Thanks Helix for sponsoring! Go to helixsleep.com/howtodrink to get up to $200 off your mattress, plus two free pillows. Twitch: bit.ly/2VsOi3d H2D2: bit.ly/YTH2D2 twitter: bit.ly/H2DTwit instagram: bit.ly/H2dIG Blog: bit.ly/H2DBlog Patreon: bit.ly/H2DPatreon Gear: amzn.to/2LeQCbW Trying to make drinks from 3 Awful bottles: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RtTysUdghmg.html 5 Nightmare Drinks ordered by actual humans: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YX-Vhm_7r5U.html Cursed Cocktails of Critical Role: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AH4yyDk6lkQ.html
What about a video going over your methodology in making a brand new drink? It's nice to know how to make a traditional cocktail but be kind of nicer to know how to come up with my own...
Music Theory teacher here! I believe the technical term you were looking for is a half cadence, which is when music ends the phrase on the fifth scale degree, and is often described as sounding like asking a question. Often the following phrase goes back to the first scale degree and sounds like the answer to that question. But there are times when the composer doesn't "answer the question" so to speak and goes to the 6th scale degree, which has that effect you described of feeling like you are left hanging. This is called a deceptive cadence. Love seeing musical concepts like this used as a metaphor, and reinforces a strong belief of mine that most of music theory is just putting a label on concepts you already know just from listening to music!
My dad has a drink made with Southern Comfort that he calls an Old Fashioned. I'm really not sure how he ever decided that's what it is, because his drink is Southern Comfort, sour mix, and Fresca
At first I was thinking of an Old Fashioned (bitters, sugar, and citrus) with Southern Comfort, which wouldn’t have been the worst thing I guess. But then it got so much worse lol but hey, if he likes it then that’s all that matters! Maybe buy him a good bottle of whiskey for Father’s Day. Show him things can be better haha
@@ThisIsKindaFunny lol, luckily my own interest in bourbon has started to convert him. The Southern Comfort isn't gone, but it's been joined by some Bulleit
Sounds kind of like a Wisconsin Old Fashioned: Liquor (usually brandy but alot of people do Southern Comfort) lots of bitters, topped with either grapefruit (sour) soda or 7up
The fact that you say the mead tastes like brine fascinates me, and it rung a bell I've fermented mead before and I'm wondering: Is there a chance it went bad and partially turned into vinegar?
I haven't had it but I watched a different tasting vid. It's quite obviously clear and they describe it as smelling like maple syrup so I think he's definitely got a bad bottle.
@@RedGryphonLP Good mead’s taste is best described as a “floral wine,” in my opinion. Depending on the type of honey used (and also the esters the yeast strain used produces), it can end up having hints of all sorts of natural flavors.
I've tasted many of mead and it ranges anything from fermented honey, flowery wine, fruity and sweet even bitter and hoppy never briney so I'd say it was a bad bottle
Hi greg! I had everything on hand to make the Malort drink, and you asked for us to make it if we can and tell you what we think, so I did. I hate it Greg, it's bad.
Southern Comfort will always remind me of drinking it straight from the bottle in a park with my friend in college. Was it cheap and shitty? Yes. Did we feel sick and have terrible hangovers afterwards? Yes. But was it the only thing that we could afford that was drinkable straight? Also Yes.
Can confirm as a college student, Bourbon or Scotch in 1.75L bottles (eg. Evan Williams, Clan McGregor) are pretty decent value for tight budgets and definitely not as bad as Southern Comfort or other bottom-shelf American / Canadian whiskeys. They're roughly the same $ per vol, maybe a dollar or two more than the latter.
im a college student and when i tell u im never drinking it again mostly bc it tastes like how i imagine solidified cat shit dipped in dark choc would taste
In the Swedish dictionary, Besk is literally defined as something that tastes like or reminds you of Malort. The origin of the word is from Old Norse, Beiskr, meaning biting, as in the taste bites back. In Norway we use Besk as a descriptor for strong, bitter coffe and beer.
