importantly, the coconut oil gives a floral aroma to the spirit. Second, it adds a silky texture to the liquid and the cocktail in general. To further amplify the tropical notes, I use a lemongrass infused simple syrup.”
Mustipher had a hand not only in the taste of the Holy Tyger but also in the pulp art inspired label on the packaging.
“The process of selecting the recipe, creating the recipe, and last but not least, working on the label and the strategy for promoting the product, was a fantastic collaboration in which my ideas and creativity were welcomed and encouraged,” she says of her work with LiveWire. “I feel like the customer is not only getting to experience my vision of a tropical whisky sour, but to feel my vibe and attitude around cocktails via the artwork on the packaging as well as in the images we have created for the promo.”
You can experience it all soon enough. Bottles of the drink, retailing for $24.99, are available for pre-order online at https://livewiredrinks.com/. Customers will be able to find Holy Tyger in stores in New York and California shortly. However you obtain it, it’s for everyone — cocktail lovers and novice tiki drinkers alike.
“The Holy Tyger is designed to be easy to enjoy by anyone,” she says, “whether they enjoy Tiki cocktails on a regular basis or not.”
