Cold January (Man-Bat)

It’s freezing, it’s depressing… during winter months everyone craves for something uplifting, something stimulating; something to transform them from downcast to cheerful.

Easy answer would be some sort of a warm eggnog, but let’s try something else… titillating sloe gin.

THE SERUM

Man-Bat serum tranforms Dr. Kirk Langstrom to giant humanoid bat. Drinking this “serum” will not have such a dramatic consequences (I hope), but it’ll turn you more resilient, gives you more vigor to face the long winter.

-4 parts bourbon

-4 parts sloe gin

-8 parts cranberry juice

(-1 part simple syrup)

Shake with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass. The need for simple syrup depends on what kind of cranberry juice you use, anyway you’ll probably need to add some. I use high quality concentrate made without additives, diluted with water 1-1 instead of recommended 1-3 to get very intense cranberry flavour… and I still need to add that one part of syrup.

You probably noticed that “The Serum” is a variant of “Black Bush”, which is simply bourbon and sloe gin… and too harsh, I think. Cranberry serves as perfect method to “round up” the clash of two elements, still adding its own for the mixture.

Okay, what else can you do with your sloe gin bottle? Here’s a delightful recipe you’re most likely familiar with if you’ve tried sloe gin before… but just in case you haven’t…

FREEDOM FIGHTER

-6 cl (2 oz) sloe gin

-2 cl (3/4 oz) Crème Yvette (or Parfait Amour)

-2 cl lemon juice

-1 egg white

Add some crushed ice into chilled wine goblet. Shake with ice and strain.

I’ll be back next week. Something sour… oh, wait, it’s sweet… no, it’s fiery?!?… Hee, hee,hee… it’s Joker. And I’ll also introduce probably THE BEST cocktail in the whole wide world… I didn’t create it, unfortunately, but I would like to share the recipe. And no egg whites, I promise; there’s been a bit too much of them so far.