I'd never actually looked up besk in the dictionary, so I had no idea about the malört/wormwood meaning! In regular use in Swrdish, besk literally means bitter (as in "besk smak" = "bitter flavour").
Klapøjster Mjød is mead mixed with snaps. Snaps is spirits (akvavit) with different spices and herbs, commonly caraway, fennel, myrica gale or juniper. Snaps, akvavit and gammel dansk are all weird spirits to drink, but we do for Christmas lunches.
@@KriLL325783 Lol, no 😅 Some people actually really like them. They say there are two types of people at Christmas and Easter lunches: those who drink snaps to take away the taste of the pickled herring and those who eat pickled herring to take away the taste of snaps. Personally I really like pickled herring and I don't think snaps is all that bad. I'd rather have snaps than straight vodka or something. We had a rhubarb snaps at our Christmas lunch, it was delicious! The standard ones like Rød Aalborg and Brøndum are kinda boring.
The description of it sounds like Red Star baiju. You know, the cheap kind of the infamous Chinese alcohol that tastes like it was prepared in a prison toilet.
Hey Greg had an idea for an episode: will it caipirinha. I’ve been lazy about washing dishes and wanted to build drinks in the glass, and something about smashing up citrus with sugar and adding a spirit is really special. I did it with lemons and whiskey for something like a sour, tequila and limes with a dash of dry curaçao for a margarita approximation, and even did vodka with lemons and some orange bitters for a friend and it was delicious. Love all your content!
I smuggled some Southern Comfort out of my mom's liquor cabinet when I was a teen because I figured she'd never drink it and wouldn't notice it was gone ( I was right). That was over 25 years ago and I don't think I've drank it since.
@@xersys mine was Bacardi watermelon that I got paranoid about getting caught over and thought I'd be smart by using maybe half a cup of Roses grenadine to make it look like koolaid. 16 year old me and me now still regret it.
I did something similar with a friend's grandparents' Bombay Sapphire gin growing up. Tasted like downing a bottle of old lady perfume, I can still taste it 15 years later.
So the Mjod is actually QUITE good when chilled. You can literally stick a bottle in the fridge and it's completely transformative. It's an extremely temperature sensitive drink. (It's not bad hot either imo)
Greg's hatred for southern comfort is about what I expected. I like southern comfort in a sour. Gives it a sweet and sour vibe. Wouldn't call it it the worst bottle but hey, liquor is enjoyed the way you drink it.
There's a lot of drinks you can make with Southern, even though it's perfectly adequate straight up, nice and easy going for a 70 proof bottle. The slow comfortable screw cocktail is the one that comes to mind first.
For the first drink, I was thinking that grilling a lemon ring might give a mild char flavor instead of smoky chipotle with the added benefit of caramelized citric sugar meaning you may not need as much additional simple. It seems like it might be a refreshing but complex addition to the drink
As a chicagoan that makes malort drinks pretty often, the two uses ive found for it is the bitter component in a "white negroni" and the "apertif" replacement in a spritz that heavily features grapefruit. it really pairs quite well with grapefruit, so either grapefruit juice or bitters with a malort drink really elevate it. id be interested in seeing you try something like that and if youd like it better than the marty bird
This is EXACTLY what I do. There's a grapefruit tonic water (Fever-Tree makes it I think?) that I use to make a Malort drink. High ball glass with ice, 1.5 ounce Malort, 0.75 ounce freezer chilled limoncello (I prefer Pallini), and some anise simple syrup to taste. Garnish with a thin slice of lime on the side of the glass, after pouring the tonic I dip the lime slice in the drink then let it rest on the side of the glass. Tastes like grapefuit and sour skittles. I love it.
