“Yes! The Ocarina of Thyme! Not the Ocarina of Time though. Like the herb” - Cameroxn explaining his jokes as usual

Inspiration

While deep diving for our upcoming stream series of The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, I stumbled upon a punful libation that seemed to be at the start of all things video game-themed cocktails. My journey started on the Drunken Moogle, a Tumblr blog that features the work of several talented bartenders and mixologists who theme their drinks to their favorite video games. A particular drink caught my eye since my brain was in Zelda mode and since I love me a good bit of wordplay. The Ocarina of Lime drink’s picture was practically glowing with a green aura that had my mouth watering. Below the drink’s image was a reference to its origin, a place called the Mana Bar.

I thought I had seen this place pop up in my research prior, and double-checking my tracks I found a Wikipedia article confirming the existence of the Mana Bar IRL. Evidently, this fine establishment was in operation from around 2010 to the year 2015 in Brisbane, Australia. Referencing back to the drink’s listing on the Drunken Moogle website, I noticed that the post was made on June 15th, 2010, seemingly after the opening of the Mana Bar on March 20th, 2010. The post’s description also lists the Ocarina of Lime’s original creator Shay Leighton an award winner in the world of drinks and bartender at the Mana Bar. I’ll admit, I dived into this pretty deep, especially after seeing that the link to the Mana Bar’s website was broken. After a bit of web archiving, I was able to find the Mana Bar’s online drink menu detailing some of the drinks they served during the bar’s heyday.

Workshopping

Inspired by my journey through video game drink history, I felt compelled to make my own Zelda pun-inspired drink! Instead of focusing on the flavors of lime and rum, I went in the direction of a martini. I rapidly infused thyme sprigs in gin and combined it with a bit of dry vermouth for that classic style. I felt compelled to pay homage to the original drink by adding some added lime zest to the infusion and was pleasantly surprised to find the combo to work so well together!

I initially added about equal parts thyme and lime zest and infused it for a few minutes, but I found that the ratio was a bit heavy on the lime notes and not enough on those savory thyme flavors. That recipe was 3 g thyme, 3.5 g of lime zest, and 8 oz of gin. I wound up improving upon this ratio as I prepared for another showcase of Ocarina of Time drinks including a lime thyme infusion for the Sage of Forest Spritz. Personally, I’m a fan of my martinis dry, so I stuck with the ratio of 4:1 for my infused gin to dry vermouth.

The garnish that went on this drink came to me as an interesting idea. I had been experimenting with dehydrating citrus peels and had some spiraled ones lying around. It seemed easy enough to thread a sprig of thyme through the spiral. The harder part was getting it to hang on the martini glass without the peel snapping!

Flavor Analysis

A dry and herbaceous martini variation with overtones of lime. Savory only in the slightest from the bright flavors of freshly infused thyme.