Dallas Drinks: The Harris

Dallas Drinks is a co-creation with Dallas Decoder, honoring the characters of the TNT drama Dallas, which continues the Ewing family saga. See all of the Dallas Drinks here.

In their history, the Ewings have had no shortage of formidable adversaries: Cliff Barnes and his father Digger instantly come to mind, as well as Katherine Wentworth and Jeremy Wendell. Of course, this is Dallas, so these foes often have tangled, intimate histories with the Ewings: Cliff is Pamela Ewing's brother, Digger was once attached to Ellie Ewing, Katherine is Cliff and Pam's half sister, etc.

Harris Ryland was introduced on TNT's new Dallas last season and has comfortably slipped into this mold: attempting to con Sue Ellen into laundering money for him, joining forces with Cliff Barnes to take down Ewing Energies, scheming against his daughter's efforts to reconnect with her mother Ann Ewing, whom Harris was once married to.

The Harris cocktail is appropriately potent: it's almost all alcohol, but despite this, it's a rather smooth and delicious drink. The trick is in the ice: using crushed helps quickly chill and dilute the drink until it is just right. I like all the Dallas Drinks, but this just might be my favorite.

Grapefruit, which appeared as shrub in The Judith and soda in The Emma completes the Ryland drink trio as bitters in The Harris (he is a rather bitter man after all). The three also share London dry gin, and Harris and Emma both contain Galliano, nodding to their special father-daughter bond. The walnut liqueur represents Harris' particular brand of enmity for the Ewings, recalling the scene in the episode "Let Me In"where Harris munches on nuts while describing for Governor Sam McConaughey--another Ewing foe--how his plot to take down the Ewings is like a komodo dragon patiently waiting for just the right moment to strike its victim.