Blue Monday is more than just “the first 12”record I ever bought” for every single male of my generation without exception – it’s also the 3^rd Monday in January, and is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year.

 Tell me how do I feel? Tell me now, how do I feel? – New Order (1983)

 …. apparently you are supposed to feel terrible.

I refuse to have my moods dictated by days of the week and times of the year though, so let’s perform a transformation from moody blues to perfect pink, and throw in a golden charm for a wealthy 2017.

           with magic works and potent witching words, to purple and pink turn’d…

 You can always reserve feeling depressed for another time, if you were really looking forward to today, I’d hate to spoil it for you 😉

 Presto Change-o

 2 shots Absolut Mandrin infused with blue pea tea

1 shot lavender simple syrup

1 shot lemon juice

 Edible gold leaf

To make the simple syrup, combine 1 cup of sugar, half a cup of water and 2 tablespoons of lavender flowers (dried or fresh). Stir until the sugar is dissolved and allow to cool slowly so that it is fully infused. You could also use Monin Lavender syrup.

Gold leaf can be bought online or at art supply shops, and freezing scraps of it into ice cubes is an excellent way to use up leftovers after a gilding project.

Gold is biologically inert and not absorbed by the body, so as long as you use real gold leaf rather than the artificial version, you can eat all the gold you have a desire to, yum yum yum.

To infuse the vodka, you can use dried butterfly pea flowers, straining them out later, or bottled B’lure extract. I used the teabag option, which I bought from Amazon online. This works very quickly, so you don’t even need to leave it overnight to get a good dark blue colour.

Blue pea tea has very little flavour, but has been drunk for centuries in South-East Asia for its anti-oxidant properties. That combined with the vitamin C from lemon juice makes this quite a healthy cocktail.

No one knows better than I the power of herbs, for I was changed by herbs – Ovid’s Metamorphoses

It’s also an exciting ingredient because of its unusual ability to change colour when its PH level is changed, for instance, by the addition of citrus juice.

Shake the infused vodka and syrup together in a chilled shaker, and check the colour. If it is at this point leaning towards purple it is getting ahead of itself, so you can add a tiny amount of baking soda to alter the PH level and bring it back to true blue.

Strain the lemon juice if it is fresh-squeezed, to make it as clear as possible. For the next stage, you want to combine the ingredients with an audience present, if possible.

This is a 3-stage colour change, so match your mood to the changes:

BLUE: Chilly and pure

Add just enough lemon juice and say presto! to produce a change to….

PURPLE: Spiritual and regal

Add the rest of the juice, say change-o! and see it turn to…

PINK: Warm and romantic

Then drop a gilded cube of ice into your magic potion, and drink. Having gold inside your tummy will attract wealth in your direction- if you serve this with a side order of chocolate coins in gold foil, this will compound the charm.

“… immortals swallow gold and pearls, so that they enjoy eternal life in heaven and earth” – “Salt and Iron”  Huan Kuan of the Western Dynasty (81 BC)

This charming cocktail proves that change is possible, and you don’t have to be blue.

“Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes. It is in fact the great exciter of the YES function in man. It brings its votary from the chill periphery of things to the radiant core” – The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902)– William James