I agree with Greg (actually most the time), I have drank warm rice liquor from the still on the side of a mountain in Vietnam and the smell of Southern Comfort makes me want to hurl.
it doesn't surprise me at all that he described it as "peach vomit", seeing as, generally, whenever off flavors and 'peach' mix, that's what you get. When I tried the beanboozled challenge, I couldn't even tell the difference between those two XD
19:45 As a music theory teacher, that's called a half cadence, if it resolves it's an authentic cadence, and if it resolves, but to an unexpected place, it's a deceptive cadence
Outside of cadences, it can also just be the tension of an unresolved suspension or anticipation. Some easily accessible examples of this are any of Eric Whitacre's choral works (i.e. Sleep, A Boy and a Girl).
That's true, but what led me away from that was his talk about progressions and giving a sense of leading to a resolution/answer to the question but never getting there. Even the Whitacre stuff I've heard/sung doesn't give me that sense for all his textural beauty.
I think it's supposed to be a sweet bourbon alternative, before the flavored whiskey boom hit, there was basically just Southern Comfort, so yeah cola fits.
@@Dark_Heart5580 That's a little tough to imagine but I will try it. But there's already enough different ways to make a drink that tastes like cotton candy, this guy recently made one of them in a video, one of those TGI Fridays drink episodes making better versions of their drinks. They used to make cotton candy vodka... There's also cotton candy soda and syrup
Worked in a state store for 4 years and Southern Comfort was one of those bottles that we took a dust rag to due to not selling for months at a time. Most customers who did try it said it tasted too sweet. Always thought it tasted like a disgruntled cough syrup myself.
My "college days" self has conflicted memories of Southern Comfort. The most pleasant was discovering that if you combine it one-to-one with a Diet Mugs Rootbeer it tastes and smells like a banana popsicle. The worst memory is best left unpublished on the world wide web =D
SoCo and lime juice shots were my entire senior year, I would always run into this girl when I would go out and we would always do SoCo lime shots no matter how shit faced we were…honestly I haven’t had it since college and that was 7 years ago
So just found a great drink involving Southern Comfort. The guy at the bar called it a Sloe Comfort, and it's equal parts Southern Comfort and Sloe Gin in a glass with ice topped with orange juice and stirred. Will admit that I was slightly drunk when I tried it, so I can't promise that it's actually good, but drunk me enjoyed it.
When I was a kid, I heard of a drink called a "Slow Comfortable Screw Against the Wall." I do not know exactly what was supposed to be in it, but from the name I'm guessing sloe gin, Southern Comfort, orange juice, and Galliano. (Maybe some vodka if you needed to proof it up a little.)
I’ve been a professional bartender for 13 years and I’ve very rarely come across someone with Greg’s charisma when it comes to cocktail presentation. He’s the goat.
So...I love Southern Comfort. It's my third favorite liqueur after sikkim and creme de cassis. SoCo's flavor profile is somewhere between sweet potato, bubble gum, and peach...and for that reason, it goes particularly well with banana, cherry, jackfruit, and/or caramel. It is very sweet, both in taste and flavor, and I can understand why it's so divisive. I think too many people treat it like a spirit, or like a single-flavor liqueur (like creme de cacao, creme de vanille, creme de menthe, etc)...when really, it's a dessert drink, like a rosé, or mead. I have a SoCo mixed drink that I love. I call it the Cheery Jubilee: 2 parts SoCo, 1 part kirsch, 2 parts gold rum (Mt. Gay Eclipse is my choice), 1 part grenadine, 1 part amaretto, 1 part blood orange juice, a pinch of dried safflower...these are all mixed together. I then just add a maraschino cherry as a garnish to the top of the drink.
I just drink it on ice. I never knew it had this stigma of being trashy or whatever until this video. All the tasting notes he described in the video have no correlation with what I'm tasting to be perfectly honest. It's making me rethink how I feel about all his videos. Or is my palate screwed up?
Oh man... If he can make a cocktail with Gammel Dansk he's a damn wizard. We mostly drink it straight in very small glasses, usually with some rich food like pork, buttered rolls or pickled herring on ryebread.
