February's FYA book club book is the fantastic The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski, which is easily one of our favorite 2014 reads. For those of you who haven't read the book, "Bite and Sting" is a chess-like game of strategy at which Kestrel, the protagonist, excels. The game involves tiles illustrated with animals who, yes, bite or sting, and you can play an online version here.
Kestrel watched Irex watch her, his anger mounting as he couldn't decide whether Kestrel's words were a lie, the well-meant truth, or a truth she hoped he would judge a lie. He flipped the tile: a fox.
"Too bad," said Kestrel, and turned over one of hers, adding a third bee to her other two matching tiles. She swept the four gold coins of the ante to her side of the table.
Kestrel, of course, is an intellectual badass, and I love any game that involves intrigue and suspense. That name cried out for a cocktail -- and who are we at FYA to turn down any opportunity to make a new cocktail? This one is similar to a fancy margarita, but with a distinct ginger flavor (the bite) and spicy jalapeno (the sting).
If blood oranges (which impart the gorgeous fuschia color) aren't available, you can certainly make this with regular oranges (I'd try to find Cara Cara just for the nice floral note). Definitely use bitters -- orange preferred -- to up the complexity of the drink. And if you happen to have cocktail swords to hearken back to Kestrel's dagger, well, you get extra points. (But the real winner is whoever drinks the cocktail.)
THE BITE & STING
Makes one cocktail
½ in thick slice jalapeno
2 ½ in thick slices of ginger
.5 oz lemon juice (can substitute key lime juice)
1 oz honey (about a tablespoon and a half)
.75 oz freshly squeezed blood orange juice
1.5 oz reposado tequila
2 dashes orange bitters
Add first five ingredients to a cocktail shaker. Muddle thoroughly. Add tequila and ice; shake for at least thirty seconds or until the shaker is quite icy. Strain into cocktail coupe (double strain over a fine mesh sieve if you don't want pulp and jalapeno seeds). Add two dashes bitters (or more, we won't stop you). Rub orange peel (peel side down) around the rim and either spear on a cocktail sword or drop in the cocktail.
This cocktail tastes especially good with a Forever Young Adult book club. Don't have one? We have locations worldwide! Head on over here to join or start one!