"Fly!!" - Karasuno High Battle Cry

Inspiration

Haikyu!! is a story of grit, growth, and unshakable team spirit, an anime I’ve absorbed thoroughly thanks to my Dearest watching it within earshot about 13 times. When brainstorming the perfect drink, several ideas aligned. Karasuno’s school mascot, the crow, inspired the base concept, particularly a cocktail known as the Crow, described in Judge Jr.'s 1927 Here's How! Revised Edition as "guaranteed to make you fly; like the crow."

To make the drink shine like Shoyo Hinata’s unmistakable orange hair, I created a syrup from orange-flavored Powerade, chosen for both its color and the fact that it’s a common courtside drink. Crown Royal whisky gives a regal nod to Tobio Kageyama, the “King of the Court.” Black lime (or "loomi") adds a dark contrast both as a rim garnish and through Scrappy’s Black Lemon bitters, chosen both for their flavor and as a tribute to Karasuno’s scrappy perseverance.

The mocktail version leans deeper into the orange flavor and includes non-alcoholic salted caramel syrup to echo the richness of the whisky. Both drinks reflect the team’s energy, contrast, and surprising depth.

This drink was developed for and showcased during our second annual independent charity event, Mixing Drinks and Changing Lives, which you can view on YouTube. We raised money for Made By Dyslexia and featured Haikyu!! as one of our highlighted manga because it mirrors the unique way many people with dyslexia connect with storytelling through dynamic, visual mediums. Also, it's my Dearest's most binged anime of all time, so how could I not?

Workshopping

The Karasuno Crows

Workshopping for this drink began on a park bench while my Dearest and I mapped out ideas for our annual independently run charity event. I had just gotten the blessing from Sukeban Games to call it "Mixing Drinks & Changing Lives," which thrilled me. I’ve been a fan of VA-11 Hall-A for years, and it’s one of my biggest inspirations. For this drink, inspired by one of my Dearest’s favorite manga, Haikyu!!, the starting point was the school mascot, the crow. As luck would have it, there’s a classic cocktail called the Crow made with Scotch, lemon juice, saline solution, and grenadine, described as "guaranteed to make you fly." We agreed it would be the perfect starting point for our drinkspiration. From there, we created a simple riff to make it our own, and I consulted with my Dearest on how best to capture the spirit of her beloved volleyball boys.

The school colors are black and orange, and main character Shoyo Hinata’s bright orange hair made it clear we should highlight those hues. I couldn’t find anything directly tied to volleyball in the cocktail world, but we realized we could craft both a mocktail and a cocktail that could fuel players on or off the court, respectively. Having experimented with turning energy drinks into cocktail-ready syrups, we landed on an orange sports drink as the perfect way to capture the color and sporty theme. This “sports drink syrup” would take the place of grenadine in the original.

We also linked our choice of base spirit to another key character, Tobio Kageyama, the “King of the Court.” That title inspired the use of Crown Royal whisky. While we could have chosen almost any whisky, Crown Royal surprised me with caramel notes that ended up inspiring the salted caramel syrup for the mocktail.

For one final twist, Anna mentioned the team’s “scrappy” playstyle, which immediately brought to mind a passage I had just read in Brad Thomas Parsons’ Bitters. In it, he describes Seattle, Washington-based small-batch bitters company Scrappy's Bitters. That serendipitous connection sent me exploring their lineup, where I discovered Black Lemon bitters. A quick search confirmed that "Black Lemon" is simply another name for "Black Lime," an ingredient I had already prepared for a previous project. With dehydrated black limes ready for garnish, adding that flavor felt like a natural choice, becoming our third and final adjustment before taking the recipe to the court.

The Orange Powerade Play

We decided to replace the grenadine and the saline in the original Crow cocktail recipe with orange Powerade so the vibrant color would carry into the drink. Swapping in straight Powerade made the cocktail far too sour. Using my Brix refractometer, I found that my grenadine (from Pratt Standard) measured about 62° Brix, or roughly 62% sugar, while the Powerade was only 7° Brix, about one-eighth as sweet. To match the sweetness of grenadine, I could either add sugar until it reached 62° Brix or reduce it until the sugar concentrated to that level.

For the simple (no-reduction) syrup, I mixed 290.2 grams of sugar with 200.5 grams of Powerade, shaking until dissolved. My Dearest managed this in about 10 minutes while reading a manga.

The reduction method took much longer. I simmered two bottles of Powerade (about 1197 g) on the lowest heat until reduced to 137 g, roughly a 90% reduction, over about eight hours, checking occasionally to prevent burning. This measured 52° Brix, so I added 36 g of sugar to bring it to about 64°. The XBar smelled wonderfully of orange during the process.

