Gatarou Cocktail recipe

The recipe calls for a 9-oz margarita glass. Please adjust quantities to suit your glassware.

Gatarō hopes to be a new classic in summer cocktails. Refreshing and quite simple to make, it uses a palette of classic liqueurs to paint a picture of times past. This drink is named for a Japanese water demon called the Gatarō (aka Kappa), a mischievous--and often deadly--water spirit who carries children off to drown in the river, not unlike sirens and mermaids of Western lore. Legend holds that the demon has a small, bowl-shaped indentation on his head, and that anyone who steals some water from that bowl will have power over Gatarō. This boon is usually satisfied by the granting of a wish. The use of a margarita glass symbolises the head of Gatarō.

If, for some reason, you wish to fore-go the cucumber, the drink is then called a "Green Fae" and is served in a sugar-rimmed, footed highball or water glass. Absente herbal anisette may be used in place of the Pernod.

Gatarō was created in the summer of 2007 by Sc'Eric Horner for the Fuji & Jade Garden restaurant in State College, PA.