The Best Drink Pairing for Taylor Swift's New Album

If you're one of those fans who's destined to make Taylor Swift's new album their entire personality — I'm looking at my friend Kristin on this one — you've come to the right place. At Food Fanatic, we're of the opinion that every record release deserves its own food or drink pairing, and as soon as Taylor announced The Tortured Poets Department, I've wanted to find someone who could offer the best cocktail accompaniment.

I found that in Ashley Gibson.

Gibson is a self-described "professional Swiftie" — are y'all hiring?! — and the author of the newly released SIP ME, BABY, ONE MORE TIME: Cocktails Inspired by Pop Music's Iconic Women. Okay, I immediately love everything about this. 

(photo by David Gray/AFP via Getty Images)

Each drink is paired with a track by artists like Lady Gaga, the Spice Girls, Maria Carey, and Billie Eilish. They're organized into sections that are categorized by themes like healing, fury, and celebration. And that means each of the seven sections comes with a built-in playlist. What's not to love?

Gibson isn't playing about her Swift fandom. The book's very first recipe is inspired by the generational talent's "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)," and Taylor shows up in every section, usually more than once. She owns the "longing" category with three different tracks.

We're focused on one of them here, the Lavender Lemonade with gin and edible flowers. Gibson has generously agreed to let us share the full recipe! (Thank her by buying her book, though.)

(the Lavender Lemonade, photo by Alyson Brown)

Sip Me Baby was written before we knew about The Tortured Poets Department. And as I write this, coincidentally wearing my black and green Taylor Swift snapback that I bought years ago at the Country Music Hall of Fame, we still don't know exactly what TTPD will sound like.

But whether you're reading this to find a drink pairing for your very first listen when you meet us at midnight on April 19 or if you're on your 80th rotation (three days later), there are several reasons this Lavender Lemonade is a great vibe pairing for Taylor Swift's new album. 

Here's why:

• This drink is quintessentially Taylor. For starters, it contains a similar flavor profile in several ways to Swift's apparent favorite cocktail, the French Blonde. 
• It's inspired by the song "august," and appears in the book's "longing" section. I don't know about you, but when I look at the cover art for Tortured Poets, think about the album name, and read the track list, it screams longing. Listening to the reminiscence of young love in the lyrics to "august," I know it's going to have some overlapping emotion to songs on TTPD like "But Daddy I Love Him" in particular.
• That song appears on folklore. If you tried to compare TTPD's cover art to any of her other releases, I argue it's closest to folklore's moody black and white (and to a lesser extent, the sharp contrast of Reputation (and if I had to guess, I think we may get some of that energy on songs like "Guilty as Sin?" and "Fresh Out the Slammer").

• This drink has an obvious nod to "Lavender Haze," the first track of Swift's most recent album (excepting Taylor's version re-releases), giving us a nice through-line to her most recent new music.
• It's summery as hell, making it timely and fresh. (Whereas other Swift-inspired drinks in the book are alluring, but decidedly more appropriate for cardigan and red scarf weather.)
• This is exactly the kind of cocktail that would really impress anyone you're listening along with — I'm picturing at my same friend Kristin's Taylor album release parties she's been known to throw — but it's also appropriate if you're flying solo, scribbling tormented sentence fragments into your journal.

(above - Ashley Gibson)

Gibson's intro to the recipe in the book — talking about "august" — may have unintentionally said it best as to why this drink is perfect for the tortured poet in us all.

"Is there a song that embodies longing more than 'august'?" she asks us. "This song is for anyone who has made someone or something their everything, only to find out that person considered them merely an option. I put on 'august' when I want to reminisce about times when my hope for what could be kept me going. This is also a song of acceptance—when you’re looking back on a romance with fondness mingled with the knowledge that it was never really yours."

Sounds a lot like "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart" and "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys" off TTPD if you ask me.

Okay okay, enough with my explanation. Let's get to the recipe!

Pro tip: Click to open the recipe in a new window so you can read the full notes about how make it come out the best and understand what sort of prep you need. And then be sure to save the recipe (using the little heart in the bottom right) so you can easily come back to it later!

(photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

And remember, this cocktail may polish up real nice and make the whole place shimmer, but it's only for Swifties who are of legal drinking age!

If you've got kids at home who want to celebrate with you, we're confident they'll love the edible flowers embedded in ice. Just pour some extra lemonade over it with a little splash of the butterfly pea tea and a lemon slice on top to let them feel like part of the magic.

Recipe and quote excerpted from SIP ME, BABY, ONE MORE TIME: Cocktails Inspired by Pop Music's Iconic Women by Ashley Gibson. Copyright © 2024. Available from Running Press, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

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Lavender Lemonade Recipe Inspired by Taylor Swift

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Ingredients

Ice:

• Edible Flowers, dried

Cocktail:

• 1 1/2 ounces Gin
• 3 fluid ounces Lemonade
• 1 ounce Butterfly Pea Tea, see note

Syrup:

• 1 cup Water
• 1 cup Granulated Sugar
• 1 1/2 ounces Food-Grade Lavender

Directions

1. Place dried edible flowers into an ice cube tray with water and freeze overnight.
2. Prepare lavender syrup by pouring the sugar and water into a pot and let it come to a boil. Add your flavoring and let the mixture simmer for 10–15 minutes. Then strain it into a jar, let it cool completely, and put it in a sealed container in the fridge for later.
3. Boil water for the tea. Let butterfly pea tea brew for about 1 minute. (Otherwise, the flavor of the tea will be too strong and will overpower the flavor of the cocktail.) Allow to cool.
4. In a cocktail shaker, combine gin, lemonade, and 1/2-ounce of lavender syrup. Shake for 20 seconds.
5. Strain over flower ice into a beer can glass (or your glass of choice).
6. Slowly pour butterfly pea tea on top of the cocktail to add color.

This cocktail recipe from Ashley Gibson's book Sip Me Baby, One More Time is meant to accompany the Taylor Swift song "august," so we recommend listening to it — or the entire folklore album it comes from — while making this drink!

Notes

When brewing butterfly pea tea, only let it brew for about 1 minute. Otherwise, the flavor of the tea will be too strong and will overpower the flavor of the cocktail.

Source: Excerpted from SIP ME, BABY, ONE MORE TIME: Cocktails Inspired by Pop Music's Iconic Women by Ashley Gibson. Copyright © 2024. Available from Running Press, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.