What Exactly Is In Olive Garden's Blue Amalfi Cocktail?
While most people venture over to Olive Garden for its pasta and unlimited breadsticks, you might want to stick around for the cocktails. With refreshing and colorful options such as sparkling peach Bellinis and premium Italian margaritas, Olive Garden is an unexpectedly good choice when you want to grab a few drinks. Not only is there a nice variety, but the prices aren't so bad either – most drinks cost less than $10.
While some of these drink options are pretty straightforward, others are more out of the box. Take the chain's specialty cocktail, Blue Amalfi, for example. With its vibrant blue hues, it certainly is a pretty homage to the sea that borders the Italian coastal town. But what's actually in it is the most important thing to note, so let's dig into its ingredients.
The Blue Amalfi cocktail packs a citrusy punch thanks to its main component of lemonade. Blue Curaçao gives this drink its bold blue hues, and the drink is topped off with a healthy pour of New Amsterdam vodka. Finally, a lemon wedge acts as the final finishing touch. So overall the cocktail is pretty simple, but let's dig a little deeper into its origins.
The original drink behind the Blue Amalfi cocktail
While the Blue Amalfi drink is unique to Olive Garden, this cocktail most likely takes inspiration from another with a very similar makeup. We're talking about the Blue Lagoon. These cocktails have an obvious connection due to their similar names, but they also contain the same exact ingredients.
While there are many clues to the true origin of the Blue Lagoon, many believe that it was created by Andy MacElhone who was a bartender at the famous Harry's New York Bar in Paris. (This happens to be the bar that can take credit for the invention of a couple of your favorite cocktails.) The Blue Lagoon offers refreshing flavors thanks to its complimentary ingredients like the citrus notes present in both Blue Curaçao and lemonade, and chains like Olive Garden have taken note to create similar (if not identical) beverages of their own.
Now if you want yet another name to call the Blue Amalfi cocktail by, others might know it better still by its other label, Electric Lemonade (this variation includes the addition of lemon-lime soda). Clearly, due to the many names and iterations of this cocktail, the many takes on a Blue Amalfi are a fan favorite. But if you're seeking some other options for your next trip to Olive Garden, let's break down a few more of the chain's most beloved cocktails.
Other cocktails to try at Olive Garden
After you've tried the Blue Amalfi, there are quite a few other options to try from the Olive Garden drink menu. For starters, let's talk about the chain's popular Italian margarita. Recipes for this classic cocktail vary widely but Olive Garden chooses to make theirs with the addition of Italian-inspired flavors — namely, amaretto. This colorful pick includes the standard triple sec and Jose Cuervo Especial Silver Tequila, as well as an orange and classic lime for garnish.
If you're in the mood for a summery drink, the chain also has a spiked strawberry lemonade. This beverage is packed with flavor thanks to the use of strawberry-passion fruit lemonade. The drink comes spiked with New Amsterdam vodka and is also topped with fresh mint and strawberries.
Still, out of all these picks, we'd argue that the Blue Amalfi remains the most unique of all (and definitely the most colorful). But if you still want to know more about Olive Garden's other cocktail offerings, you can check out our review of every Olive Garden cocktail.