Money can’t buy you happiness—but they give Joy away for free in the happy little town of Wellington Wells. Now available in real life, this happy little cocktail will give you a grin as wide as a rainbow.
You’ll need
- 1 oz (30ml) whiskey
- 1.5 oz (45ml) irish cream
- 0.50 oz (15ml) vanilla liqueur
- Nutmeg (optional)
Add all ingredients to a shaker filled with ice. Shake for 10 to 15 seconds to chill. Strain into a martini glass. Sprinkle nutmeg on top (optional). Serve!
“Remember, happiness is a choice!”
Variations
Wastrel’s Last Hope
Replace the vanilla liqueur with coconut liqueur.
Sunshine
Replace the vanilla liqueur with creme de fraise.
Rainbows
Replace the vanilla liqueur with creme de cacao.
Why these ingredients?
In We Happy Few, Joy is a drug. Alcohol is also a drug. So I made the game drug into a real drug. Ta da!
But seriously, Joy was a great opportunity to create a drink that was sweet, moreish and held wide appeal—but still customisable enough to fit a wide range of palettes.
Like the Ancestor’s Temptation, I began with a Brandy Alexander. Swapping out the whiskey made it feel more like a nightcap (a cornerstone of British culture in my opinion), and I replaced the cream with Baileys to give it that super thick, creamy, decadent-ness that feels consistent with the drugged-up, overly-happy world of Wellington Wells.
I did ease it back with the addition of some milk, however, just so the other flavours wouldn’t get lost in the Baileys.
Speaking of other flavours: I did a little research (i.e. I played a bunch of We Happy Few) and discovered that Joy is actually made up of 3 different flavours: chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. These “flavours” are different chemical compositions of the same drug, so that more people can enjoy/tolerate Joy.
This gives us a great opportunity to customise our baseline drink: simply add whatever flavour of liqueur you fancy and voila, you’ve still got Joy. There was supposedly a fourth flavour in development, Coconut, which I’ve included in the variations as Wastrel’s Last Hope: Wastrel’s are the unfortunate folk who don’t feel the effects of Joy, and can therefore never be truly happy.
And there you go; a nice, simply, creamy drink that goes down easy and always pulls you back for more. Don’t be Downer—try a Joy today.
Or else.
I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did creating it! Make sure to follow me on Instagram to keep up to date with all the latest drinks—and a few secret exclusive behind-the-scenes looks too.