Happy Tuesday, everyone! 

On a recent trip to visit several extended Woman At The Bar family members, we came across a rather unsettling discovery as we perused their (otherwise very impressive) home bar: a bottle of blue curacao. 

There it was, in all it’s toilet cleaner-colored glory, hobnobbing with the good scotch and a bottle of Grand Marnier, as if it belonged there. 

This startling revelation has prompted us to write this article, as a general reminder to all of our readers out there who we love so much:

Please, don’t drink that. 

Do we occasionally throw flavored vodka into one of our drinks? Sure. Have we been known to drop a smidgen of grenadine into a cocktail from time to time? Definitely. Would we ever, freely or under duress, make a drink using a normally clear liqueur that has been hopped up on so much blue dye #12 that it looks like something secreted by the Blue Man Group? 

That pretty much sums it up.

And so, we would like to pass on this general rule of thumb when it comes to choosing ingredients to use in your drinks: If the color of the liquor is not somewhere on the natural clear-green-brown spectrum of colors one might find on a nature hike, we strongly, deeply implore you not to use it. Ever. 

Blue Curacao? Curacao is clear. Please don’t drink this. 

Apple Pucker? Apples are not neon. Please do not drink this. 

Midori? Have you ever seen a melon that is the same color as cartoon radioactive waste? No? We didn’t think so. Please don’t drink this. 

Whatever this is? Berries are not the color of children’s liquid Tylenol. Please don’t drink this. 

Look, we are in no way against brightly colored drinks, but trust us when we say there are ways to make drinks nearly any color under the sun without relying on industrial strength food coloring. We guarantee you that wherever possible, fresh, natural ingredients create the best results. And if you don’t believe us, we challenge you to give us the name of a drink or liqueur colored with that crap and if we can’t make a drink using non-dyed ingredients that tastes better, we will shut this whole thing down. 

The gauntlet has been thrown. If any of you wish to claim that Apple Pucker is really delicious, we’ll be waiting…