Girl Power III (Cheetah, Wonder Woman revisited)

I’ve learned one thing: when using your friends as Test Subjects while testing new recipes, it’s best to put your trust in women. You get more constructive feedback and a lot of ideas.

With male Test Subjects… well… “I don’t like this. I don’t know why, I just don’t” or “This is okay! I can’t say why, but it’s nice.” Please, my fellow men, how I’m supposed to evolve as amateur bartender with that kind of feedback?

Women make much better Cocktail Lab Rats. “I think this has too much anise, maybe you should cut it down a little… sour is okay, but maybe lime juice is too much in this one: how about orange juice, would it change things too much?… etc.etc.

…or maybe it’s just Finnish Thing? Women do the talking, men stay silent… uncomfortably quiet, if you ask the foreigners ;P Well, today’s second recipe sure contains something Genuinely Nordic, but the first recipe is more easy to approach…

 

Yes, I know the background is ocelot, not cheetah…

CHEETAH

-4 parts reposado tequila

-2 parts D.O.M. Benedictine

-1 part lime juice

-1 part pineapple juice

-4 parts raspberry juice

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into margarita glass. Garnish with lime wedge and raspberries or suitable raspberry candy.

For raspberry juice I used, as always, concetrate diluted with water 1:1 ratio instead of recommended 1:4… as I did in last post’s Rogue.

“Cheetah” tastes like “Dark Raspberry” (“elegant, yet sinister” was my guideline) and none of the Lab Rats, male or female, realized it contained tequila: there sure is something Dark lurking in that fancy looking glass but they couldn’t point it out…

Okay, now we’ve seen the villain, it’s time for today’s Heroine…

 

WONDER WOMAN (NORDIC AND NON-NORDIC VERSION)

Credits go to my Friend S., Famous Female Lab Rat! She pointed out that I’ve soaked licorice, jelly beans and Skittles in various boozes to produce surprising cocktails… “why not salmiakki? Everyone loves it!”

Well, salmiakki… “salty licorice”, salmiac, sal ammoniac; whatever you wanna call it, it’s ammonium chloride… everyone in Nordic countries knows it produces the best candies in the world, period… but non-Nordic people just tell me they’ve heard stories about it, never tasted it. (“It’s like licorice, with salt?” – “Hmm, nope. Ammonium gives the candy STRONG sting, it kinda burns; it has very little to do with “salty” – “Ammonium? But that’s like…poison?” – “Not in small amounts.”) 😀

So, what’s the point of designing a recipe only Nordic people could enjoy? Okay, I understand salmiac is available in Netherlands and Northern Germany also, but anyway the audience is pretty limited. S. insisted, and I started to think about it, got curious… so I gave it a try. All you non-Nordic Wonder Woman fans out there: don’t worry, I’m going to design one without salmiac… meanwhile you can enjoy Golden Lasso; or non-Nordic version of Wonder Woman, below.

 

WW: NORDIC VERSION

First, buy the salmiac. Sure, you can get yourself classic Turkish Pepper, but since The Primus Motor behind this cocktail, S., insisted that I’ll use her favourite candy, Dracula Salmiac, that’ll be The One and Only Choice.

 

They’re hard, so you have to suck them for a long time… suck, like Dracula. Got it?

Smash the candies in mortar or, more easily, put them in the bag and place them between hammer and suitable “anvil” few times. No need to grind them to dust, just turn them to “gravel”. Drop 3-4 candies worth of gravel to 1dl (3 1/2oz) of Jim Beam bourbon and let it soak: give it a stir once in a while, candies should have disappeared in 30-45 mins. If you don’t mind waiting longer, skip the candysmashing.

-4 parts Salmiac-Jim Beam

-1 part apple juice

-1 part orange juice

-dash of red grenadine

Shake with ice and strain into cocktail glass. Add one small ice cube. Garnish with orange wedge and cherry.

The drink sure looks pretty (as WW), some might look down on it… “fancy girly stuff”… but it packs a punch (as WW)! I don’t mean unnecessary high alcohol content or pointless smothering in chili etc… I mean good old-fashioned Ammonium Chloride Kick in the Teeth! 😀

I never thought salmiac and Jim Beam would blend so nicely. Salmiakkikossu is old news, try this one instead! And now for the unfortunate non-salmiac version…

 

WW: NON-NORDIC VERSION

As above, but prepare Jim Beam as you would prepare vodka in Harley Quinn: bag of licorice into jar, drown them in Jim Beam. After four hours strain, you have spiced-up bourbon (salmiac will dissolve, licorice won’t).

Don’t get me wrong: this version is okay, totally palatable… but pretty sorry presentation compared to salmiac version.

 

So that’s it for today. Until next week, Nordics and non-Nordics alike… I’m not making any promises, but I’m thinking… Magic.