Looking for today's Connections answer for puzzle #437 from August 21, the Connections companion rated this puzzle 34 out of 5 for difficulty, increasing the difficulty level from yesterday's answer

We update our Connections hints and tips daily And if the hints aren't enough, see the four answers below, along with the category title and related words In addition, for those of you reading this in a different time zone, I have included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle 436

There are spoilers for connection 437 Only read this if you want to know the answer to today's connection

Alternatively, see our NYT Connections How to Play Guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help

While today's wordle solution guide recommends the best wordle starting words as a strategy, Connections' solution depends on identifying the categories that are connected from the 16 words The difficulty of each category is represented by a color, with yellow being the easiest grouping and purple the most difficult Hints are helpful as the answer is displayed after four wrong guesses

If you need a hint to help you solve the groupings, here are each theme in order of difficulty:

If you read these hints, you should at least find the answer to today's connection If not, please continue reading for larger hints Also, if you only want the answer, scroll down further

Here's a bigger tip: Mix a stiff drink while perusing some charts before blasting things while layering

So, what's the answer to today's connection in game 437?

Drum roll, please

Today's “hard” puzzle was a nice reset after sloshing through yesterday's supposedly easy puzzle

I got things going by first finding the purple category with fizz, punch, slings, and sours Gin-based cocktails came to mind These four work well with gin, but can be made with other liquors as well

Yellow was next complete with Cake, Coat, Plaster, and Smear Nothing special to say

The air trap got me because I put a balloon, float, basketball, and bubble together and got a strike It was easy to put a tire instead

I live a relatively chart-free life, but the bars, lines, and circles made sense I don't think I had ever consciously looked at a bubble chart or even knew it was called that It's always good to learn something new

Are you reading this late in the day? According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 3 out of 5

Allegedly, today's grid is easier than Monday's puzzle For me

I won't say how much time I spent trying to figure out the blue and purple categories because I don't really know, but I took a break and came back to it

I started the day with green snagging on cranks, reels, turns, and winds

I was already thinking yellow, so blow, draft, gust, and puff fell right after I put in the word green

I couldn't for the life of me see a blue or purple category, so I took some strikes here

Usually I can make some sort of mental connection, but my brain wasn't working today I knew the blue category because after I almost struck out, I had a wild hunch I should have known that the bull, crab, lion, and ram are the symbols of the zodiac

It's a shame, because Purple has some fun Dr Seuss title figures like “The Cat (In the Hat),” “(How the) Grinch (Stall Christmas),” “(Hop on) Pop,” and “(Yertle the) Turtle (and Other Stories)”

It happens