Oscar-inspired cocktails to get through whatever the Academy has planned

Honestly, who knows what the 91st Academy Awards have in store, but that’s all the more reason to have a thematically correct drink in hand.

The Oscars are this weekend and who is to say what to expect. Controversy and compulsive decision reversals have plagued the award show since last August, in short because ABC is anxious about ratings and the Academy keeps forgetting who their audience is.

Will there be one or more musical numbers? Will Viggo Mortensen say the n-word on stage? Will ABC cut off Glenn Close? Will the broadcast set a new record for runtime? Will it all actually turn out to be interminably boring and deeply uneventful?

Who is to say. What we do know is that there will be no host and the favorites are two movies that were widely hated. Fun!

What we can say for sure is fun is making extravagant, thematic cocktails on a Sunday afternoon. (Or a Thursday, in our case, but you’ll be doing this on a Sunday. Unless you choose to do a practice run on Friday. Really, any afternoon is a good afternoon for extravagant, thematic cocktails.) In any case, should you want a fun and fitting drink to get you through whatever the Academy has planned, we (with a range of liquors from KLG) are here to help you out.

KLG sent the FanSided office ingredients, including Templeton Rye, Proper Twelve Whiskey and Stella Rose Rose, to try out their Oscar-inspired cocktails. We went ahead and took the liberty of assigning drinks to this year’s nominees.

The One That Got Away: Inspired by Leonardo DiCaprio, embodied by Amy Adams

Where is the righteous indignation at Amy Adams dearth of Academy Awards? As she approaches her sixth Oscar ceremony as a nominee, it’s hard not to see the parallels to DiCaprio. Leo won on his sixth try for The Revenant in what everyone canagree was a makeup call. If Adams were to win on Sunday for Vice, it would be a similar recognition for a lesser work.

But she won’t win. She’s up against Marina de Tavira for Roma, Regina King for If Beale Street Could Talk, and both Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz for The Favourite. Her inevitable loss gives the Academy the opportunity to recognize her for something truly great, even if it means waiting, hopefully not until she climbs into a horse carcass.

(Dear sweet Bradley Cooper, who the Academy loves for some reason, was a close contender for this title as well, seeing as it is he has been nominated seven (!) times. He’s nominated three times for A Star is Born: Lead Actor, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. His best odds are in the screenplay category, but even there he faces extremely tough competition.)

Ingredients:

• 1 oz. Templeton Whiskey
• 3 oz. Stella Rosa Rosé
• 1 tsp. Rose syrup
• 1 oz. Grapefruit juice
• 1 Grapefruit slice

Directions:

• Combine whiskey, Stella Rosa Rosé, syrup and grapefruit juice in a shaker with ice
• Shake and strain into a glass of ice
• Garnish with grapefruit slice

Sweet Victory: Inspired by Meryl Streep, embodied by Glenn Close

• Created by Nick Fogel, Beverage Director, The Late Late Bar & Spirit Grocer

Meryl Streep has been nominated 21 times for an Academy Award, which somehow makes the fact she’s only (“only”) won three times shocking by comparison. But this isn’t about her, even though the drink was crafted in her image. This is about Glenn Close, who has been nominated seven times and never won. (Take that Leo. And Amy. And now Bradley.)

And yet, 2019 could be, rather shockingly, her year. Close is nominated for The Wife, a movie with an incredibly nondescript title that you will probably watch on an airplane and no one had ever heard of before Close won the Golden Globe over Lady Gaga in January. Make no mistake: Close is excellent in The Wife, just as she’s been consistently excellent for three decades. Even Gaga fans were swept up in the endearing spirit of Close’s Globe acceptance speech and the award season snowball that suggests Close could go home a winner this weekend. An Oscar on Sunday would be a sweet victory indeed.

Ingredients:

• 1 oz Proper No. Twelve Irish Whiskey
• .75 oz Lillet Blanc
• .75 oz Lavender syrup
• Sparkling wine

Directions:

• Stir whiskey, Lillet Blanc and lavender syrup
• Top with sparkling wine
• Garnish lavender branch

Irish Slang: Inspired by Saoirse Ronan, embodied by Christian Bale

• Created by Pamela Wiznitzer of Seamstress NYC

Christian Bale is not Irish. He is British, specifically Welsh, a fact a lot of people forget because he so frequently plays American and also has not been a part of the award circuit since 2016 so no one has heard him speak in awhile. Still, if he wins on Sunday night, many viewers will take to Twitter to remark on his accent, just as they did after his Golden Globes victory in January.

Unfortunately, Bale is not likely to take the stage at the 91st Academy Awards, at least not as a winner. Nearly everyone is expecting Rami Malek to take home the trophy for Bohemian Rhapsody. (The two were in separate categories at the Globes.)

Setting aside extremely intense regional geopolitics and by virtue of Welsh being the accent most likely to be mistaken for Irish, Bale is our Irish Slang honoree for 2019.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 Kerrygold Irish Cream Liqueur
• 1.5  Proper No. Twelve Irish Whiskey
• .75 oz Borghetti Liqueur
• .5 Grand Marnier

Directions:

• Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice
• Shake and strain into a highball
• Garnish with an orange slice

We can’t vouch for the next three cocktails, but you’re looking for more nominee-inspired options, read on.