My 3 Favourite Liqueurs and Spirits
Pastis is an amazing anise-flavoured spirit which has originated and enjoys great popularity in France. First commercialized by Paul Ricard back in 1932, Pastis is extremely loved in southern France, especially around Marseille. This liqueur usually contains around 100 g/l sugar and somewhere between 40% and 45% alcohol, although there are some non-alcoholic varieties also. Pastis emerged 17 years after the ban of absinth, in a time when France would feel the need for an anise-flavoured drink to substitute absinth. The drink is nowadays flavoured with liquorice root and while it has always been associated with absinth, the two are in fact very different. Pastis does not contain any grand wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), from which the name of absinth came to be. Another difference is that absinth is made of the classic green anise while pastis is made from herbs of Asian origins – star anise.
If I would have to name one drink that I don’t usually like, that would be vodka. But truth be told, there are few variations out there that will simply make you go bonkers over it. Such a drink is Shotka, a Lithuanian-made vodka, which is – get this! cannabis-flavoured. Not to worry, there is no THC inside it, only a high percentage of alcohol – 50% and the whole ‘taste the wild’ think they have going for them is something you won’t want to miss out on. The first time I tried this drink I had three shots one after the other and it felt like I drank the juice of life – I had so much energy, I could have moved mountains. Seriously, you have to try it.
Jägermeister is a German digestif, made from no less than 59 herbs and spices, with 35% alcohol. A flagship of Mast-Jägermeister SE, Jägermeister is a highly flavoured drink, many times drank with Red Bull, especially in Italy. The label contains a verse from the poem Weidmannsheil, by forester and hunter Oskar von Riesenthal. The translation of the poem is:
Protects and preserves his game,
Hunts sportsmanlike, honours the
Creator in His creatures.
Jägermeister is used in many cocktails and shots. For example, a shot of Jägermeister dropped into a glass of Red Bull is called a Jägerbomb; Jägermeister with Rumple Minze and Baccardi form Liquid Heroin, while a cocktail with Jägermeister with Malibu Rum and pineapple juice is called a Surfer on Acid. Nice names, right?