My buddy was involved with international exchanges, his family had a Danish student for a year, then he went there for a year. He brought back a bottle of Gamel Dansk. That bottle showed up at every party for at least 2 years. When your peer group of junior alcoholics won't touch it (well twice), there is something terribly wrong. To this day I can taste it if I close my eyes, so I never close my eyes.
You know, on second watching of this video Greg has me pretty convinced that's there's really no bad spirits, just spirits that need some extra massaging to bring out their interesting characteristics. Like how a great chef can turn meh ingredients into a good dish, a great bartender can turn foul bottles into something quite drinkable!
As a semi frequent Malort drinker from Chicago the recent bottles, since CH Distillery have acquired it in 2018, the bottles are more consistent. It was contract distilled so each bottle could be better or worse. Anyways, most cocktails with Malort here try to match the grapefruit notes. Lots also try to match with a smoky flavor. Had a Malort Mule with grapefruit juice and ginger beer. It's pretty good.
I'll have to try that mule with my "torture friends" bottle of malort. The other good thing about the CH takeover was that I can get Malort in Iowa now!
Your drink with SoCo (final form) reminds me of a perfume called “Kiste” from Slumberhouse: a peachy-black tea-tobacco scent. It would be interesting to see some crossover between the world of fragrance and the world of cocktails. I’m going to be working on some fragrance inspired cocktails myself, but thought I had to share this in case there are any other fragrance nerds here.
You're describing the process of building and releasing tension within music. It's trying to resolve to the Tonic (first or I) chord of the scale. The Tonic chord is the one built off the first note of the scale, so a C Major scale would have a tonic chord made of C, E, G, and B if we're talking a Seven Chord. (C and B are seven steps away from each other, so that's why a chord with the first and seventh note of the scale in it are called Seven chords.) But in music, you can subvert that feeling of resolving by ending on Super Tonic (second or ii chord), Median (third or iii chord), Submedian (sixth or vi chord) or even a 5 or 5/3 variant of Dominant (fifth or V Chord). None of those scales have the feeling of Tonic in the scale, so they don't feel resolved when you end on them in a musical phrase. Using Median and Submedian are especially powerful in this building and subverting of tension because they have two of the three notes of Tonic, especially when you lead up to them with a Leading Tone (Seventh or vii chord), which really wants to push to Tonic in resolution.
19:45 Some really great musical thoughts here! Western harmony is fundamentally built around tension and release. The way you worded it like "asking a question" is spot on. Each note in a key has a function, it's either resolved, or it has a place it wants to resolve to. If you go to an unresolved note and don't immediately resolve it, that creates a tension, and if you stop there, it can make it sound like a call waiting for a response, or its resolution.
Man I loved Southern Comfort when I first tried it in Germany. It's sweet, whisky-ish and really drinkable. 😂 After all these years and numbers of great single malts shaping my taste I really do wanna try it again and see if I would still enjoy it.
Probably not, but I also think that's to be expected. Southern Comfort I think is one of those drinks like Fireball or hard lemonade, where it isn't really trying to be good or complex, just approachable for new drinkers.
In New Zealand, there's a coca-cola product called L&P, it's sort of like a very lemony sprite. SoCo and L&P was THE drink throughout high school. Now I'm 40, the idea of that just sounds like diabetes that gets you drunk.
Music nerd here. That explanation is spot-on. Tension that is never resolved is quite interesting. It just builds and builds and builds. Think like the ending to “A Day in the Life” by the Beatles. The strings just keep building and get more raucous, until eventually you’re hit with the biggest, fattest E chord you’ve ever heard. That chord is your release.
I didn't remember immediately which song "A Day in the Life" was, but your description was so absolutely spot-on that I figured it out. And WHAT a chord that is at the end!
