Yucca Juice Revisted

After recovering from the Memorial Day bash
with the “Old Skool” crew I managed to for the most part remember how
to make what Mike’s uncle Brian calls “Yucca Juice”. And opted that I
just couldn’t wait for another 3 day weekend to try and make a batch of
my own, so instead I opted to throw another Midnight BBQ.The Midnight BBQ is something I’d been doing for about 4 months when
I wrote this. Since most of the people I hung out with worked the same
schedule i.e. fucked up compared to the rest of the world, I started
having peeps over right after work on Saturdays, and one thing led to
another and soon the Midnight BBQ came about. Obviously it’s called the
Midnight BBQ because we get off work at Midnight, and go straight to
the house and light the grill and mix up some drinks.This Midnight BBQ was a bit different though, since I had 2 new
roommates, Will and Chris, and the fact that I got to try out my own
technique of making Yucca Juice.

Memorial Day weekend we made a batch in the traditional manner that
Mike’s uncle showed us which is fairly easy. The whole batch will cost
about $30 altogether and that includes buying the all the supplies, and
trust me it will be well worth it.

Ingredients:

½ Gallon of Vodka (Smirnoff works best but any will do)
6 Lemons
1 Orange
1 Gallon sealable glass jar (like one of those you probably make tea with in the summer)
1 Bag of ice
1 Cup of sugar
1 Plastic bag or some plastic wrap

Preparation:

Cut the lemons into halves and as Brian would say “Squeeze the shit
out em” in the jar. Yeah I said in the jar, so make sure you get one
your hand can fit into. Don’t worry about the rind and seeds, just
squeeze all the juice out of the halves and leave them in the jar.

Cut the oranges into quarters and do the same. Remember to leave every thing in the jar.

Drop in the cup of sugar, and if you want mix it up a bit with a wooden spoon, but the mixing is not really necessary.

Pack the jar to the top with ice, then crush it down with a spoon,
ladle, whatever may be present and pack in more ice till no more will
fit. Don’t overfill or the jar won’ seal.

Now pour in the vodka so it fill the jar completely.

Put a plastic bag or some plastic wrap over the top of the jar and
then screw on the top tightly. It’s usually best to double or triple
the layers of plastic to make a tight seal, but don’t over do it, or
the top won’t screw on securely.

Mixing: – Now here’s where my style and the traditional style vary

Traditional way:

Wrap the jar in a beach towel tightly and proceed to shake for 1
hour. Yes that’s right 1 hour, that’s why I modified these steps to fit
my style. The jar needs to be shaken vigorously so that everything
mixes well together. The best way to do this is the shake it emulates a
see saw, the only issue with this is that if your by yourself trust me
when I say your arms well get tired after about 15 minutes.

Dj Mgyx’s way:

Wrap the jar in a beach towel tightly around the side of the jar,
then wrap another over the top and bottom of the jar. Try and make the
wraps as tight as possible and then tape the whole thing down so it
can’t fall apart, I went a little over board on this part so one tape
wrap at the top and one at the bottom should suffice.

Now place the wrap in plastic bag of its own, kind of like the ones
you’d get at a grocery store, you want to put this in place as a
security measure in case the jar breaks between making the batch and
drinking the batch.

Here’s the fun part, grab an old comforter the thicker the better,
and wrap the comforter securely around the jar. Now place the whole
bundle in a dryer (one that has a no heat option), place the bundle in
so that it is standing upright and when the dryer turns it will turn
the jar end over end. And now for the easy part set the dryer for at
least 1 hour or if it’s like mine set it for 30 min and when it’s done
set it to run 2nd time.

Now since my way usually used when I’m cooking or doing other things
I usually don’t crack open the jar until all is said and done, so if
you have people around pull out the bundle and take the inner bundle
out. You can at this point crack open the seal and start serving or
pass the jar around and continue shaking until it’s ready to be served,
overall the more shaking involved the better.

How does it taste you may ask, that’s easy, like ice cold lemonade,
which it’s greatest feature and downfall at the same time, because
after a few drinks you’ll forget there’s nothing more than vodka and
lemon juice in that cool refreshing drinking you’re tossing back, as
Brian put it “it’ll turn a small gathering into a raging party”, and
it’s so smooth that yes even the ladies will like it.

I’ve already experimented a bit with this my mixing a half glass of
the yucca juice with a half glass of Berry Sky Vodka and Sprite Remix.
At 1st I thought it would taste kind of funky, but after a few sips
from myself and the rest of the crew, everyone agreed the concoction
was just as good if not better that the Yucca Juice itself. This little
mix is definitely a good mix if you have some light drinkers in the
crowd.