Shirley Temple Mocktail

The story is, this non-alcohol "cocktail-like" drink was devised for child actress Shirley Temple at a restaurant where she was having dinner with her parents, who both had cocktails. You can use either Sprite, 7 Up, ginger ale or the more potent ginger beer, which has a spicy kick to it.* Grenadine is a type of syrup made from pomegranate juice. It is VERY red and it adds that red color, as well as and a sweetness, to numerous drinks. It is easily found in supermarkets and liquor stores, although it is non-alcohol.

 

Ingredients (per drink):

 

2/3 cup ginger ale or ginger beer or Sprite or 7 Up

2 teaspoons fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons grenadine

2 maraschino cherries 

ice

10 to 12 ounce glass

NOTE: Add 2 ounces of vodka for what is called a "Dirty Shirley Temple Cocktail" 

Start with just a little ice in the glass, then add the 2/3 cup of whatever carbonated beverage you choose, lime juice and grenadine; stir well, then add more ice. Garnish with a couple of maraschino cherries. 

* Brewed ginger beer seems to have been first made in England in the 1700s and it became a popular drink in all of the British Isles and in numerous (then) British colonies and possessions like Canada, Jamaica, Australia and South Africa. It is my understanding that the original fermentation process produced both an alcohol content, as well as the sparkling fizz of the drink, which was made with yeast; but that later, the process was altered to make an alcohol free brew, and later still, the carbonation process (injecting carbon dioxide under pressure) was used to give the drink its fizz.   

WORD HISTORY:

Fledge (Fledgling)-"Fledge" is the main word here, and it is related to a number of words, including to: "fly" (also the the noun used for "a flying insect"), "float," "flow" and "fowl," all words from the Germanic roots of English, and it is distantly related to "pulmonary," a word borrowed by English from Latin, with influence via French. "Fledge" goes back to Indo European "pleu" (extended form "pleud"), which meant, "to flow, to run (of water/fluids), to stream;" thus also with implications of "to fly." This gave Old Germanic "fleugan(an)," the ancestor of "to fly," and this gave Old Germanic (perhaps just West Germanic?) the adjectival "flugjaz," meaning "feathered to be able to fly." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "flycge," meaning "capable of flight, feathered to be able to fly," which then became "flygge," then "flegge," before the modern form. Often used as "full(y)-fledged;" that is, "one totally capable of flying, one capable of being out on their own, one now passed into young adulthood." The noun "fledgling" developed from "fledge" in the 1830s (?), the basic meaning of which is, "a young bird or insect that has matured to the point of flight;" with the expanded meaning, "inexperienced or unproven person or animal;" thus also, "a young naive person, someone new at something." German has "flügge," Low German has "flügg," both meaning "fledged, capable of flight," Dutch has "vlug" meaning "swift, fast," from the old notion of being able to fly.