I've been trying to find Southern for a while now. Probably have to order some online.. It makes a nice drink mixed with ginger ale or coke. Iirc works nicely mixed with spiced dark rum too if its too sweet alone (although mixing with coke or ginger ale is going to make it very sweet anyway)
I do enjoy some 80 proof Southern Comfort from time to time. Sure, it's cheap and overwhelmingly sweet on the nose and palette, but I'm a sucker for sweet stuff in my alcohol.
I used to work at an old-timey themed restaurant that had both of the mjods, and man oh man did I try to talk everybody that wanted to try one of them into getting the viking blod. Amazing how wildly different they are from the same company
As a chicago native, i really appreciated you being honest about malort and breaking it down. one of the reasons for drinking it is the super low residual sugar.
@@KittenCritters 1) manufactured and mostly only sold in Chicago. 2) Chicago flag's stars are on the bottle. 3) It's a somewhat well-known prank to order your friend a shot at a dive bar and not tell them it's Malort, though this has never happened to me personally lmao. one of my friends unironically enjoys it. It's an iconic liquor made for and in Chicago.
@@naurrr it's one of the most commonly sold spirits in most of northern and eastern Europe, in what bubble do you live where Chicago is the centre of the world?
Dude, I have been using "trebley" and "bassy" musical terms to describe tastes for ages, and folks always think it's weird. I love that you also analogize flavor notes that way. And yes, in music theory terms, you're referring to a Suspension: when a note from one chord is held while the chord changes around it, creating some tension and clash that eventually gets resolved when that held note changes to match the new chord. It creates that feeling of leaning forward, waiting for the chord to resolve. I'm with you 100%.
Funnily enough, I've created a drink similar to the Benign Threat. Backstory is that I started making my own mead for shiggles, had a batch come out super dry and bitter that I didn't care for. Couple months ago, I had the idea to throw a shot of it in with a gold rush, which already has honey syrup, and it basically came out as a slightly more bitter gold rush that I've taken to calling a Viking Raid. I'm hoping my next batch of mead is sweet enough to replace the syrup entirely, but highly recommend trying a Viking Raid if you're trying to get rid of some subpar mead like I am.
Was inspired watching this and made myself a Marty Bird alongside you with what I had on hand at them moment. I substituted the strawberry with half a blood orange and the chipotle powder with chili powder and paprika, but seriously, I think you might have something here. The mezcal is a great balance to the bitterness of the Malort, making this a sour but really sipable drink. Congrats, dude, real good shit
I love your list - one that could be added Captain Morgan's Cannon Blast - I understand it's discontinued (for good reason) but someone brought this to the house as a "gift" - as I have a bunch of Chicago friends getting Malort is easy - some of them thought the Canon Blast was worse (I'm among them - truly wretch stuff). Love that you did "Bad Bottles" - always enjoy your channel.
@@lincalmighty That was the goal. The citrus just generally works with bitter flavors and there are some citrusy notes in the Mallort before the bitter tramples everything.
I love that you're doing another video on this. I think it's a perfect way to demonstrate what mixology is all about to people getting into it; making the best you can with what you got.
So...my partner and I routinely make our own cordials. A few years ago, a friend of ours gave us some lemons from a tree near the house that their grandfather built. We unquestionably washed and zested the lemons (removing any pith) and steeped them in vodka to try to make something similar to lemoncello. We aren't sure what happened to the lemons. Apparently they used to be standard lemons but the concoction that resulted from their use ended up tasting absolutely horrible -- incredibly bitter and disgustingly complex. Our friend surmises that their bitter grandmother may be haunting the tree, so we named the liqueur Grandmother's Wrath. We still have a bottle and break it out to test new friends. It's great craic. 😂
the thing I like most about this channel is how good he is at describing favors, not old enough to drink but a lot of the time I feel like I can kinda understand the flavor based on his description
I’m amazed that someone your age is entertained by this tbh. I was like 27 when I started caring about cocktails and not just drinking patron from the bottle. Good on you, you should learn to be a bartender and maybe you’ll be really good. Watch how much you drink though. Take days off.
