LAUREN FRAYER, HOST:
It's New Year's Eve, and we wanted to know, what will you be drinking to ring in 2018? We asked you to send us your strangest, your most unique, least usual cocktail recipes, and you obliged. Nicholas Hilborn (ph) sent us a recipe for a super fruity Belgian lambic beermosa (ph) as an alternative to a champagne mimosa. Jeffrey Smith (ph) suggested a Filipino invention - a beer-gin-Coke (ph). Yes, that's beer, gin and Coke. And Anthony Pusateri (ph) said he'd be drinking straight Malort because he says it tastes about as good as this year has been.
We decided to pick one especially odd cocktail to taste test from Juleep Rangul (ph) called a Red Mocho Kooler. And a little known fact is that WEEKEND EDITION executive producer Sarah Oliver used to be a bartender. So a bunch of us picked up some ingredients and wheeled out the trusty WEEKEND EDITION bar cart. It usually resides in regular host Lulu Garcia-Navarro's office.
She doesn't mind if we use this while she's gone, does she?
SARAH OLIVER, BYLINE: I don't think so. She'll never know.
(LAUGHTER)
FRAYER: And started our New Year's Eve celebrating a wee bit early.
All right.
OLIVER: All right.
FRAYER: Now, we didn't specify that our listeners send us good recipes, only weird ones. Sarah, I'll let you do the honors of explaining what's in a Red Mocho Kooler.
OLIVER: So this drink has Kalua, chocolate syrup and red Kool-Aid. OK? Yum.
FRAYER: (Laughter).
OLIVER: First, we start with the Kalua. She didn't specify how much to put in of each ingredient, but since it is the middle of the day, we'll just use the small jigger.
FRAYER: So we've got liquid, we've got syrup, and we've got powder.
OLIVER: All right, guys.
FRAYER: Resist the urge to stir.
OLIVER: Yeah.
FRAYER: Here goes.
OLIVER: Oh, my God.
FRAYER: Oh, oh, yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: OK.
OLIVER: Yeah, she did say that it's disgusting.
FRAYER: So Sarah, our executive producer, used to be a bartender. Did you ever tend bar on New Year's Eve?
OLIVER: I did not tend bar on New Year's Eve. No, I was usually out at a bar on New Year's Eve. But I can tell you what I think makes a perfect New Year's Eve cocktail. And that is one, first of all, that you do not have every day; second of all is some sort of crazy color or texture - maybe we'll go with color rather than texture - and that has an impressive presentation. So I brought one for you today. And the secret ingredient...
FRAYER: Egg, oh, oh, my.
OLIVER: ...Is an egg. And what I am going to make for you is something my dad used to make very often on New Year's Eve. And it's called a Pink Lady. It's a very old-fashioned cocktail.
FRAYER: Wow, sounds glamorous.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Yeah.
OLIVER: So it has the egg white.
FRAYER: OK.
OLIVER: It has a little bit of grenadine. It has some half and half, some gin.
FRAYER: So it's like a Shirley Temple with raw breakfast and gin.
OLIVER: And you add some...
FRAYER: All the food groups here.
OLIVER: ...Crushed ice to this one.
FRAYER: OK.
OLIVER: And this is probably one of my most vivid holiday memories from my dad, which is...
(SOUNDBITE OF COCKTAIL SHAKER)
OLIVER: And for this, you need to use a chilled glass.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Oh, it's beautiful.
FRAYER: Beautiful. It's like a fluorescent pink milkshake.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Oh, it looks like all my hopes and dreams for 2018.
(LAUGHTER)
OLIVER: All right, you guys drink up.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Thank you, Sarah.
FRAYER: That's Sarah Oliver, executive producer of WEEKEND EDITION, and our resident excellent mixologist.
OLIVER: Happy New Year.
FRAYER: Happy New Year.
OLIVER: Cheers.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BRINGING IN A BRAND NEW YEAR")
B B KING: (Singing) At the stroke of midnight... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
