Orange Julius-Inspired Cocktails Are the Drink of the Summer
At high-end cocktail bars and restaurants, citrus is having a retro moment. Plus: two recipes you can make at home.
The Tropicana cocktail from Shinji in New York.
Photographer: Melissa Hom
This year the drink of the summer isn’t crushable or pink—it’s retro and orange. Across America, bartenders and restaurateurs are appealing to a sense of childlike nostalgia by creatively rethinking orange-colored and orange-flavored delights from the past, including Creamsicles and Tang, the powdered beverage that flashes back to the 1960s and the US-Soviet space race.
“People love something familiar,” says Boston chef Ken Oringer, who serves the cream-pop-inspired Orangie Fizz at his Italian restaurant, Faccia a Faccia. Plus, he says, “it’s fun to add booze to these drinks that everyone remembers as kids.”