The Powerpuff Girls by Leanne Su

FLAVOR NOTES: bubbly, sweet, floral
VIBE NOTES: sugar, spice, everything nice

Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup have dedicated their lives to fighting crime and the forces of evil. I’ve dedicated my free time to making fun cocktails. So basically we’re the same!

The Powerpuff Girls was the first cartoon that I have distinct memories of watching as a kid. I think they were my gateway into superhero comics and media in general, coming before any episodes of Batman: The Animated Series or Justice League Unlimited or even Teen Titans that I’d ever seen. That love has stuck with me through the years with my attendance at comic-cons, forays into fanfiction, and most recently, a group Halloween costume with my roommates as the PPG themselves.

One of my favorite things about the show is how distinct all three girls were—when I was younger, I definitely had a favorite (Buttercup, obviously), but I love that they had such different personalities and could still vibe with each other. I wanted to honor that with the drinks made in their name: Blossom, commander and leader; Bubbles: joy and laughter; and Buttercup: toughest fighter.

With that in mind, I’ve made three variations of a French 75, a champagne-based cocktail, one for each girl. All three of them share the same structure: a sweetener (sugar), gin (spice), lemon juice (everything nice), and champagne (Chemical X).

(I know the analogies get a bit loosey goosey at the end there, bear with me here.)

I picked the New Amsterdam Stratusphere gin because it gave me strong CITY OF TOWNSVILLE vibes. It’s a nice and smooth citrusy gin that isn’t so powerful it overwhelms the drink. It’s also budget-friendly, an ideal choice for our situation since Professor Utonium is a single dad and, you know, a professor. Any dry champagne (Brut, if you’re fancy) will go nicely with this drink since we’ll be adding a good amount of sugar to it. The De Chanceny is another thrifty purchase and, as one grandiose online review put it, “eminently drinkable.”

I learned quite a bit about champagne, a bit of which I’ll share here so you can impress rich people if you’re ever stuck at a dinner party with Princess Morbucks. Technically, only sparkling wine from Champagne, France can actually be called “champagne.” What we’re using in this drink is Crémant, which has to come from—you guessed it—Crémant, France. There are very stringent regulations on what types of grapes are allowed to be used for various sparkling wines, often dependent on the region that they’re produced in. Our wine is a Crémant de Loire with mostly Chenin Blanc grapes, giving it a nice fruity flavor. I have been and will continue referring to this sparkling wine as a champagne because everyone knows what I mean.

Now that we have that out of the way, back to our regularly scheduled programming of making fun drinks based on cartoon characters! Aside from the gin, champagne, and lemon juice, each of these drinks has a different sweetener. This is the fun part—the vast assortment of sweeteners out there means that we can make virtually any color of the rainbow, and in this case we’re shooting for blue, pink, and green.

Let’s start with Bubbles. Her name already goes so well with the champagne! I figured I’d pick something classic and sweet: blue curacao was an obvious choice. The color and taste of this orange liqueur is pretty strong, so just a bit should be enough. For Buttercup, I wanted something more sour and punchy. I considered Midori, a bright green melon liqueur, but it seemed a bit too sweet (and also I drank all my Midori). I went with a green apple liqueur instead, and after some experimentation I went with a higher ratio of it to get the color and intensity I wanted in the drink. Finally, there was Blossom. I wanted a fun, unique flavor for her. I went with a bar spoon of grenadine, which is non-alcoholic, for the color. I also added a secret ingredient: a bar spoon of Luxardo Maraschino liqueur, which adds a bright cherry flavor to the drink with a more complex aftertaste without altering the color.

I thought it’d be cute to match the garnishes to the hair colors of the girls. I went with a lemon twist for Bubbles, a few blueberries (blackberries would work well too) for Buttercup, and rose petals for Blossom. It had a nice effect of adding symmetry to the presentation, since only Bubbles and Buttercup had cocktail picks on their drinks.

So there you have it! A fun, fruity, celebratory drink to share with friends while fighting crime and trying to save the world. I had a blast dreaming up these drinks and making them—I hope you have fun making them too!

The Recipe

• Blossom: 1 bar spoon grenadine, 1 bar spoon luxardo, rose petals
• Bubbles: ¾ oz blue curacao, lemon twist
• Buttercup: ¾ oz blue curacao, blueberries
• ½ oz lemon juice (each)
• ¾ oz gin (each)
• Bottle of champagne

Pour sweetener(s), lemon juice, and gin into a champagne glass. Top with champagne and stir. Garnish.