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A dark ruby-red drink glistens darkly in front of a crystal star of a similar hue. A dark red candy star is perched upon the left side of the drink's glass.
A light blue tropical drink cartoon with a straw and a citrus wheel

"Ruby Star - The thing you got by beating Doopliss, the body thief."

"Art Attack - 4 SP - Damages all enemies you encircle with the star."


Inspiration

Chapter 4 of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is probably my favorite chapter of any Paper Mario game. It features, in my opinion, the most iconic boss of the series (Doopliss) and my favorite partner (Vivian). Oh, I'll also mention that the concept of being turned into an oinking pig as the bell tower in the spooky forest tolls absolutely terrified me as a child. 


How to pull a drink like this together? Well, I pulled up on a couple of exclusivities of Chapter 4. Namely the Ruby Star itself, and the Peachy Peaches that can be found at the Twilight Town inn. 


Workshopping

Right at the start I knew that I wanted to add some Ruby Port to this recipe. Not only does it have the word "ruby" right in its name, I don't normally reach for fortified wines as an ingredient. I'm honestly afraid of cracking a bottle open only for it to oxidize too quickly and then become unusable after the recipe is decided. I've been looking into techniques for how to use the spare ingredients. Tag me if you're curious!


I played around with mixing the port with other bar reagents. Twilight Town feels like a bitter locale, so I tried first with Cynar. *bleh* not a pleasant combo on its own. 

Next was an attempt with Kirschwasser (a cherry brandy and eau-de-vie) and I was stunned at the flavor notes! The port + Kirsch combo was pleasantly fruity with a dry finish, and I got notes of an unexpected spiciness (almost horseradish-like??). I had to keep with this combo.  


I recently dropped my cash on all three Death & Co. books, and upon inspection, my cocktail was shaping up to fall into the Sidecar category (according to the Cocktail Codex). Drinks of this family tend to feature prominently a flavored liqueur paired with citrus and sweetener. Now, I might be breaking rules here a bit since Kirsch is a base spirit and port is a fortified wine (neither of those is liqueur), but the sweetness of the port convinced me enough that this formula was worth following through on. 


Faith in the formula guided me to added some lemon citrus and some of the starfruit syrup that I'd prepped for the other crystal star drinks. The syrup flavor actually didn't go very well with this particular recipe. Swapping the star fruit simple with peach schnapps (there's that Peachy Peach!) seemed to do the trick!


Flavor Analysis

Notes of apricot, pomegranate, and additional dry red fruits coalesce into sips that lead with fruit flesh and end with dry fruit skin. Somewhere along the evolution of this drink, there's an almost spiciness akin to (we swear) horseradish. There's just enough acid balancing out the sweetness of the other ingredients allowing the characteristics of the port and Kirsch to dance around a bit before settling upon the flavor from the peach schnapps. The brand we had access to has a bit of an artificial aftertaste which stuck around a bit unpleasantly. If we find a better substitution, we'll update here with a revision. 


Star Garnish

Similar to how we created the other crystal star garnishes, this garnish started as slices of star fruit. When simmered in a reduced simple syrup, we can candy the fruit if we let it simmer for long enough. The final product can be further dehydrated or baked in an oven on low to let the sugar set in and fully solidify. 

For the ruby star garnish, we added a proportion of red liqueur to the syrup allowing the natural yellow from the star fruit to mix with the red hue of the spirit. Specifically, we used raspberry pucker liqueur. To deepen the color of the star, keep it simmering as the syrup reduces further and it will start to cook. Eventually, the color will darken as the sugar caramelizes and slightly burns. 

If you enjoy a bitter-tart snack, you can eat these garnishes when you're finished with your libation!


A similar method was employed for the Emerald Star garnish, which oddly enough required a blue ingredient to obtain that green color!

Art Attack

Art Attack

  • 1.5 oz (44 ml) Ruby Port (Cockburn’s)
  • 3/4 oz (22 ml) Kirschwasser (Schladerer)
  • 1/2 oz (15 ml) Peachy Peach Schnapps (Faber)
  • 1/4 oz (7 ml) Lemon Juice

Method: Shake & Strain

Garnish: Candied Red Starfruit

Notes: Rewarded to the player after obtaining the Ruby Star.

More drinks inspired by: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Guided Recipe in 60 Seconds: YouTube

Watch Us Mix this Recipe Live!

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