The first taste of Malort remined me of grapefruit peels steeped in acetone. The second shot, because its so hilariously bad you have to try it again to make sure its real, tasted like burnt rubber gloves full of gasoline. You need to do an episode on bottom shelf bottles. Look for 5 O'clock Spiced Rum. So bad in a good way.
I feel like the SoCo drink should be called a Southern Sunset, the color of the drink just kinda make me think of it. And with Peach and Orange notes with Tobacco I think it fits.
As a Chicagoan, I'll tell you that you didn't use the wrong malört, because there's basically just one kind, and I would recognize that bottle anywhere. Not including the wider besk family of course, I'm talking specifically things called "malört".
Your flavor vocabulary and ability to analyze those flavors is stunning, I find the musical analogy so stimulating and interesting. That, above all else, made me want to try that SoCo drink.
Great video Greg. Just curious have you thought of doing cocktails that have fell into obscurity? Like the american farmer, which is a Apple Jack old fashion with a tablespoon of Smith and Cross, or the japanese cocktail which is brandy boker's bitters and orgeat? Also the mead is prononounced KlapOYster Myod.
Someone already mentioned this in the comments but I felt like it should be reiterated; Besk and Malört are Swedish spirits, Malört literally meaning Wormwood, and Besk literally translating to Bitter. They’re not in fact bitters though, they’re supposed to be “snaps” (pronounced snaaps) which are Swedish “dinner shots”. We drink them for the kick and the intensity and to get hammered quickly whilst ‘inhaling’ fish and potatoes. In my family at least, Besk is often used as a desert drink or even just an evening drink for late night talks or movie watching with family and stuff during holidays. It is also, to those who are used to it, actually tasty. Yes even Besk and Malört. It’s an acquired taste just like surströmming and liquorice. I never really liked it much but it’s tradition… Malört though, imo, is one of those that are so intense and bitter it almost becomes good because it’s so bad. The kick and the bitterness that makes you scrunch your face and stuff, that’s the fun part.
There is a SoCo cocktail called a Sloe Comfortable Screw, that's sloe gin, SoCo, and OJ. I've had one or two of those and may have drank enough of them to black out once.
I’ve sadly had that in my youth. There was a further variant that seemed to have been developed just to make the name even more suggestive - slow comfortable screw against the wall. Sloe gin, southern comfort and a Harvey wall banger (vodka and galliano).
Southern Comfort was the first thing that ever made me puke (friend was like don't buy wine you can drink this, and I was just shy of 18 so had no idea what a measure was... And then we played Kings). 12.5 years later the smell still makes me nauseous haha
Great video once again! On the topic of bad drinks though, I was wondering if you could do an episode on cursed eastern Europe liquors? I'm particularly curious to see what you'd do with Merunkoviče, a czech apricot alcohol that is the closest to hell in a glas I've experienced
The music theory concept that youre talking about is called a deceptive cadence! It is when a chord is about to resolve to a comfortable chord and then goes somewhere else.
Southern Comfort is big, REALLY BIG, in Great Britain. Never saw a pub that didn't have it as a main offering. My father in law, who has a great in-house bar with a variety of the best stuff -- loves Southern Comfort. It's what he fills his flask with to take to the golf course.
I drank that mead on the night before my wedding. My friends and I loved it. I’m so sad you ranked it low. I love seeing other options on stuff I loved!
When I started drinking whiskey I would buy a different bottle every time to see what I preferred. Southern Comforts was so vile I think it was the first bottle of whiskey I ever throw away. I have never tried mixing with it even to this day.
I live in Chicago, Malort is definitely a staple. A lot of my friends and I use it as our go to shot. You really get used to the bitterness and their reps are super cool. Plenty of good cocktails to be made with it :) Thing about Malort as well is every bottle is slightly different. You can get a super sweet bottle that I really enjoy, and you can get a bottle that is the most bitter thing on the planet.
