Sunrise

I love a bright drink, color and flavor-wise. During the summer, it’s punchy and just feels right, and during the winter it’s even better. Sometimes when the snow is high and the temperatures drop, my mood feels a little happier just by drinking something bold and beautiful. There’s this song called "Sunrise" by Simply Red that makes me feel the same way. I can feel super down and a little sad, but listening to "Sunrise" really perks me up. It’s like a funk song I guess, and has a Hall and Oates sample that makes me want to go to a roller rink and just skate my ass off while I forget anything that’s bothering me. I have a handful of songs that make me feel that way.

When I got sad as a teenager, I would listen to songs that were even sadder than I felt, so I could be dramatic and feel even deeper. I don’t do that anymore. There’s nothing wrong with doing that, but sometimes cloaking myself in sadder and sadder things just makes me feel shittier. I like to do things that make me smile, like watching Half Baked or making a smoothie or listening to "Sunrise."

Growing up, my family listened to a lot of smooth jazz together. Don’t laugh, smooth jazz fucking SLAPS. I still listen to smooth jazz and truly feel like it’s a top tier genre of music, but if I started on that topic right now I would never stop, and y’all would be sitting here reading and wondering if I’m EVER gonna get to the damn smoothie recipe. So I’ll spare you. What I WILL say is that smooth jazz CD and album covers are works of art and there should be an entire museum solely related to the photos those musicians take for their albums. It’s unbelievable, breathtaking, and confusing. It’s art. Anyway, we listened to the smooth jazz radio station (107.3 the WAVE), and it played other genres too, like older r&b and stuff like that. The songs all had soul and an amazing bass line that just slowly pulsed through my veins. Simply Red is one of the artists that played on the station, even though it’s technically not “smooth jazz.” I tried looking for the CD it’s on to play it in full, but can’t find it anywhere. Sunrise is available though. Anyway, this smoothie tastes the way that song makes me feel. There’s not many ingredients for this one, and it’s quick to throw together.

You will need:

• 10 oz GT’s Mystic Mango kombucha
• 1 small peach, sliced and frozen
• 1 T chia seeds
• 2 T lime juice
• a blender

This is another one where I had some produce prepped and frozen to start with. I had the idea for this combination and had the foresight and patience to wash and cut the peach, freeze it, and excitedly put it together the next day. I added the peach, kombucha, lime juice to the blender and blended it until smooth. Once it was the perfect consistency, I added the chia seeds and blended until I could see the seeds throughout. That’s it. You can see in the picture above that the beads of chia seeds are almost perfectly spaced, because it's perfectly blended. The flavor is bold and tart with the smooth sweetness of the mango kombucha. Chia seeds are a welcome addition to pretty much any smoothie recipe, and I usually put a tablespoon or two into them a few times a week. Both of the recipes this week were very straightforward and simple, and sometimes that’s all it takes to make a good beverage. Sometimes, like in this instance, I start with a solid base and add ingredients to add depth to the drink. Other times, like the last recipe, I start with a few ingredients I want to try together and add other elements to make it taste seamless. It honestly just depends on where my focus is. It’s all about playing around and mixing different elements until something works. Next week, I’m going to get more into flavor depth and how to make a drink work when you have very little framework for an idea, which I’m excited to talk about!! I’m going to get overly excited every time I talk about drinks, this is an advance warning. That's why I'm doing this! Bye!