Comparing the two syrups was eye-opening. The simple syrup tasted like sweetened Powerade, with a mild orange flavor. The reduction syrup was potent, intensely orange with a tartness that hadn’t been present before. That tartness reminded me of real pomegranate-based grenadine rather than the artificial red syrups, making it a better match for the cocktail despite the extra effort.

Orange Powerade Reduction Syrup (66° Brix):

• Add two bottles of Powerade (about 1200 g) to a pot and simmer on low.

• Continue until the liquid is about 10% of its original weight (about 120 g).

  • Optionally, you can taste as it reduces and stop when it reaches your preferred flavor.

• Add sugar to reach 66% sugar content (about 35 g of sugar for this yield).

  • For accuracy, use a Brix refractometer and the formula: weight of sugar = (weight of liquid) × (66 – Brix reading) / 34.

• Shake or stir until the sugar is fully dissolved.

Black Limes for the Black Crow

I wish I could remember where I first came across black limes (also called noomi basra in Iraqi culture, limoo amani in Iranian culture, and loomi in Omani culture, or simply black lemon). I am fairly certain it was after watching a cooking TikTok that mentioned black limes as a spice. Curious, I looked it up and discovered they could be made with my then-new food dehydrator. The process involves blanching fresh limes with salty water, then drying them until they become aromatic, citrus-scented, solid spheres that can be ground into spice, used as garnish, or brewed into tea.

Once I chose Scrappy's Black Lemon bitters as part of the cocktail, powdered black lime became a natural garnish for the rim. Its tart, zesty punch hits first, followed by the drink’s sweeter notes, while its deep brown-black hue creates a striking contrast to the cocktail’s vivid orange glow.

For the mocktail, I committed to a no-ABV approach, meaning no alcoholic bitters (unlike “non-alcoholic” products, which can still contain up to 0.5% alcohol at least in the US). To keep the black lime element, I tried a technique I had long wanted to experiment with: adding flavor through ice cubes during shaking. Similar to cryo-concentration, where frozen ingredients are partially thawed to intensify flavor, I swapped regular ice for cubes made from black lime tea. The tea was made by steeping roughly chopped black lime in hot water, then freezing the liquid in ice trays. As the mocktail is shaken, some of these cubes melt, infusing the drink with black lime flavor while minimizing dilution compared to standard ice.

Mock-tail of the Crow

The cocktail came together with ease, swapping ingredients almost one-to-one from the original Crow cocktail. The mocktail, however, required more creativity since much of the original recipe relied on alcohol. As noted earlier, the orange Powerade reduction syrup and black lime ice cubes became its key building blocks.

The simplest change was replacing the black lemon bitters with black lime tea ice cubes during the shake, adding roasted lime-forward notes to balance the tart punch of the Powerade syrup. Whisky posed a greater challenge. Without a zero-proof alternative on hand, I tried scaling up the other ingredients instead, but the result was a one-note tart citrus that lacked depth.

In the cocktail, Crown Royal whisky offered a confectionary sweetness with an unexpected salted caramel quality, something I had never experienced without it being an explicit ingredient. That subtle caramel, paired with the sports drink’s natural saltiness, inspired me to add Torani salted caramel syrup to the mocktail in a pinch. This quick fix for the charity event created a version that leaned more into caramel-orange than the cocktail itself, yet the resemblance between the two was close enough to keep me satisfied (and score a win for my developing palate).

Fly!! (Karasuno High) Mocktail:

• 0.75 oz (22.5 ml) Orange Powerade Reduction Syrup (66° Brix)

• 0.25 oz (7.5 ml) Salted Caramel Syrup (Torani)

• 0.5 oz (15 ml) Lemon Juice

• 0.5 oz (15 ml) Simple Syrup

• 3 frozen cubes of Black Lemon/Lime "Loomi" Tea

• Method: Shake until ice cubes are mostly melted, Double-Strain

• Garnish: Powdered Black Lemon/Lime "Loomi" Rim

Flavor Analysis

Cocktail: A bold, bright-orange drink that opens with zesty citrus, then smoothly transitions into rich toffee-like whisky notes and a salted caramel finish. Sipping from the rimmed side adds a sharp burst of tart black lime before melting into velvety sweetness.

Mocktail: A tart, vibrant orange drink with gentle layers of sweetness. Crisp citrus gives way to lingering salted caramel notes, capturing much of the cocktail’s complexity without any alcohol.