You’ll Feel like an Exploding Rocket Drinking the Space-Aged Saturn Cocktail

Sunday Cocktail Corner is a series dedicated to finding just the right libation for the situation.

It was a portentous week for the future of American space exploration, there’s no doubt about that. Days ago, NASA made the dubious announcement that it intended to deploy not one or two but three more missions to the moon in 2026 alone, albeit all uncrewed–exploratory, data-gathering expeditions to further inform the mission to begin building a “permanent moon base” in 2029, something that I steadfastly refuse to accept that NASA genuinely believes will happen. The agency is run, after all, by a man in the form of self-made billionaire Jared Isaacman, who has applauded Donald Trump’s attempt to cut a quarter of NASA’s total budget in the same year that human astronauts returned to the moon for the first time in 54 years. But sure, he’s going to preside over the building of a moon base three years from now, after being appointed by a man who publicly mocks his appearance for having large ears. Seems believable.

In any normal week, “we’re sending three missions to the moon this year” would register as the #1, unquestioned top astronomy headline of the news cycle. But forget all that shit, because a monument to Jeff Bezos’ pride exploded early Friday morning in one of the most gaudily ridiculous fireballs you will ever see! Blue Origin’s thankfully unmanned New Glenn rocket detonated like a miniature atomic bomb, wreaking catastrophic damage on the company’s only launch pad, and scuttling its plans to deliver 48 Amazon-owned internet satellites into orbit on an upcoming mission. The ripple effects of the disastrous outcome could be wide-ranging and severe, threatening the viability of future missions in NASA’s Artemis program as well … you know, because Isaacman the businessman insists that NASA use Blue Origin and SpaceX rockets for said missions, rather than the Space Launch System (SLS) that NASA has spent $24 billion developing to date.

I truly can’t overstate just how impressively this thing blew the fuck up. It has to be witnessed.

Blue Origin, more like Orange Conclusion

whatever

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— josh (oldfriend99) (@oldfriend99.bsky.social) 10:00 PM · May 28, 2026

I mean, wow. In honor of that spectacular conflagration, then, we should obviously whip up a drink: And there’s clearly nothing more appropriate for the scenario than the recently rediscovered but already beloved, space-aged neo-classic, The Saturn.

Ah, the Saturn–known to tiki geeks, but not necessarily to the general populace. This drink hails from the 1960s, and fittingly for our purposes here was actually not named after the planet Saturn itself, but rather the Saturn V rocket that delivered the Apollo missions toward the moon, often without exploding in a titanic fireball. The cocktail disappeared from popular memory for decades, only to be rediscovered by tiki historians and thrust back into the modern tiki lineup, to our benefit. It’s notable for being among a handful of cocktails that you would call part of the small but beloved “gin tiki” cocktail canon, somewhat less famous than the tiki-adjacent Singapore Sling.

The Saturn, like so many other delicious drinks, hangs its hat on the combination of classic tropical flavors: Passion fruit, citrus, subtle spice (from falernum) and the nutty sweetness of orgeat, an almond-based syrup. Perhaps my favorite thing about it is how well the drink works in any mode of preparation: You can make this same thing as an up drink like a traditional daiquiri, shaken over ice, or blended with ice as a frozen drink, as I’ve done above. Served up, it’s tart and punchy. Blended, it’s mellow and easygoing. Its iconic garnish, which I took the time to recreate–please do not expect this of me going forward–recreates the planet Saturn itself by looping a strip of citrus peel as “rings” around a maraschino cherry in the center. Cute, right? Here’s how you make it.

Saturn Recipe

— 1.5 oz dry gin
— .5 oz lemon juice
— .5 oz passion fruit syrup
— .25 oz falernum
— .25 oz orgeat

For an up drink, simply combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice, shake and strain. For a blended drink like the one I made in the photo above, combine the above ingredients with a glass full of crushed ice in a blender and attempt to blend until smooth–your results may vary. A drink mixer or immersion blender can also be helpful in achieving a smoother texture, but it tastes great either way.

You might think from its ingredient list that the drink would be in the neighborhood of a traditional mai tai, given the presence of the orgeat in particular, but it’s a more fruit-forward, angular, zippy cocktail. The base spirit steps back more than the rum in a mai tai, allowing a light interplay of tart citrus, more tropical fruit and supporting sweetness and spice, with just a touch of juniper from the gin. A perfect drink to toast to either our brilliant future as a species in space, or to a very quick and hopefully painless death within the bowels of an exploding rocket. Either way, we’re sure to make history.