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Intro

The traditional Screwdriver, a mixture of vodka and OJ, has become almost synonymous with (at least in my mind) a trashy college drink when you’re still a budding drinker and want a cocktail that isn’t a Cosmopolitan.  With summer coming to an end, I wanted to do as many fresh fruit cocktails as possible, though!  This cocktail is super easy to make and has few ingredients, much like the OG Screwdriver.

The history of the Screwdriver is actually pretty interesting — John Martin, the President of Heublein (a then-importer & exporter of spirits and foreign foods), bought the rights to Smirnoff for $14,000 in 1939, saving them from bankruptcy.  Back then, fresh out of the Prohibition, Americans didn’t really drink vodka so Smirnoff was marketing their vodka as a “white whiskey” that had no smell or taste.  The Screwdriver, among others like the Moscow Mule,  was a cocktail created to help promote the use of their vodka and the name is a reference to the actual screwdrivers (yeah, like the tool) being used to stir the mixture.  American oil workers worked long hours on the oil rigs and so started sneaking vodka into their OJ; since they didn’t have access to bar equipment while on the rigs, they would use their screwdrivers to give the sneaky cocktail a stir 👷🏻‍♂️ 🛠️ 👷🏽

Anyways, this drink is a slushied take on the traditional Screwdriver and uses frozen grapes instead of OJ.  Grapes are usually sweet enough so I don’t include any sugar for this drink, but if you do decide to use additional sweetener make sure it’s in liquid form like simple syrup; mixing straight sugar is difficult in frozen drinks since it’s generally too cold for the granules to melt.  I would also recommend frozen grapes versus the fresh fruit + ice cubes because that dilutes it way too much and leaves big chunks of ice (unless you have a very powerful blender).

Multi-day prep~

Grapes (enough for 2 cocktails): 

• 4 cups green and/or purple grapes

For each cocktail (day of):

• 2 oz vodka (I use Ketel One)

• Fresh lime juice* 

• 2 cups frozen grapes

• Granish: lime wheel and mint sprig

* If you use green and purple grapes, use half a lime’s-worth of juice; if you use all purple grapes, double it to a whole lime’s worth of juice; if you use all green grapes I might forgo the lime juice altogether

Prepare grapes (24 hrs before):

1. Wash and pluck grapes from the cluster; place in large Ziploc bag and put directly in freezer

For each cocktail (day of):

1. Add 2 oz vodka, your amount of lime juice, and 2 cups of frozen grapes into a blender; blend on high until smooth

2. Garnish with a lime wheel and spanked (spank it!) mint sprig 

3. Drank

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-References-

https://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/19/nyregion/smirnoff-white-whiskey-no-smell-no-taste.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

https://www.nytimes.com/1986/05/31/obituaries/john-g-martin-dies-popularizer-of-vodka.html

Degroff, Dale. The Craft of the Cocktail. New York: Clarkson Potter/Publishers, 2002.