American Blues

A short while ago we launched our first-ever summer mule menu. Lemon Blues was a concept I’d dabbled with in my kitchen before, and had recently transferred to the liquid world on a camping trip with family.

Lemon Blues took HB’s world by storm. 

That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it has easily been our most popular mule, to-date. Heck, we’ve even designed a small clothing line around it. Lemon Blues, for us, embodies small-town summer fun. It’s become a piece of what Handlebend hangs it’s hat on. 

Lemon Blues, the cocktail, is delicious. But Lemon Blues, the concept, is so much more. It’s about taking life’s proverbial Lemons, and making something delicious out of them. It’s about unplugging from that which ales you, and escaping for a few moments with a friend. 

The blues. The American Blues. 

I’ve thought a lot about the patriotic spin on our favorite all time mule.

American Blues, to me, is the hard times.  Not in a bad way. It’s not the hard times for hard times’ sake.

It’s the notion that without the hard times, the good times aren’t as good.

American Blues is all of us. We’re all facing hard things every single day and that’s a good thing. If we didn’t have to do hard stuff…if we didn’t need to persevere and push through, not a single one of us would be a human worth-a-hoot.

Out here in small town America, we’re cut from the hard cloth. We’re good at it, and that’s because none of us are alone. It takes a village, I’ve always heard. I’ve got four boys and I always thought that’s what the old adage was referring to. 

It’s true; here in my hometown I can probably rattle off a hundred folks who would drop everything they’re doing to help one of my boys. But the village offers so much more than that. My village is what I lean on.  My people are who help me through my hard times.  If my hard times are what make me tougher, then I guess it goes to show that without my village I just might not be worth-a-hoot, either.

This summer, celebrate the hard times. Gather ‘round with your village, and have a good time.  Understand that, in doing so, you just might be pulling yours through hard times of their own.