1989 Taylor's Version Listening Party
One of my favorite artists of all time is Taylor Swift. As swifties, we’ve been so lucky with having so much new music in the last few years. If you don’t follow Taylor Swift closely, you may not have heard that she is re-recording her discography after the sale of most of her catalog to a private equity firm without her consent. The re-recordings of those albums released as ‘Taylor’s Version’ allow her to own her own music, and as fans we choose to listen to those versions instead of the original ones.
Last Friday, October 27, Taylor Swift re-released her 1989 album nine years to the day from her original release in 2014. With every re-release she includes a few songs she wrote at the time that did not make it on the original album, which she calls ‘vault songs.’
I have a group of friends that are also swifties, so with this new release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version), we thought it was a good excuse to get together for a 1989 themed party. We listened to the album together and I made a 1989 themed menu with food and drinks related to the song titles and lyrics of 1989.
I’ve always been a fan of theme parties, so this was a fun excuse to have one! Take a look at the 1989 Taylor’s Version menu we enjoyed while listening to the new album!
The Menu
How to Get the Grill Cheese Sandwich
This was for a song on 1989 called ‘How to Get the Girl’ - I grabbed some fresh whole grain bread from the grocery store to make the grilled cheese. The key is to make sure the bread gets toasty and crispy at the same time the cheese melts. A trick I use to make sure this happens is to put a lid on the pan to keep the heat in to make sure the cheese melts.
Red Lip Classic Tomato Soup
This is a famous lyric from the song ‘Style’ on 1989 - I used a carton of pre-made tomato soup and heated it in my crockpot for a quick way to pull this menu together on a weeknight.
Out of the Woods Charcutree Board
This menu item is for a song called ‘Out of the Woods’ on 1989, and I made a pun with charcu-tree (you know, since there’s trees in the woods). There’s nothing like a nice charcuterie board to snack on, pick all your favorite fruits, veggies, dips, olives, nuts, cheeses, meats, and crackers and arrange on a board or platter.
Blank Space Cake
This one is for the song ‘Blank Space’ and this cake was from the Blank Space music video. I used a heart shape cake pan and funfetti cake mix and vanilla icing to re-create this cake.
Bad Blood Orange Mocktail
You guessed it, this one is for the song ‘Bad Blood’ on 1989. It’s a little early to find blood oranges here in Michigan in October, but this was so delicious, and got rave reviews from the group. The recipe is posted! I’m looking forward to making these again.
Aquamarine Mocktail
This one a little bit of a stretch, but Taylor Swift posted some lyrics to one of the vault songs we hadn’t heard yet a few days before the album was released, and one of them was ‘aquamarine’. At the time we had no idea if this was going to be a new song, or a lyric from a song, but I had leftover blue curacao so I figured this could be another fun drink option! Turns out it was a lyric from a new vault song. This was essentially a mocktail version of a blue hawaiian - pineapple juice, blue curacao, lemon lime sparkling water, and coconut water or coconut cream.
I hope you enjoyed and got some inspiration to host your own 1989 listening party or theme party! Comment with any other ideas you have for 1989 themed food and drink ideas.
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