Blue Lagoon

Vodka, blue curaçao, and lemonade — the 1970s disco-era drink, the blue curaçao referencing the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao, the 1980 film adding momentum.

The Blue Lagoon cocktail was created by Andy MacElhone, son of Harry MacElhone, at Harry's New York Bar in Paris, generally dated to around 1960 (some accounts place it in the late 1960s to early 1970s). Andy conceived it as a nod to his father's White Lady — swapping gin for vodka and triple sec for blue curaçao. Harry's New York Bar, which Harry MacElhone bought in 1923 at 5 Rue Daunou, had already produced the Bloody Mary, the Sidecar, and the White Lady, giving it an outsized role in cocktail history for its size. Blue curaçao — an orange-flavored liqueur made from the dried peel of the laraha citrus fruit grown on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao, artificially colored a vivid blue — gave the drink its striking, futuristic-for-the-time appearance, which fit perfectly with 1960s and 1970s pop and graphic design fashions. The drink predates the unrelated 1980 film of the same name by roughly two decades and became one of the defining bright-colored cocktails of the disco era, alongside the Tequila Sunrise and Grasshopper.