Swampwater

If you’re looking for the perfect redneck response to blue-blooded cocktail culture, look no further than the Swampwater’s edge at Bub’s Dive Bar.

The sort of place that serves silos of canned beer in paper bags and uses discarded peanut shells as a carpet, Bub’s is exactly where you would expect to find Swampwater.

Served in a pitcher, this signature cocktail is a sight to behold — a boggy green liquid with a can of Miller High Life bobbing like one of the empties left behind after a nighttime frog hunt.

“It’s a fruity melon punch,” Bub’s manager Rick Borba says. “You bring out this murky-looking drink and the can is bobbing on top. People are drawn to that.”

Swampwater is the inspiration of bar manager and Kentucky native Justin Hutchinson. Borba says, “Justin’s a big fan of the High Life.”

“The beer kind of seeps out as people drink the Swampwater off from the pitcher,” Borba says. “You can serve it with some straws and people can have fun with it. But we definitely serve it with glasses as well.”

It’s also a great way to start an evening or finish off a Sunday afternoon, Borba says.

“I would say Swampwater is a sharing drink for a table of four that want to break the ice and try something new,” he says.

Kitchen Proof: Despite looking like a green-tinted vat of melted crayons, Swampwater is a sweet morass of flavors — with a strong pucker factor found in the melon-and-berry mix. As the Miller unloads its High Life into the swamp with each pour, the flavors find the right depth and mellow balance.

SwampWater

• In a 60 oz. pitcher filled
• with ice, pour:
• 1 oz. orange vodka
• 1 oz. raspberry vodka
• ½ oz. melon liqueur
• ½ oz. raspberry liqueur
• ½ oz. blue curacao

• Fill with sweet-and-sour mix two inches from the top of the pitcher and add splashes of 7-Up, orange juice, and pineapple juice.