SHOTS TIME!

SHOTS, SHOTS EVERYWHERE

Good evening ladies and gents! It's time to have some fun with shots! I've had a day off due to Ascension Thursday so instead of making grand cocktails (fine, I barely had any mixers at home) I pursued the art of shots!

I created five different and instead of making one blog for each separately I thought it would be the wisest just to compile them all under one sheet. Most of them were created purely out of visual outlooks, meaning they look better than they taste. But of those individual shots later on. Here we go!

ÄSSÄMIX

This shot is really something you can barely make outside Finland. The reason being one ingredient only (do correct me on this one?) available where I live now. Ässämix, named after the candy Fazer (a Finnish company) makes. As if "you're eating that dark and fruity candy at the same time". I agree. This shot was actually quite enjoyable! Sure, you can't really layer these ingredients but damn, tasty!

• 2 cl Salmiakkilikööri (explore the Finnish folklore *tshish*)
• 2 cl Passoã liqueur

In a shot glass, combine both ingredients and SHOOT!

SAMBUCA CON LA MOSCA

Simply put, Sambuca con la Mosca ("Sambuca with the fly") is Sambuca with three coffee beans and lit on fire. but more complicated put, it represents health, happiness and prosperity or the Holy Trinity. Either way,

• 4 cl Sambuca
• 3 coffee beans
• fire

Pour the sambuca in a shot glass, drop the coffee beans on it and light the thing on fire. Let it burn for a while, extinguish the fire and shoot! Taste-wise, as expected, very aniseed-like but the aftertaste is smooth and sweet. A great after dinner shot!

BANANA BOMBER

One layer drink I tried was the Banana Bomber. Given, there are multiple different recipes how one makes this but one thing is certain and that is the use of banana liqueur. The other half could be anything from tequila to vodka, whiskey, cointreau, you name it! This recipe included:

• 2 cl banana liqueur (not that green pisang stuff)
• 2 cl brandy

Merely a 2/5, this shooter wasn't really a good one. Like the saying garbage in, garbage out, I used a Spanish brandy and De Kuyper's banana liqueur. The liqueur had a strong essence taste to it and the brandy being young tasted coarse. Combined they didn't make a good combo. A hint of banana was in the background but in its essence, not a particularly great shot. Visually okay.

V8

Another curious one, the V8. I had to cut corners here and use a more potent ingredient that was actually called for since I didn't have the "softer" version at all :D

• 2 cl white peppermint schnapps (clear)
• 2 cl Stroh (54)

Layer the shot, the peppermint liqueur goes in first. As said, I only had a bottle of 80% (160 proof) Stroh in hand so I used that one. Well it layered just nicely (as almost pure alcohol does :D) but taste-wise. Ugh. A cruel shot. Like meth, not even once.

KÄNNIANKKA

(DRUNK DUCK)

Finally, the Känniankka (translated "Drunk Duck"). I have no history of who or where this was invented but some of my customers have asked for this. Basically it goes down to:

• 2 cl peppermint schnapps
• 2 cl jägermeister

Both ingredients should be properly frozen, as well as the glass. Layer the shot so the peppermint schnapps goes in first.

I made an exception to the rule and didn't shoot this as I did with the rest. No, I enjoyed this after eating pizza and while watching a Netflix series. Actually, around the time the Jäger's done and the pepper kicks into action, the combo works surprisingly well. A nice mix of herbal-pepperminty-sweetness I say. Hence, a solid 4/5 I give this shooter.

Tomorrow I'll be heading back to work. A few days more and then I'm off to to my well-deserved summer holiday! Yay!

SHOOT AWAY!

The Glenhattan

THE GLENHATTAN

Good day again, cocktail lovers! Today's cocktail is a bit of a "mix-and-match" if you will. Well, in all honesty it's just an awesome variant of the all known Manhattan (editor's note: Oh gosh that picture of the Manhattan I made a long time ago looks horrible by normal standards!). Introducing the Glenhattan.

But let's go back a little bit. The "story" of this cocktail stems from roughly one year back. I was having a discussion regarding Manhattans in general and one was intrigued to make one using Laphroaig. To those who do not know, Laphroaig is a heavily smoked/peaty whiskey; the mother of all Islay whiskies.

The result was, well, according to him, as expected. I haven't tried one myself and aren't really inclined to test it in the near future either. Nonetheless, one night after heading back from work I was fiddling with this idea; "What else could I use instead of bourbon to make a Manhattan?" Then it struck me.

Some time ago I received a bottle of Glenfiddich 15yo as a present from my mother-in-law. I definitely had to try that. I was surprised how well the Solera vatted scotch worked in this one:

• 5 cl Glenfiddich 15yo
• 2.5 cl sweet vermouth (rosso)
• 1-2 dashes angostura bitters
• 3 maraschino cherries (for garnish)

In a cocktail glass, add your ingredients (except for the garnish duh), add ice, stir until properly cold/diluted and strain into a cocktail glass. Use a cocktail-pick with three maraschino cherries in it and drop it in the glass. Serve and enjoy.

MARASCHINO CHERRIES
In a sterilized jar, put your desired amount of cherries (I used dried ones...at least they were significantly smaller than cherries bought from a farmer's market) and top the jar with maraschino liqueur. Lasts indefinitely (read: until eaten)

First comments; smooth. Clear notes of honey and a silky texture. It's powerful but not as coarse as the whiskey is clearly more aged/matured. I give this cocktail my approval!

