Clairest & Cocktails

If my last post left you wondering if I had totally departed my senses in favor of adoring cat worship, I offer a sobering note --oh, poor word choice-- I offer a different attitude today, inspired by my peer in blogging: Yarn & Cocktails.
On a whim at the grocery store the other day I purchased a nice big bottle of IBC Cream Soda. It was Frank's Cream Soda that I enjoyed as a kid as the foundation for the ice cream sodas our babysitter Jennifer made. As an adult, I wondered if there was a way to mature the drink. So I turned to my experimenting mixologist for advice. Could she suggest a cocktail recipe that included classic cream soda?
Both Abby and hubby offered suggestions, both of which I remembered slightly incorrectly when I was back at the grocery store. (Wish I could remember what it is that you're supposed to take to improve memory: ginseng? omega fatty acids?)
Abby recommended a dark rum or bourbon for my adult beverage. I went for the rum.
Using the "Dark and Stormy" cocktail as her inspiration, which features ginger beer and rum, Abby suggested cream soda with shavings of fresh ginger root.
Somewhere in the aisles of Dominick's (local supermarket) I somehow thought of mint instead of ginger. Right aisle, wrong seasoning. The rum in my basket (more on that later) must have had me thinking mojitos. Did you know mojitos were once drank in Havana to ward off cholera? So now you've got something to back up your claims that drinking is for medicinal purposes.
The drink I created featured muddled mint leaves, a glass of cream soda, a shot of rum and decorative pineapple slice. (On a creative whim, I had picked up the pineapple.) This cocktail tasted a little too tart and medicinal. The vanilla seemed amplified. So taking my inspiration from sangria, I decided to chop up more of the pineapple and toss it in for sweetening. Biting into the little pineapple bits offered enjoyable sweet hints. But while it worked moderately well, in the end I tossed in a half teaspoon of sugar to finish my cocktail. Mad science at the bar. My result was pretty, but I'm not so sure I'd make it again. Better to try Abby's original idea. I do now have a big bottle of rum in the kitchen.
For his part, Abby's hubby suggested mixing bourbon with some basil and then adding the cream soda. "It would be different, for certain," was Abby's conjecture. The idea of basil in a drink is intriguing. It makes me think of something I'd enjoy if I were in Tuscany, wearing a billowy artist's shirt, painter's pants and sandals, watching the sunset. Sort of Cezanne meets Hemingway... in Italy.
Further experiments will be quite easy, should I choose to pursue my initial venture in mixology. I was astounded to discover that in Chicago, you can buy not only wine, and not just beer, but also liquor at the grocery store. From a girl who grew up in blue-law Pennsylvania, this is just astounding recklessness.