A recipe for disaster reforged into one for survival with vodka, strawberries, lemon juice and a secret ingredient.
“The surprise is that it actually tastes pretty good!”
– Unknown Survivor
Strawberry Surprise from Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead
Ingredients
- 2 oz vodka
- 2 strawberries
- 0.50 oz lemon juice
- 0.75 oz simple syrup
- 2 dashes fish sauce
Instructions
- Add the vodka and strawberries to a mixing glass. Muddle thoroughly to infuse.
- Strain it into a shaker filled with ice.
- Add the lemon juice, simple syrup and fish sauce.
- Shake thoroughly and strain into your chosen vessel.
- Serve!
If you can get over the simple graphics, Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead is any survival fan’s dream. Highly customisable, infinitely replayable, devilishly in-depth with crafting recipes for everything from clean water to laser rifles. It’s constantly being updated with new features and, best of all, it’s completely free.
I’m especially fond of the crafting system. There’s ways to make nearly anything in the game – even some very strange stuff like bone armor for your car or drugs made from energy cola.
But perhaps one of the most useful recipes is the cutely named Strawberry Surprise; a simple alcoholic drink that combines strawberries, vodka and heat to create an early-game way to get drunk, get hydrated and preserve food all at the same time.
And I hate it.
Looking for other drinks to use up those strawberries with? Check out the Plagued Heart from State of Decay 2.
See, the in-game Strawberry Surprise doesn’t make any sense. In fact, it’s gross. Strawberries and vodka, heated in a pot, and somehow that’s tasty? Fie I say. I even tried making the in-game recipe in the video up top, and I can honestly say it tasted like… well. Hot strawberry vodka without the sweetness. It was terrible.
Instead, I came up with my own version that retains the strawberries and vodka but adds an actual surprise: fish sauce. The salty savouriness makes it distinct from a regular vodka-strawberry sour, but without it going overboard into purely piscine territory.
Sweet, sour, a little bit interesting: sure to keep up your morale while you fight away yet another horde of zombies. Cheers!
If you want to keep seeing video-game-inspired cocktails and get a hold of some exclusive recipes, head on over to Experience Bar’s Patreon page and consider slinging me a credit or two. You help keep this blog going!