I live in Chicago and in a shot situation will often elect it because of the lower abv than other spirits and because I like bitter stuff and it’s fun. But I haven’t found a way to use it in cocktails. I’ve tried subbing it where suze or salers would go in some cocktails and it hasn’t worked well. Curious what you found. There used to be a cafe in Irving Park that made a Malort syrup for lattes and it was delicious. EDIT: Finom! Forgot to put the name before. Rafa Esparza made it by flambéing malort then adding grapefruit juice and sugar, according to the Chicago Tribune, and used it in a special chai latte. It was good enough and I miss it enough that I might have to try making it myself...
@@David_Bruton you can make a passable Bloody Mary like cocktail. But I’ve also heard people say you can put a dash of it in a lemonade with a salted rim or a good dash of saline.
Malort has an interesting history. A couple of Times, Jeppeson got acquitted of violating Prohibition because a judge, officer or prosecutor would taste it and agree that _no one_ could be drinking it for pleasure.
@@David_Bruton well first off is not so much a cocktail, but it’s damn good. Grapefruit beer and a shot of Malort that you shoot, we call it a Bum Fight. Actual drink is anything you can really add into it with sweetness like honey or rosemary simple with lemon, grapefruit beer (steegle raddler), and pineapple juice. Not too bad
Ahh wormwiod liqours, love them! Extremely divisive even here in the Nordics, but I can’t get enough of the stuff, and I like other bitter things as well. It doesnt try to be anything extra or nasty, it is just unadulterated bitterness
I was curious so I looked up that bottle of mead, and was very surprised when you said something about getting caraway seed because on their website they say that it is brewed with caraway honey
I am from Sweden and usually during all big holidays (midsummer, Christmas, Easter etc) we always server pickled herring with snaps ( elderflower snaps, bitter snaps, fennel snaps etc.) one of my favourites is Bäska droppar ( bitter drops) Served Ice Cold in a shot glass.
I've heard Malort described as having the flavor of "crusty jizz socks re-hydrated on the back porch in a bucket of mixed stale, soured apple cider and nail polish remover, then wrung out into a bottle".
I wish you could get the rum that's called Screech. Not the modern stuff, but the original versions. It was made from the dregs of other rums and mixed up and the name was from the reaction you'd do. The modern stuff is harsh but drinkable but the original stuff was used as a paint remover as well as a drink.
I've never had Malort, but as a Swede I love besk. I make it myself sometimes. It is still divisive in Scandinavia among inexperienced snaps drinkers. :)
Growing up in Chicago, doing shots of malört is like a hazing ritual for out of town college kids. It tastes like what you’d imagine the Chicago river would taste like.
Malort with seltzer, a squeezed orange wedge (spent wedge dropped in the drink), and a very light hit of Demerara (turbinado- 2:1) syrup is amazing on a hot afternoon. The orange and rich sugar really open up the herbal and grapefruit notes of the spirit. It's very reminiscent of a Campari and soda (also served with an orange slice/wedge).
I use to work with a bartender who would use southern comfort to make what she called “southern bondage”. Which tasted like you spiked a sonic cherry lime aid. It was soco, amereto and had like 2-3 other things I’m blanking on.
Equal parts SoCo, Amereto, Peach schnapps, and Triple Sec, and a splash of sour mix and cranberry juice. Was recommended by a local bartender when I was a young lad, and was my go to for a couple seasons.
at the 20:00 ish marker, that can be called a deceptive cadence although dissonance in general can also create that. But a deceptive cadence makes you think its going to resolve to the root and conclude a phase and instead takes what would normally be a progression that resolves to generally the 6 chord to continue the progression longer. That's typically how it works in traditional practice classical music anyway. Any chord can go back to 6 or 1 generally, but going to 1 will give resolution while going to 6 you can lead the ear to want to resolve and kind of loop back.
The single solitary reason I keep Southern Comfort at home *at all* is because I like to have it in tea when I'm feeling sick, my throat hurts, and I want to feel more comfortable. I probably like it more because I typically drink it when my nose is plugged up. xD But tbh Southern Comfort, white tea, honey, and a bit of lemon just kind of works for me.
