Consider the drive-through daiquiri: cheap, boozy and ambiguously fruity, these oversized alcoholic slurpees are seldom considered “artful.” At Alky Therapy Daiquiris in Shreveport, owner Katina Gosey is hard at work rewriting expectations of what a drive-through daiquiri can be. Alky Therapy drinks are colorful sculptures topped with skewers of fresh fruit, chocolate-covered strawberries, Kool-Aid-soaked pickles and outrageous candy towers. The drinks require so much time to assemble that Gosey asks customers to place orders in advance by phone.
Unlike the vast majority of daiquiri shops, Alky Therapy only offers one drink size — an 18 ounce Mason jar, which is served inside of a sealed, 32-ounce styrofoam cup in order to comply with liquor laws while leaving room for the crown of toppings that adorn each drink. Affixed to each frosty Mason jar is a prescription-style label that reads: “This product has an intoxicating effect. Drink as often as needed.” Extra shots are served in plastic ampules that Gosey orders from a medical supply company. In a major departure from drive-through daiquiri tradition, Alky Therapy doesn’t offer buy-one-get-one-free drinks.
“Everyone else in the city has buy-one-get-one-free deals, and I just didn’t want to compete with that,” Gosey says. “I wanted our drinks to be unique because everything that I do is unique.”
Each month, Gosey dreams up a limited edition “daiquiri of the month” that will be offered alongside her daily menu of drinks with names like Picadilly, Marley, Papa Smurf and Candy Crush. The limited edition daiquiris have become a phenomenon on social media platforms like Instagram, where Alky Therapy has amassed more than 6,000 followers in one year of business.
In May, following the death of Prince, Gosey paid tribute to the legendary musician by crafting a purple totem pole of a frozen daiquiri topped with a grape-flavored gummy guitar and rimmed with edible glitter sugar. Other daiquiri of the month creations have paid tribute to Pokémon Go, Cookie Monster, Little Debbie snack cakes and the Disney-Pixar animated film “Finding Dory.”
“I don’t know where I get the inspiration for these drinks,” Gosey says. “Some things don’t work, but I’d say that 85 or 90 percent of the ideas that I come up with wind up on the menu.”
When she’s not concocting outrageous daiquiri flavors, Gosey is beginning to toy with the idea of opening Alky Therapy locations throughout Louisiana. A big dreamer with a master’s degree in business, she sees her Shreveport location as a successful experiment that is ready to be replicated.
Alky Therapy Daiquiris
4312 Greenwood Rd.
Shreveport
318-716-1322
alkytherapy.com
