Apple Brandy ‘Booktail’ for ‘Colored Television’

In Danzy Senna’s hilarious novel Colored Television, Jane is finally ready to publish her second book, a sprawling behemoth that her husband, Lenny, dubs “the mulatto War and Peace.” Everything hinges on the book’s success: living in Los Angeles, Jane and Lenny can’t afford to provide a stable home for their children and pursue their art.

When things don’t go as planned with her book, Jane latches on to an opportunity to write for television. Lenny’s conviction that such work constitutes “selling out” prompts Jane to craft different versions of her life: “But lies are a funny thing. They don’t stay where they’re supposed to stay. They morph and mutate and spread like smallpox. A lie well told, often enough told, began to eat one’s memory.” 

Colored Television proves to be a delightfully witty look at the intersection of contemporary colorism, race, mainstream publishing, and the entertainment industry.

The following “booktail” recipe is inspired by the novel’s mood and themes. It’s made with apple brandy, for the scent of fermented apple juice that permeates Jane’s mom-mobile and for the cheese and apple slices that Jane and Lenny’s kids snack on just after a fateful handoff of Jane’s new manuscript. Brandy is also made from grapes, much like all the very expensive wine Jane and Lenny enjoy while house-sitting at their friend’s Los Angeles palace. The fruit in the brandy is complemented by the floral jasmine green tea syrup. The tea adds a bitter note, for the taste of envy: Jane covets the life of an entertainment executive who lives near the ocean, surrounded by jasmine flowers. She imagines that men like him drink green tea as medicine. Lemon sharpens the apple and jasmine, evoking the old adage about life and lemons. The drink is served over ice, a reminder of whiskey on the rocks—Lenny’s drink on the night he and Jane first meet.

Join us on September 19 at 5 p.m. Pacific time, when Danzy Senna will sit down with CBC host John Freeman and special guest Porochista Khakpour to discuss Colored Television. Register for the Zoom conversation here.