TRON Inspired Glow in the Dark Drinks

by ModMischief in Cooking > Cocktails & Mocktails

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TRON Inspired Glow in the Dark Drinks

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Enjoy a little taste of life on the grid!

While watching TRON: Legacy recently, I decided that my next party needed to channel some of the cool vibe of the Daft Punk dj-ed bar.

Most people are probably familiar with the fact that gin and tonics glow under black lights (there’s even a great instructable about it) but what if you’re not a big fan of g&t?

Thanks to the fantastic Kryptonite Candy instructable, I learned that vitamin B2 (also know as riboflavin) glows yellow.

I decided to experiment to see what adding tonic water and B2 could do to some of my favourite drinks.

What You'll Need

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The magic glowing ingredients are riboflavin and quinine. You can find them in vitamin B2 pills and tonic water.
You can make pretty much any clear or light coloured drink glow by adding either B2 or tonic water, so choose ingredients that suit your tastes.

I made 4 different drinks:

-Classic gin and tonic
-Red Bull and vodka
-Vodka and sprite
-Sobe pina colada with white rum

To get them to glow you will need a black light.

To create TRON style drink umbrellas, I used bendy straws and the bottoms of plastic martini glasses (I've used these disposable glasses for parties and have noticed that the tops are more likely to break than the bottoms, so even though I try to wash and reuse them, I usually end up with a surplus of bottoms)

Make Some Futuristic Drink Umbrellas

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To create a stir stick similar to the clear umbrella in Castor / Zuse's final drink, I used a drinking sraw and the bottom of a disposable martini glass. The bottom part of a plastic wine glass would work just as well but would be a little smaller.

First pierce a hole the middle of the disk. Using a lighter, I heated up a nail and pushed it through with pliers. You could also use a drill.

Next, thread the straw through the hole up to the bendy part. The bendy elbow lets you tilt the umbrella to a jaunty angle.

Trim the straw to the desired length and you're done!

Mix the Drinks

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Now the fun begins!

Yellow & green drinks:

Crush up a B100 complex vitamin. One pill is good for many drinks as you will only need a tiny pinch of powder to make the liquid glow.

Add some powder to the bottom of your glass and pour in the desired drink. Red Bull or similar energy drinks are a great choice as they already contain a small amount of riboflavin. The vitamin powder has a bit of a medicine taste to it, so strong flavoured drinks are better at masking the bitter taste.

To make the drink green, add a drop of food colouring and stir.

Blue drinks:

In addition to the classic gin and tonic, try adding tonic water to other mixed drinks. Tonic water has a bitter taste, so I found that sweet mixes worked better.

Enjoy!