"It called you a fake, but IT was a fabrication all along." - Larxene referring to Riku Replica from Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories

Inspiration

When Riku appeared in Hollow Bastion during the events of Kingdom Hearts in that epic dark mode outfit, I was floored. He looked like a total badass, but he fell to the hands of the protagonist Sora. Good triumphs over evil, there’s always a light within the darkness, yada yada yada… I thought that outfit was gone, but lo’ and behold Riku appears again in Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories as a replica!? Spoiler alert, it’s a fake version of Riku meant to manipulate OG Riku to revert to darkness, which doesn’t work.

Seriously though, that outfit was so cool looking, that I made a cocktail recipe inspired by it. To get that similar shading of the outfit, I opted for a twist on a New York sour which typically includes a layer of red wine atop the sour liquid below it. The darkness that Riku plays with is embodied by a blackberry-forward cocktail layer that sits ominously below a red blend wine over the top. Finally, shaking things with some foaming agent (I opted for aquafaba) generates a visible foam that kinda matches Riku’s hair.

Workshopping

The Darkness Below

Like, the darkness within Riku’s heart, is what I mean by that heading… The first hurdle for this drink recipe was attempting to mix a layer of darkness. I had decidedly picked blackberry as the fruit flavor of choice in this cocktail. I had made some blackberry syrup by simply simmering some blackberries in a 1:1 mix of sugar and water for about 15 minutes.

I’ve come back to this question of black or very dark drinks a couple of times in the past. In one case, I used a bunch of dark spirits, in another case just food dye, and first I tried activated charcoal (which I’d advise against because it can be harmful in certain contexts).  I really wanted this bottom layer to be dark, but how would I do it this time? I stuck with the spirits route first to see if I could mix up a cool new flavor while not adding anything extra.

I first began mixing up a generalized sour template with about equal parts blackberry syrup and lemon super juice with about twice as much as some base spirit. I started with some rye whiskey (Rittenhouse Bottled in Bond) and didn’t hate it, but the color was all wrong. I used some dark rum instead (I tried Myers’s and Bacardi black) and loved the flavor, but still not the right color. A thought came to me that I could add some black sambuca to the mix to darken things up. This idea is a reference to an already established Kingdom Hearts-based drink, the Heartless by the Experience Bar. With either the whiskey or the rum, I actually kind of liked it (I had a preference for the rum though).

Even with the added sambuca, I wasn’t quite getting what I was looking for. I needed it darker, so I attempted completely reformatting the recipe to focus more on the sambuca.

Black Sambuca

I’ve never really dove deep into the darkness before. Specifically with black sambuca. This liqueur always existed in my head as another licorice clone. Although it is very forward on anise flavors (and probably licorice too), as I mixed it more this time around I found an appreciation for how bitter it is. Something about the sambuca mixed with the blackberry syrup sparked an appreciation for how tongue-numbing the sambuca can really be (that and how it plays with additional fruit flavors on top of it).

As I mixed further I leaned more into the rum to make up for how darn sweet the sambuca happens to be. It’s really sweet, at least Romana black sambuca is. Adding a bit of the lemon super juice quelled it enough for more of those herbaceous flavors to shine through. This flavor balance was working well, and the color was exactly where I wanted it to be, a dark purple. I didn’t realize before mixing with it, but Romana Black Sambuca is actually purple (or at least a blue-hued black).

This Fake’s Got Layers

At this point, I had nailed down a balance between black sambuca (bittersweet anise), dark rum (burnt caramelly), and blackberry. I felt that one layer of the drink was complete. Going back to the reference to the replica’s outfit, he’s also got a cool maroon-red color and has got silver hair. If I could pull off a red layer and a silver lining on top, that’d be perfect. The red layer was simple enough, just float some red wine on top. But which red wine? Well, since Riku Replica is a replica and a sort of artificial combination of stuff, I went with a red blend that I found for an affordable price (he is one of the first replicas after all, I mean why spend full price on a prototype? LOL). The prominent blackberry flavor matched up perfectly with this bottle of 19 Crimes red blend. Whereas the first layer was dry, sweet, and blackberry forward, the wine was dry and forward on cranberry and apple notes. This would work.

This last part though, is the silver lining and the replica’s silver hair. Was it possible? Of course it was, I’d just need something that adds a foam layer to the top. Not a big one, just one that has a bit of a sprinkle of silver. I’ve done plenty of egg white drinks in the past that develop a very heady foam atop the beverage, but I’ve never played with aquafaba before. Aquafaba is basically chickpea juice and it can be used as a vegan substitute for egg white! I’m not well-versed in aquafaba mixing so I committed to giving it a try. Versus when shaken with an egg white, aquafaba I found has a significantly more sparse foam that doesn’t stick around for too long. Although that may be an issue in some drinks, all I was really looking for here was a bit of silver atop the drink, and that’s what I got!

If you’re looking for how aquafaba can be used in place of egg white for a foam, check out the Naminé recipe where I make a coffee foam with it!

Printable Card Garnish

For each of the Chain of Memories-themed drinks, we created a couple of cards reminiscent of the ones seen in the game! Feel free to snag the printable sheet here (printable cards link) if you'd like to print your own. 

Flavor Analysis

A bittersweet and anise-forward flavor of tart blackberry with subtle notes of other red fruits.