Ninja Turtle Shot

Midori, coconut rum, and pineapple — Midori (Suntory, Studio 54, 1978; midori = green in Japanese) creating the vivid TMNT green (Eastman and Laird, 1984).

The Ninja Turtle shot pays homage to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, which was created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird in 1984 as an independent black-and-white comic book and evolved by the late 1980s into one of the most successful multimedia properties in American popular culture. The animated television series launched in 1987, the live-action film franchise began in 1990, and the four pizza-loving turtles — Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael — named after Renaissance artists and associated with the colors blue, purple, orange, and red respectively, became defining figures of late 1980s and early 1990s childhood. The shot recreates the franchise's most recognizable visual attribute: the vivid green of the turtles' bodies. Midori melon liqueur, introduced to the American market with considerable fanfare at a 1978 Studio 54 launch party by the Japanese Suntory company, produces the drink's characteristic neon green color. The name Midori means green in Japanese. Combined with coconut rum and pineapple juice, the Midori creates a sweet, tropical shot that is more obviously a party drink than a cocktail — bright, immediate, easy to consume, and entirely appropriate for the 1980s and 1990s nostalgia events at which it is most reliably ordered. Some versions add a splash of blue curaçao, which shifts the green slightly toward teal and deepens the visual effect without significantly altering the flavor.