Personally, I don’t like green food.

I’m not talking about healthy green food like kale, tea, Brussels sprouts, and shelled raw peas. That’s all great. I’m talking fake green food — stuff that has blue and yellow whatevers in it to make it appealing to the masses.

Yet all of my Yankee stick-to-itiveness about the purity of what I ingest goes out the window when I return to my college days of early alcohol exploration, which gleefully included Intro to Midori 101.

Mad about Midori

Bright green and Japanese aren’t adjectives normally in the same description. But if something smells like nectar and is colored vaguely like a “Go” light, chances are we’re talking about Midori.

Midori is a melon liqueur with so distinct a color it’s spot-able across a room. Back in the day, it was produced by Japan’s Suntory company (if the name rings a bell, you probably saw Lost In Translation). Today, Midori is mostly produced in Mexico, and its presence in a glass is a dead giveaway that you drink what naysayers call girly drinks. Arguably the most recognizable of them all is a Midori Sour.

Midori Sour gets a makeover

Midori Sours generally combine two ingredients: Midori, and a pre-made sweet-and-sour concoction so sugary it’s hard to tell the liqueur from the mixer. But for folks with a sweet tooth, it’s that fact that makes Midori Sours a great segue into the world of drinking.

However, some people simply like the taste of melon. And as opposed to a Cosmopolitan or Apple Martini, Midori Sours make a nice change of pace. For those drinkers, Food Thinkers offers up this very grown-up approach to the Midori Sour, using fresh pineapple and lemon juices from your juicer … entirely avoiding any extra sugar and relying instead on the Midori itself to sweeten the deal. A top-off of soda water adds a little extra somethin’ somethin’.

Ingredients

  • 2 ounces Midori liqueur
  • 1 ounce vodka
  • ¼ pineapple
  • 1 lemon, peeled
  • 1½ ounces soda water

Instructions

Juice the pineapple and lemon. Mix the Midori, vodka, and juices together. Pour mixture into a tall glass filled with ice. Top with soda water, gently stir, and serve.