Girl Meets Canada: Black Prairie

The ongoing story of a girl and her van on an epic journey across Canada.

Before I leave off tales from Saskatchewan (and my shamefully stupid youth, as related in my last post) I must concoct a drink to honour the middle of our fair prairie provinces. This beverage is inspired by Blackie, an elderly gentleman I met in a bar in Moose Jaw. (No, Granny, I wasn’t being foolish and he wasn’t being creepy, I promise!) I was sitting at the bar waiting for some friends, and Blackie sat down next to me. He gave me a stern look and asked if I was grumpy. When I said no, he proceeded to chat my ear off about his motorcycle and some big biker party thing that was happening that weekend.

Blackie had a long grey ponytail, tattered leather jacket, faded tattoos and leathery skin. The kind of man you’d expect to drink beer! Arg! BEER! So I found it particularly funny when he asked the bartender for “one of those creamy drinks.” Upon further questioning I discovered that a “creamy drink” was a paralyzer. With extra cherries.

This is a drink that I lived off of when I was 18 and living on my own for the first time. Old enough to feel like drinking made me an adult, but young enough to still love my sugar! It’s not something I’d expect to see a wizened old biker drink. But life is full of wonderful details that continue to surpass my expectations.

A Traditional Paralyzer:
1.0 oz Vodka
1.0 oz Kahlua
0.5 oz Cola
3.5 oz Milk

My version, inspired by Blackie, is called the Black Prairie:
1.0 oz Tequila (because I just have to get rid of this stuff!)
1.0 oz Kahlua
0.5 oz Cola
3.5 oz Milk

If you dare try it, let me know how it is. I couldn’t bring myself to buy a bottle of kahlua just to test the recipe out, but I’m sure it’ll be tasty. Really! I swear!

Photo Credit

“Paralyzer” available through Creative Commons.

This article was first published on Raggedy Threads in June 2010.