Malört is Swedish for wormwood and besk is Swedish for bitter. The liqueur you make by letting wormwood steep in vodka is called Malörts Brenvin or Beska droppar sometimes shortened to Besk. It might be a bit of an Acquired taste. I’ve never had the stuff sold in America but the stuff my dad makes is delicious.
I realized tonight that I was really hoping you were asking your co-worker to try the drinks you made. I don't remember the moment that it happened but I have grown a liking to seeing you have a second taste tester on set, it gives the audience a second opinion and it can begin a good conversation about the drink itself.
A fun episode. You actually took spirits you routinely hate and did your best to create acceptable cocktails from them. Even I haven't gone down that road. Well done.
The Dansk Mjød Viking Blod was the first mead I ever tried, it is amazing. The Dansk Mjød Klapøjster Mjød is the second mead I ever tried immediately afterward drinking half the bottle of the Viking Blod. Might have been too inebriated from the bottle of Viking Blod to care that the 2nd bottle tasted earthy & more bitter than the previous bottle.
why would anybody buy a bottle that says "oyster" in the name. if i wanted to drink liquid seafood... i wouldn't, i have no idea where i'm going with that.
There is a drink that was invented in one of the bars in Chicago's Wrigleyville called a Munchbox, that uses Malort well. It is a "bomb" type drink where you have a shot glass filled half and half with pineapple juice and Malort. You drop it into a half pint glass of Blue Moon. Variants sometimes splash a bit of amaretto and some lime or lemon juice into a half pint of corona instead. You drop the Malort and pineapple into the beer portion, and slug it back. It tastes like a grapefruit soda with a malt back, and is actually pretty good. Traditionally though Malort is part of a "Handshake", where you take a shot of Malort and then follow it with a can of old style. The Malort makes you appreciate the beer better for some reason.
The only familiarity I have with making Southern Comfort drinkable is in hot chocolate--Soco-Coco, for when you don't want to feel the frostbite! I love this series, something extra fun about taking something bad and forcing it to work
I never looked up malort, but now that I know it's wormwood, I really want to try it. There's a wormwood liqueur popular where I'm from and I love it. People usually mix it with a bit of lemon juice, but I like to go all bitter with both tonic water and lemon.
I visited friends in Chicago and one of them got us shots of malort hyping it up as some thing that was awful and that we'd hate but is a "rite of passage" in Chicago or something. I never enjoy taking shots of anything, but I actually kinda liked it lmao.
I love Malört straight but it makes a good cocktail - the Malört Axe: Malört, overproof bourbon, tripel sec, lemon juice, and ginger syrup. Tastes grapefruity and gingery, an excellent cocktail.
A good Malört cocktail is M&T. The recipe is: A glass with some ice A shot of Malört Top off the rest of the glass with Tonic 1/4 lime wedge squeeze the juice into the drink and drop the squeezed lime in. Exactly like a Gin & Tonic, it's a Malört & Tonic, with a lime spritz. It's apparently quite tasty and the bitterness is almost gone.
Greg would hate bartending in Wisconsin. SoCo Old Fashioned is such a common drink. And then you add that fact that most people get it sweet. Uhhh, shivers down my spine.
I was at a party last weekend and someone there had soco 50% It tasted like liquid sugar that was marinating in cotton candy for 5 hours with a few spoons of sugar added. Then a few seconds after you swallow you get an unpleasant burn in your chest/gut.
the only time I've ever projectile vomited from alcohol was when I drank 50% southern comfort. good times. twenty years later I can't even smell the stuff without feeling nauseous.
You know, I just recently discovered you, and I'm SOOOOO glad I did.. I've binged so many of your videos and I have now dubbed you uncle Greg lmao. But seriously, you have such an awesome energy in every video you do and the amount of detail you go into with all of your drinks is super informative and good teaching. Keep up the good work man.
