No mix? No problem

Ever have that moment where you are planning to go out for the night and settle into the house with some friends for some pre-club drinks — only to realize you have nothing to mix that bottle of vodka with?

Almost every student has struggled with the difficulty of buying mix for drinks. So with the help of some residence students, here is a guide to come up with some unique cocktails using the ingredients you likely already have in your fridge.

You deserve a drink. Luckily, you can make that happen with almost anything you have on hand for a brand new cocktail. Photo: Kari Pedersen

Andrea Magnolo and Alana Burrows, both first year students, created some easy and unique cocktails you can make on the cheap in your apartment before heading out for a rager on the town.

Shandy

The first thing Magnolo and Burrows discovered was the lack of ingredients on hand and the travesty that is three people and only two bottles of beer left over from last weekend. To combat this, mixing beer was tested. For our test Magnolo had a bottle of sprite and a story, “I have heard that in Europe there is a drink where they mix beer and sprite.” After some light research Magnolo, was proved correct. A shandy is a German drink that is a beer/lemonade hybrid. And also happened to be the perfect way for us to split two beers between three people!

Screwdriver (+)

Next up and continuing to play it safe was a mix that is a childhood favorite, orange juice and Sprite but they made it more fun by adding vodka. The good thing about this cocktail is that you can have it virgin if you are the designated driver and still enjoy the delicious fuzzy orange juice delight!

AAK

Next up these crafty res-students went off the beaten path and set out on a cocktail-mixing adventure with random ingredients Magnolo had in her fridge. Creating a cocktail that could go one of two ways. It could be a winner and these college girls could end up rich because they bottle their new drink or, it could end up terrible and leave Magnolo and Burrows sick for finals. As it turned out it, landed the girls smack dab in the middle of that spectrum.

For the cocktail that will forever be known as the AAK they mushed an overly ripe banana to a pulp, put it in a blender bottle with some milk and gave it a good shake. Following that, added some coconut milk Magnolo had on hand and topped it with some vodka for good measure. To top it off, the girls thought it would be best seasoned and added some cinnamon. It was now time for the taste test. They won’t say the AAK, cocktail was bad, but it wasn’t good either. In reality the mixture was just not a good idea. Following the catastrophe that was the AAK both Magnolo and Burrows decided to stick with the first two cocktails and enjoy a shandy or two.

So what’s the moral of this story? There is no shortage of ingredients to mix drinks with, so try out new things when you don’t have the loonies to rub together and pay for mixers. Your fridge likely has something that can make you a killer cocktail! Happy mixing!