The Great Cola Tasting

The Great Cola Tasting

"One cola to bring them all and in the taste buds bind them."

Another episode of my super-awesome blind tasting! You all might remember the previous tastings (cognac, vodka and herbal liqueur). This time I took it to a completely different level. I present you The Great Cola Tasting! 

We've all heard stories how we can tell the difference between coca-cola and pepsi and "how they taste so different". Well I wanted to make a very half-scientific test to see how well my friends could tell these products apart.

SCIENCE

To ensure maximum fairness/objectiveness, I had to make sure (at least) three obvious things:

• All products were in cans of the same size (standard size)
• Different manufacturers or different products from one manufacturer were used
• NO peeking from others' papers!

So my list included the following (in alphabetical order):

1. Coca-cola
2. Coca-cola light
3. Coca-cola zero
4. Freeway cola (lidl brand)
5. Freeway cola light
6. Pepsi
7. Pepsi max
8. Pepsi next
9. Pirkkacola (a Finnish brand)
10. Rio cola (a Finnish brand)

A serving of ~4cl (~1.5 fl oz) was used. Half of the colas were sugar-free: #2, #3, #5, #7 and #8, respectively. 

FUN

Of course we have to keep in mind that this test surely doesn't prove anything much. But maybe, just maybe something interesting will be discovered from this tasting. Nonetheless, it was an event with friends and a fun tasting to make and that's the bottom line. My main interest with the products lied in finding out whether my test subjects friends could at least tell regular coca-cola and pepsi apart. But in the end another exciting thing was pointed out, which I will explain later, too.

SCORING/AFTERMATH

Scoring was pretty straightforward but with a twist!

• Correct answer = 1 point
• Wrong answer  = 0 point
• TWIST! If a person ticked the "knowledge" box next to the answer line meaning that person really knows what the content is, that person is awarded two points for a correct answer but should that answer be wrong, s/he loses one point!

So knowledge pays off big time! The maximum score thus being 20 points. In addition, as a "bonus" question in the very end should there be a tie I asked the following question:

Q: "In what year was coca-cola first launched?"

A: 1886

Here are the final results:

A heart symbol represents one's "favorite" and a cross equals "a bad flavor"; was a non-mandatory task and purely for entertaining purposes should one product get multiple hearts/crosses.

OUR WINNER WAS MIKKO, who beat Heidi with a closer bonus question answer! Congratulations!

Just to clarify the color meanings, green means correct answer, red means wrong answer, grey means "knowledge" answer but wrong, blue means "knowledge" answer and right.

So let's study this chart a little bit:

• People were in good knowledge when it came to Pepsi or Pepsi Max and 6/8 knew Rio cola from the others (it does taste more citric and makes a clear exception)
• Pirkka cola was clearly identified as a "cheap brand", 6/8 thought of it as other than a product from the coca-cola/pepsi family 
• This was really a hard tasting as the winner "only" got 4 points (!)
• Only one was brave enough to tick the "knowledge" box.

Some said afterwards that it is much easier to tell a (distinct) difference between say, two colas when you drink them in rapid succession. But when you have a generous measure of ten different colas it became clearly more difficult a task to do.

PICTURE GALLERY

THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL

Of course this tasting wouldn't be as much fun had there not been great prizes to win! The winner received a bottle of Fentimans Curiosity Cola uuuuuuhh!!! Moreover, excluding the winner one lucky loser picked by the winner received a can of raspberry flavored Hello Kitty Star Drink woooooo!!!

And a cool medal made by my wife was awarded to the best three contestants!

Summa summarum, just like with the other tastings I've made before, well at least I had a good time! :) Perhaps we learned a valuable lesson after this...or perhaps we didn't. Who cares, a lot of cola was drunk!

Bee's Knees

BEE'S KNEES

Bee's Knees taken outside in the garden

Bee's Knees taken inside at the "usual spot"

A pleasant Friday to each and everyone! For some time now I wanted to make some sugar syrups and namely honey syrup. I've had a few ideas (recipes) where to incorporate this and this morning I managed to make a small batch of both simple and honey syrup as follows:

From left to right: Vanilla sugar syrup (made on the 4th of Feb., yea still tasted good), honey syrup and simple syrup

As said, sugar syrup (or simple syrup) is easily made: Just add boiling water to sugar/honey in a 1:1 ratio. For a rich syrup, use a double amount of sugar for each part of water. Lasts at least for one week. I mean, it's only sugar and water, keep it refrigerated and it'll easily last for a month (as proven, the vanilla version is over three months old and still tasted like on the day I made it.

Inspired by this, I looked up a cocktail that uses honey syrup. One that intrigued me much was the Bee's Knees. I had the ingredients and said, why the heck not? So I introduce you to the Bee's Knees:

• 6 cl gin
• 2 cl honey syrup
• 1.5 cl lemon juice (I used lime juice)

Add the ingredients in a shaker, add ice, shake and strain. No garnish needed.

First things first. Amazingly this cocktail smells like one of those honey flavored candies I remembered from my youth-hood. In addition, despite the fact this drink is very cold, it had a warm feel to it. The taste is wonderful and refreshing! Not overly sweet, has a bite and a smooth taste of gin.

I think I'll make a few for my friends this Sunday and see what they think of it. I bet they'll love it.