Rouva Runeberg

ROUVA RUNEBERG

(MRS. RUNEBERG)

Happy national Runeberg's day to you all! In order to celebrate his legacy, I re-created a cocktail Niko Autti from the A21 Cocktail Lounge invented. I don't know when though, probably two years ago. The recipe I have was from a food magazine I cut and today (okay I made this yesterday) I could really try it out:

• 2 table spoons of raspberry jam or 12 raspberries
• 3 cl raspberry vodka
• 1 cl almond liqueur (amaretto)
• 1 cl vanilla syrup

For the sugar rim:

• sugar
• a lemon wedge

First things first, I didn't have raspberry vodka, so I combined some raspberry liqueur with plain vodka. It's not the same but it'll do for now. Also, not having real raspberries (during February it's really hard to come by in Finland) I used the jam. The vanilla syrup I made myself.

First do the sugar rim by coating the side of the glass with the lemon, tapping it on sugar and letting it chill in the fridge. Put the ingredients in a cocktail shaker, add ice and stir vigorously. Strain into your glass.

Visually good-looking, this cocktail is overly sweet! Fair enough, I used the raspberry liqueur-vodka mix instead of "pure" raspberry vodka, but the amount of jam with the vanilla syrup made this drink way to sugary. I can't agree that two table spoons of jam equals 12 raspberries and instead, would cut the jam amount to half to the least. Also I would've used a smaller cocktail glass. But that was my problem, not the drink's. Also, the amaretto flavors were barely noticeable. Nonetheless, it was a fun little experiment to do on a specific day in a year.

Also note the Runeberg's torte next to the drink, a pastry made just for this day (I didn't have the sugar coating since I didn't have powdered sugar at home).