87 Solves & 668 Attempts
As teams solve the clues, it should swiftly become apparent that many of the items in the x and y lists are alcoholic. Yet the y list also contains non-alcoholic items such as LIME and ORANGE.
Either by making the required logical leap, or simply by recognising items in the x + y list, teams should realise that the topmost list is of two-ingredient cocktails, and that the x and y lists are of cocktail ingredients.
| x + y | ||
| Boring tool | GIMLET | A tool for boring holes. |
| French royal line cavalryman with spear | BOURBON LANCER | French royal line = Bourbon Cavalryman with spear = lancer |
| Seismic activity | EARTHQUAKE | |
| Could give you tetanus | RUSTY NAIL | |
| Accommodation, now with air option | B&B | As in ‘Airbnb’. |
| Pneumatic drill | JACKHAMMER | |
| Radler to English speakers | SHANDY | |
| Dumbledore's favourite, in the US | LEMON DROP | |
| Spanish dove | PALOMA | ‘Dove’ in Spanish. |
| French concrete | BETON | ‘Concrete’ in French. |
| Moving touch-me-not | MIMOSA | There are two kinds of plants known as the touch-me-not; the one which moves is the mimosa. |
| Tall boulder problem | HIGHBALL | A ‘boulder problem’ is a route in rock climbing. A tall one is known as a highball. |
| Classic night to start a novel with | DARK & STORMY | As in the famous novel opening ‘It was a dark and stormy night’. |
| Swan of Catania | BELLINI | Refers to the composer Vincenzo Bellini. |
| x | The green fairy | ABSINTHE | Historically known as la fée verte or ‘the green fairy’. |
| Spirit of Karlovy Vary’s Becher family | BECHEROVKA | Wiki: Becherovka open_in_new |
| Oath and this comprise Aller | BEER | Wiki: Aller, Somerset open_in_new |
| Chocolate sandwich biscuit | BOURBON | Wiki: Bourbon biscuit open_in_new |
| The Boy Is Mine singer, with Monica | BRANDY | Wiki: The Boy Is Mine open_in_new |
| Oasis supernova | CHAMPAGNE | As in the Oasis song ‘Champagne Supernova’. |
| Japanese silver | GIN | ‘Silver’ in Japanese. |
| Belonging to Jasper Newton | JACK DANIEL’S | Jasper Newton is better known as Jack Daniel; something belonging to him is thus Jack Daniel’s |
| Slovene path cut through woods, in Italy | PROSECCO | Wiki: Prosecco open_in_new |
| This sort of customer is dubious or odd | RUM | As in the phrase ‘a rum customer’. |
| Egg wrapped in sausage | SCOTCH | Wiki: Scotch Egg open_in_new |
| After three, floor | TEQUILA | As in ‘One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor’. |
| Slavic little water | VODKA | Wiki: Vodka open_in_new |
| Fourth-last NATO letter | WHISKEY | From the NATO phonetic alphabet. |
| y | ||
| A little bitter, if you’re Italian | AMARETTO | Wiki: Amaretto open_in_new |
| Monks that look similar to Cumberbatch? | BENEDICTINE | Refers to Benedict Cumberbatch and Benedictine monks; in cryptic crossword tradition, the question mark indicates a pun. |
| 1928 Hitchcock film with Balfour | CHAMPAGNE | |
| Jean Monnet’s hometown | COGNAC | |
| The drink that satisfies | DRAMBUIE | Wiki: Drambuie open_in_new |
| Five known for lashings of this | GINGER BEER | Rightly or wrongly, Enid Blyton’s Famous Five are associated with ‘lashings of ginger beer’ (see Wiki: Five Go Mad in Dorset open_in_new). |
| Sakamoto Maaya debut studio album | GRAPEFRUIT | |
| 2016 Beyonce album | LEMONADE | |
| Calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide | LIME | |
| Dutch William was of this | ORANGE | Wiki: William III of England open_in_new |
| Things bruise like this | PEACH | As in the common phrase ‘bruises like a peach’. |
| Washing, baking or caustic | SODA | Washing soda; baking soda; caustic soda. |
| Quinine-containing beverage | TONIC | |
| Threefold dry, French | TRIPLE SEC | Threefold = triple ‘Dry’ in French = sec |
As the x and y lists are ordered alphabetically, it’s clear that we should follow the given order of the x + y list. So we arrange the x and y ingredients accordingly and index into them using the numbers provided.
| Cocktail, x + y | Ingredient, x | Extracted letter | Ingredient, y | Extracted letter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GIMLET | GIN | G | LIME | E |
| BOURBON LANCER | BOURBON | R | CHAMPAGNE | M |
| EARTHQUAKE | ABSINTHE | A | COGNAC | N |
| RUSTY NAIL | SCOTCH | H | DRAMBUIE | U |
| B&B | BRANDY | N | BENEDICTINE | T |
| JACKHAMMER | JACK DANIEL'S | E | AMARETTO | R |
| SHANDY | BEER | B | LEMONADE | L |
| LEMON DROP | VODKA | A | TRIPLE SEC | S |
| PALOMA | TEQUILA | T | GRAPEFRUIT | P |
| BETON | BECHEROVKA | O | TONIC WATER | W |
| MIMOSA | CHAMPAGNE | E | ORANGE | R |
| HIGHBALL | WHISKEY | S | SODA | O |
| DARK & STORMY | RUM | U | GINGER BEER | R |
| BELLINI | PROSECCO | C | PEACH | E |
Reading the letters off in order of cocktail (GIMLET yields GE, BOURBON LANCER yields RM, etc) gives the cluephrase GERMAN HUNTER BLAST POWER SOURCE.
A German hunter is a JÄGER; a blast is a BOMB. A JÄGERBOMB is a cocktail that conveniently has two ingredients: Jägermeister and the energy drink (i.e. power source) RED BULL, which is the answer to this puzzle.
Author’s notes
It turns out that the pool of easily-clued two-ingredient cocktails that share no ingredients is smaller than one might imagine. Some compromises were made, resulting in the unfortunate potential for ambiguity. I tried to mitigate this by using cocktails where the correct ingredient is clearly implied, such as JACKHAMMER, which must surely go with JACK DANIEL’S instead of WHISKEY.
I originally intended lists x and y to comprise alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktail components respectively, but again, the small potential pool meant that I had to include alcohol-only two-ingredient cocktails -- though I tried to ensure that the more significant or stronger alcoholic component was always in list x.