in search of something to do; the Sunray Tonic from Starfield (2023)
i have tentatively titled this maybe-series as a tribute to the escape from bo liao; the Singaporean Hokkien expression of Boredom or Drudgery. I pursue the crafting of silly things to escape the stupid tedium. Recipe at the bottom.
In this epistle I am pursuing the true formulation of a mediocre-sounding drink from a mediocre game that surely can't be that mediocre if I'm putting an excess of 350 hours into it: The Sunray Tonic, as seen in Starfield (Bethesda Game Studios, Bethesda Softworks, 2023)
The Sunray Tonic is a crafting-only mocktail that is one of the most valuable gameplay-wise because it provides an XP boost for half an hour, which if you have turned on food and drink bonuses, will also be the duration that the Hydrated bonus lasts. If you are using it to constantly be keeping yourself watered, that XP boost might as well be permanent. In order to craft it, first you need a first level in the Gastronomy skill, in the Social category, and then you'll need to complete Beverage Development 2 at a research terminal, for which you'll need miscellaneous organic and inorganic resources, as well as a few servings of a very specific item that I'm pointing out for later: Tranquilitea Sunray.
So the item description of Sunray Tonic merely generally describes it as tea-infused tonic water with cherry soda and spices. This means that it canonically includes a drink item that does not exist in the Settled Systems, which is the tonic water, so the crafting recipe instead requires just Boom Pop! Cherry (which is specifically required because it is the only cherry soda in the game), the tea (which can be any tea item in the game), and the spices (which is just a generic organic resource and can be gathered from any flora or fauna that yields it). This means that I can logically supply any spice that fits, along with any tea I wish, and that I can just add the tea as a separate ingredient, instead of taking the time to steep it in the tonic water. I'm looking for quick and dirty, not an overnight prep. This leads to my main conundrum.
Tranquilitea is a brand of tea in the Starfield setting, of which there is only Tranquilitea as a brand and other homemade teas that you can brew through the research and crafting system. So, the thing with Tranquilitea Sunray is that as a world item, it is just a light seafoam blue insulated takeaway cup, with no distinguishing features for the liquid inside, and the item description barely narrows down what a "floral and fruity tea blend" actually means. I could just substitute in any kind of tea that I want, but since the name of the drink is the Sunray Tonic, and in order to unlock the recipe I'd needed to consume a few cups of Tranquilitea Sunray, I think we have to stay On Track. Nevertheless, the game gives me extra clues to work with: the individual and bulk brew packs, which reveal a distinctly green leaf mass inside, rather than the brown that is normal for tea.
Good enough, we'll be working with green tea for this one. Hey, I got lots of leftover bags in the pantry, I'll just brew some of those.
Next, tonic water is easy. We have a lot of it because my mom loves drinking it. She used to drink Schweppes, recently switching to F&N, which is sweeter but also has a drier aftertaste.
Thirdly, much like the Settled Systems, there is only one brand of cherryade widely sold in Singapore: Also F&N. That will do.
Lastly, we have a nicely populated spice rack and will be using a few by the end.
Switch the pepper out for powdered or grated cinnamon and this is the required ingredient tally.
Attempt 1 was partly stymied by the fact that I needed to pour out some of the tea while it was brewing because i realised i used too much water. After leaving to cool for about 15 minutes, i split the tea equally between two highball glasses, filling about a third of each. I then poured a freshly-opened cold can of tonic water to 2/3rds, before popping ice in and topping off with the cherry soda and a dash of Sarawak Pepper. Mom and me agreed: this was just diluted and dry cherry cola with a bit of crud on top.
Attempt 2 was half a highball of the same brewed green tea, left to cool for two hours, and refrigerated overnight, steeping the entire time. Split equally into two highballs again for a quarter-glass of each, topped up with another quarter-glass each of tonic water, ice, and topped off with cherry soda to follow a 1:1:2 ratio of the aforementioned ingredients. Final garnish was a dusting of powdered cinnamon. We agreed this was almost there.
Attempt 3 followed the same, except I swapped out self-brewed green tea with a cold bottle of jasmine green tea from the convenience store, and powdered nutmeg instead of cinnamon. The nutmeg did not colour the taste of the drink to the same degree as the cinnamon, but getting lazy and store-buying my tea did the trick for actually bringing the tea flavour out.
That leads me to the recipe for this drink.
1 part green tea
1 part tonic water
2 parts cherry soda
garnish with powdered or grated cinnamon
stir lightly
serve iced