When I heard that Southtown Pub had a boozy slushie on its new upstairs bar menu, I immediately felt nostalgic.
As a kid, slurping Slush Puppies by the pool was my definitive summer jam. For some unwise reason, the pool concession stand was set up so that kids were able to add their own flavors to the viscous, sugary, neutral base pouring out of the slush machine. Consequently, every pool rat pumped his or hers with a dozen squirts each of cherry, blue raspberry, grape and orange, deemed it a “zombie,” and sported a stained purple mouth ’til Labor Day.
As an 8-year-old, I obviously wasn’t mixing alcohol in my Slush Puppie, but thanks to Trops in Columbia, Mo., I’ve had one or two (or 100) grown-up slushies in my day. Although I haven’t outgrown my love for slushies, I have outgrown my love for saccharine glucose bombs loaded with Bacardi. (OK, mostly. I did visit Trops once this summer.)
I feared Southtown’s Missouri Whiskey Slush containing “Pinckney Bend whiskey and slushy goodness,” according to the menu, would prove to be sickly-sweet as well, but I was pleasantly surprised. While the slushie is sweet (Fans of whiskey on the rocks might skip this slush.), those who prefer their whiskey in a cocktail or who want to work their way into appreciating whiskey will love this summertime drink.
Area distillery Pinckney Bend, located in New Haven, Mo., keeps its American Corn Whiskey in the barrel for less than a year. The rationale behind Southtown’s use of this particular whiskey is that it’s subtler in flavor and doesn’t overpower the drink with oak. As for the rest of the “slushie goodness,” strong black tea, lemonade, orange juice, white sugar, ginger ale and whiskey are frozen into a block and then shaved by hand to order. To make sure the flavors haven’t been diluted in the freezing process, the shaved ice is then topped with a bit of sour mix and more tea and whiskey.
Find the Missouri Whiskey Slush in Southtown’s upstairs bar, open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 6 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.
Now, if only I could take this slushie to the pool …
This article appears in July 2013.