I have a lot of Insight Editions cookbooks. If I dedicated myself to making every recipe one time, it would be at least a decade before I ate or drank the same thing twice. Does this stop me from getting new books? Obviously not, which is why I was very happy to get a review copy of their latest offering from the galaxy far, far away. The new Star Wars: Galactic Drinks features recipes from the great Jenn Fujikawa, all brought to life by longtime Insight Editions writer Marc Sumerak. As always, the book also features beautiful photos and easy-to-follow instructions.
Like the franchise itself, Star Wars: Galactic Drinks is for fans of all ages. It features alcohol-free drinks and snacks perfect for grown-ups and kids alike. That’s how I made and enjoyed mine. For May the 4th, my four-year-old son and wife helped me craft—and more importantly taste—five recipes. For both his sake and yours, I opted for recipes I believe everyone can make.
Tips Before You Start: If you want your drinks to look more “Star Wars-y,” I found various beer glasses work really well. They feel and look very different when you use them for cocktails/mocktails rather than stouts and lagers. I used other random-shaped cups, too. In general, the less “normal” your glassware, the better for these drinks.
Also, these are alcohol-free recipes, but you’ll see they are all easily adaptable to make them into adult libations. I’ll leave the specifics to you and your tastes, but it will be obvious what alcoholic additions might mix in seamlessly.
Syril’s Cereal Milkshake: A Frozen Treat
What’s a sad Syril to do when his boring old breakfast has him feeling down? Turn it into a delicious frozen treat. Syril’s Cereal Milkshake uses blue cereal to make a gorgeous drink. The only blue cereal I could at my grocery store find was the Kix-like Bluey cereal. It isn’t as blue as I would have liked, but it was good enough. (My son picked out the bluest pieces.) A single drop of blue food dye helped get the color exactly right.
The Bluey cereal has a berry flavor. Just half a cup mixed in with the ice cream and milk mixture was enough to make berry the dominant flavor. Whatever cereal you use might have a similar impact on the flavor of this Star Wars drink.
The biggest surprise from this drink was that the frosting-cereal rim is not just about decorating your milkshake. When you get some of both into a sip, it turns this from “really good” to “absolutely incredible.” This was so, so, so delicious when I treated the lined rim the way you would a salted glass for a margarita. I did not explain any of that to my son. He used a straw for his Star Wars drink and loved it.
Twin Suns Spritz Is One Gorgeous Star Wars Drink
It’s easy to see why Insight Editions chose the Twin Suns Spritz as its cover image. The Tatooine-inspired drink is a real stunner. I didn’t make a perfect recreation (probably because some of my ingredients were cold and others were room temperature), but it didn’t matter. What I did make still looked incredible.
Seriously, this swirling aesthetic is so cool.
For the dried orange slices, I put them under a broiler. The effect was better than I hoped. (Just make sure you let yours cool down entirely. Trust me.) I also accidentally used too much lime juice, but that was easily rectified with a little extra grenadine. The result was a highly refreshing, tart drink that looked the most “like Star Wars.”
Endor-Ade Gives Ewoks Some Love
Anyone who hates Ewoks lacks an appropriate amount of whimsy. Making this Star Wars drink will help rectify that. Endor-Ade takes inspiration from another beloved (amazing) Disney drink, POG juice. What makes this different is the coconut milk on top. I was a little worried about how much juice and sugar we’d be having, making all of these in a single weekend, so whenever I could cut a little, I did. In this case, I went with unsweetened coconut milk, which I thought might mean a less good POG juice. NOPE. It was fantastic.
The unsweetened coconut milk gave the drink more depth while also adding creaminess. It’s really enjoyable to drink both because of the texture and the flavor.
Everyone in the house loved this Star Wars drink. Mine looks darker because there’s no ice and I had to use nectars instead juices, but I don’t think that changed the flavor at all. (Might have enhanced it.) I also could not, despite looking in multiple stores, find a fresh passion fruit for decoration.
I make no apologies. If you have a problem with that, you also probably hate Ewoks and need to lighten up.
Seezelslak’s Fruit Cordial Was a Surprising Star Wars Drink
Of the five recipes I chose, this surprised me the most. I picked it because I thought it would be a good one to do with my son. The Batuu-Galaxy’s Edge Seezelslak’s Fruit Cordial is not difficult to make, but it does require some fun prep. I figured it would ultimately be a tasty little fruit punch, but not special.
Well, call me Jar Jar because this drink makes me look like a fool. It’s phenomenal. I genuinely can’t believe how good it is. It’s so rich and flavorful. I let it sit for six hours and could have drunk the entire thing in two minutes. (My son wanted to.) It’s perfectly balanced and deeply flavored.
If you make an adults-only version, please put a warning sign next to it. Otherwise, you risk your guests turning your home into Jabba’s Pleasure Barge. Also, hypothetically, if you add lime juice instead of lemon juice, it will still turn out amazing.
I know, I know. I had lime juice issues 40% of the time. The key is I used freshly squeezed lime juice like an adult. In general, with these recipes, the more fresh ingredients, the better. You’re welcome for that super useful, super unique tip. Fresh ingredients.
Dathomir Strawberry Sun Is Worth the Effort
I saved the (technically) most difficult drink I made from Star Wars: Galactic Drinks for last. The daiquiri-like Dathomir Strawberry Sun does require an immersion blender (or hand mixer) to make the basil foam. My kiddo really liked that part. His dad got tired of waiting for it to fully foam up, though, and ended up with a mix of foam and milk. Fortunately, it didn’t matter. Mine looked just like the picture in the book.
No surprise the strawberry part tastes great. What was a surprise was how much I absolutely loved the basil foam. I wasn’t exactly excited to add basil-flavor to it, but there’s a reason I’m not a professional cookbook author. The basil foam turned a sweet drink into something much more complex and delicious.
Also surprising? My lack of patience paid off. Remember how I got tired of waiting for the milk and basil mixture to get completely foamy? That led to a lot of it sinking down into the strawberry part. The result was a cool, swirling effect that captured the strangeness of Dathomir itself.
What other wonderful delights, both accidental and intentional, await as I make my way through the rest of Insight Editions’ Star Wars: Galactic Drinks? I know my son can’t wait to find out. And neither can I.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. He passed on some of the harder recipes because of his son and not because he didn’t want to embarrass himself. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.
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