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A light blue slushy in a shallow glass sits on a hexagonal coaster. A small mound of green seems to be floating in the center of the icy drink.
A light blue tropical drink cartoon with a straw and a citrus wheel

“Link, I sense an arctic wind coming from Zora’s Domain! Maybe you should check it out!” - Navi, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time



Inspiration

When Link rapidly ages in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, he wakes to find that Zora’s Domain has frozen over and Lake Hylia has almost run dry. Ice is a central theme for this region in the game, and I wanted to capture that as a beverage. Slushies anyone? Lake Hylia is a frozen treat that encases tropical and fruit flavors in an icy slush. The drink's appearance is reminiscent of the lone Hylia Island that sits in the center of Lake Hylia below which the Water Temple can be found.



Workshopping

Zora’s Domain is frozen over when adult Link awakens, so it made perfect sense to create a slushy drink to keep things cold and icy. I was keen on making the drink look like Lake Hylia had frozen over. It needed to have ice with a blue tint to it and a small island in the center. (Although technically it is Zora’s Domain that froze over, and not Lake Hylia, but I took some thematic liberties with this one.)


Creating the slushy ice was easy enough, you just need ice, liquid, and a blender. Now came how to create the color. I love the color blue, but I kind of hate creating it in drinks. There are a few ways of going about doing this, and the easy mode option is almost always blue curaçao. Unfortunately for this drink, that royal blue curaçao color I thought would be too potent for the appearance of ice. The XBar’s spirit collection had a bottle with a hue more fitting, Hpnotiq. A tropical liqueur made with a cognac base, I find that it has delightfully sweet notes of mango, passionfruit, and pineapple. I assume that the Zora diet contains mostly fish, but I don’t think a sweet treat for a drink would be too out of place.


When things get cold, our palette tends to not taste the sweetness as much. With this in mind, I felt that I’d be able to throw in a few more fruit liqueurs to add sweetness and complexity to the tropical flavor profile without significantly affecting the color. A bit of triple sec for orange, some lime juice for sour to balance, and some elderflower liqueur to accent. I wound up choosing vodka as the base spirit here to allow the fruit flavors to do the talking.


Blending this all together made the perfect color, and I loved the fact that I could pour this into a glass and flatten it afterward to look like a frozen lake. The last thing was to add Hylia Island to the center. Cut a little medallion off of a lime and invert it to make a little green mound.



Flavor Analysis

Icy cold tropical fruit greets the palate and continues sweetly. As the drink cools, the potent tropicality eases and the subtle tartness of lime takes center stage.

Lake Hylia

Lake Hylia

  • Ice
  • 1 oz (30 ml) Vodka (Union Forge)
  • 0.75 oz (22 ml) Hpnotiq
  • 0.75 oz (22 ml) Rich Simple Syrup (2:1)
  • 0.5 oz (15 ml) Elderflower Liqueur (St. Elder)
  • 0.5 oz (15 ml) Triple Sec (DeKuyper)
  • 0.5 oz (15 ml) Lime Juice

Method: Blend & Pour

Garnish: Lime Medallion

More drinks inspired by: The Legend of Zelda

Guided Recipe in 60 Seconds: YouTube

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