A mellow evening with "Bob Ross"

2 cocktails: 4 cl Maraschino, 4 cl Sanbitter, 4 cl Blue Curacao, 4 cl Rum, 1 cocktail spoon with twisted shaft, 2 steady hands, ice.

If you don't know Bob Ross and his TV show "The Joy of Painting" from the late 80s, you are probably missing out on some of the most meditative instructional videos around. The self-made and tremendously successful art instructor, with his iconic afro look and soothing voice, taught romantic landscape painting in a wet-on-wet style, allowing to effortlessly blend vivid colours on the canvas like in our little happy cocktail experiment.

Layered cocktails like this one make use of differences in the density of its ingredients. Higher sugar content increases the density of a drink while higher alcohol content decreases its density. Low-density stuff floats, like the ice in your cocktail, while high-density stuff sinks to the bottom, like a bucket of concrete to the floor of a river. If you want to know who stays on top - in your cocktail of course - you can use my 2-5 rule.

2 x AC - 5 x SC

So, if you happen to know the alcohol (AC) as well as the sugar content (SC) of the liquids to be stacked in your cocktail, you simply multiply AC by 2 and SC by 5 and then compute the difference. Whichever liquid has the higher 2-5 value stays on top.

Example: Maraschino has an AC of about 30% and a SC in the 30% range. Its 2-5 value is thus 2 x 30 - 5 x 30 = - 90. Sanbitter has no alcohol but about 16% sugar content. Its 2-5 value is thus minus 80, which is larger (i.e. less negative) than the minus 90 value of Maraschino. Sanbitter is thus expected to float on top of Maraschino, which is exactly what we see in the cocktail above. Rum with 40% alcohol content and no sugar has a 2-5 value of plus 80 and is thus expected to be at the very top of our concoction.

Try layering the liquids for this cocktail, starting with Maraschino on the bottom and then going to Sanbitter, Blue Curacao and finally to rum. This may require steady hands and the use of a cocktail spoon. With some fun practice you'll get the hang of it ... as well as a sugar-coated, sticky table top. Carefully ad some ice or drink as is. In terms of taste, this cocktail is a stretch. But it certainly looks nice.

Do you want to catch up or refresh your memories of Bob announcing one of his unforgettable lines of "happy little trees"? I recently found that now you can do so on Amazon Prime or other outlets. Believe it or don't, watching him paint and hearing him talk actually helps me take the edge off a disorientingly busy day. And what better way to do so than with a colourful "Bob Ross" in your hand.

Peace out.