Is it Monday again so soon? With the upheaval and changes going on with this Monkey’s household and work schedules, I just barely squeaked out an entry for this Month’s MxMo. My workstation may still be unconnected and in a box, but the Liquor has been unpacked. Priorities, people.
Kaiser Penguin hosts this month and the topic is fantastic: Limit one per customer. The theme implies a drink so full of booze it warrants the management to limit the purchase. There is another aspect, however. Making a strong drink is easy. Making a balanced and tasty strong drink is more difficult. However, creating a concoction so delicious as to drive a drinker to order successive rounds (and being denied on the face of the menu)? Pure genius.
And for this month’s genius, I turn again to Jeff ‘Beachbum’ Berry. I’m a lover of the short hoist: a 4oz or less cocktail to be taken as a pick-me-up or before-meal refresher or in-between-meal constitutional. I’ve long been in love with the Von Tiki, The bum’s own original creation at the end of the Grog Log. I also continually sub- and consciously refer to it as the “Baron von Tiki.” I’m sure it’s because of the German honey liqueur Bärenjäger ((A linguistic aside: Bear comes from the Germanic Beor or Beorn. This translates to Bee-Wolf, a kenning that in Old English translates as Beowulf. The kenning here relates to the bear’s love of honey. He is a bee wolf. A lovely self referential name for a honey liquor: the Bee-Wolf-Hunter)) . Austria helps out this aristocratic drink with Stroh 80, a 160-proof rum. This is widely used in Austrian and German baking. I like it daintily sipped with a Coke Chaser ((Cane Sugar only, not High-Fructose Corn Syrup, please)). The Barbados rum is there because at the heart, this is a modified Daiquiri. Rum, Gum, and Lime strikes again.
I change the recipe a bit for my own taste: I triple the Stroh and add Fee Brothers Lemon Bitters to balance. I’ve tried replacing the Lime for lemon, but it ends up tasting more like a cough-drop. Lime is perfect for the base, with a lemon hint to match the honey.
With great respect to the Bum, I present:
(baron) Von Tiki – limit one per customer, please
1 oz Bärenjäger
½ oz Stroh 80 160-proof Austrian Rum
1 oz Barbados Rum (I use Cockspur)
¾ oz fresh lime juice
3 dashes Fee Brothers lemon bittersShake with crushed ice and strain into 4-oz cocktail glass.
Thanks to Blair Reynolds for the use of Reynoles galley whilst I put my new house in order.
I thought that bar looked familiar! 🙂
It looks delicious, Cute. I hadn’t thought of using Stroh in a mixed drink (it’s caramelly goodness is so wonderful alone) – how narrow minded of me! Thanks!
Keith over at moving at the speed of life uses stroh as well in his holy Hand Grenade of Antioch recipe.
i’ve looked upon horror with that drink in the Grog Log, but know that someday my curiosity will get the better of me…. jeez, Stroh’s is just pure evil… the stuff will kill you… great post!
I also raise an eyebrow whenever I hit that recipe while thumbing through the Grog Log. But now that I’ve seen a first-hand account of its wonders, I’ll be investing in some Stroh. And lemon bitters. *scribbles a shopping list*
The secret really is the sugar content of the Bärenjäger ( a full oz!) that cuts the fire and institutional flavor in the Stroh. When I say ‘sip’ in the above, in reality I pour about 1/4 oz and ‘sip’ by bringing the liquid to my closed lips and letting a smidgen of a dram in. The warmth of the mouth almost immediately vaporizes most of it. I follow this with a Coca-Cola chaser: The clove and the spice of the coca-cola are heavily pronounced, and the sugar content cuts like the Bärenjäger. You’re left with the trademark butterscotch finish of the Stroh without any of the more volatile flavours you’ve come to expect from Stroh.
It is after all, a cooking rum namely – so silk purse, sow’s ear and all that. Doesn’t mean it’s completely useless, though.