Plagued Heart | State of Decay 2

Faster, stronger, deadlier zombies guard the Plague Hearts of State of Decay 2, but they must be destroyed if there’s any hope of survival. The brave “hero” who decides to fight back might need a few of these cocktails when—or if—they return.

You’ll need:

• 1 1/2 oz tequila blanco
• 3/4 oz Patrón XO Incendio
• 1/4 oz lime juice
• 1/2 oz strawberry simple syrup

You’ll also need a spherical ice mold. You can use a regular ice mold if you don’t have one.

Add spherical ice to your vessel. Add tequila blanco, Incendio and lime juice to a shaker filled with ice. Shake for 10-15 seconds until chilled. Add to lowball glass and splash strawberry syrup over the frozen “heart”. Serve!

“You ever seen a plague heart before? It’s a big pulsing pile of rotten flesh that seems to be the only thing these monsters care about—other than eating us, I mean. Destroy them, and the blood plague loses a foothold.”—Unknown Survivor

I create drinks in one of two ways: either I try to find the closest real-life equivalent to an in-game recipe or list of ingredients, such as in the Furious from Far Cry 5; or I try to come up with a recipe that is inspired by the game, rather than a literal recipe.

The Plagued Heart is from the latter group, which can be a challenge. After all, how do you represent what a plague heart “tastes” like? Here’s my reasoning:

First up, there’s tequila. Tequila has something of a bad reputation, forced upon it by generations of college students with lime wedges and salt in-hand. I have a few friends, and I suspect you do too, that will not touch the stuff under any circumstances.

I think that reputation is absolutely unjustified, and there are some seriously tasty tequilas out there that are worthy of the same respect that we normally pay to aged whiskies.

I begin with this to make sure you know I didn’t use tequila for a zombie drink just because I think zombies are gross and therefore should use the “grossest” liquor available.

This recipe uses tequila for a few reasons. First, it has the depth of flavour needed to shine out over the spice of the Incendio. Second, it pairs up very nicely with the lime and the strawberries. Last, there’s something very raw and powerful in an unaged tequila that you simply don’t get in any other spirit—except perhaps white or rude rum.

It’s drink that’s supposed to represent a literal heart of the zombie menace. The base liquor needed the flavour and power to do that justice; tequila was the obvious choice.

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Love yourself some tequila? Try out the Stubborn Mazdamundi inspired by Warhammer.

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Next, there’s the spice. The Plague Hearts are the centre of the Blood Plague that ravages survivors in State of Decay 2. Sweating, fever, insanity—symptoms that’ll eventually kill you.

What better way to pay homage to that than with the spicy, chocolatey goodness of Patron XO Incendio? It’s a match made in heaven, and perfect for adding a little surprising spice kick to the drink without overpowering the other flavours.

Tasty AND thematically consistent? Who could say no?

And last, there’s the strawberry syrup. Well… I just added that because it tastes damn good, and with a thick enough syrup, it creates rivulets of red veins down the frozen heart of the spherical ice.

Damn cool, damn tasty, and damn, damn tough to defeat.

If you want to keep seeing video-game-inspired cocktails and get a hold of some exclusive recipes, head over to Experience Bar’s Patreon page and consider slinging me a credit or two. You help keep this blog going!