Gingham Unstoppable

 The gingham unstoppable cocktail is inspired by this Bath and Body Works fragrance:

About the fragrance

I purchased this hand soap in 2024 when the fragrance debuted. It is a part of the Gingham fragrance collection that Bath and Body Works introduced several years ago (see my cocktails inspired by Gingham and Gingham Gorgeous.) It is currently unavailable online, but several other Gingham fragrances are available if you are interested in something similar.

The scent notes listed for this fragrance are:

Fresh neroli

Sparkling water

Clean musk

Designing the cocktail

I used club soda for the mixer to capture the sparkling water note. I used white rum for the musk note. As neroli is derived from the bitter orange tree, I wanted to use an orange flavored alcohol for that note. I chose blue Curacao to match the packaging. I also made an orange simple syrup (prepared by boiling equal parts sugar and water and adding orange flavoring) for additional sweetness and flavor.

Recipe

1 oz blue Curacao

1 oz white rum

½ oz orange simple syrup

6 oz club soda

Place two ice cubes in a glass. Add blue Curacao, white rum, and orange simple syrup. Pour in club soda. For a non-alcoholic version, omit the blue Curacao and white rum and increase the orange simple syrup to 1 oz. Add food coloring to recreate the blue color if you wish.

The finished cocktail

 I enjoyed this cocktail. The combined taste of blue Curacao and orange simple syrup was reminiscent of orange kool-aid. The rum flavor was harder to detect. The blue Curacao gave it a very pretty sky blue color. The flavor profile reminded me of a simpler version of my Gingham cocktail, which was expected, as it contained the same two alcohols and was inspired by a fragrance in the same collection. This cocktail almost seemed too simple when compared to those with floral notes and/or garnishes, but it was still enjoyable and visually pleasing. I would recommend this cocktail to anyone who likes orange flavor and enjoys prettily colored drinks.