Booze Tourist Guide

[Mayonnaise]

Every country has its own inimitable, unique liquors. Some are good. Some are good after you've had a few. Some are (barely) worth the experience, and others need to be buried beneath the merciful fog of the en-bloc blackout. Whichever it is, we need a thread to inform (or warn) each other of the local concoctions.

I'm from Denmark, a country that has a long history of drinking and an even longer history of tolerating utterly foul rotgut.
The best-known beverage from Denmark is schnapps - something that we share with a lot of other Scandinavian countries, and something with the dubious quality of tasting like rotgut no matter how much you pay for it. Since its main customer group is old men who measure a drink's quality by the amount of hair it puts on your eyeballs and consider "taste" to be a frou-frou invention of the new ages, you can expect schnapps to taste like well vodka wrung through a bar rag soaked in caraway extract. You can get it with dill and other things too (in half-liter bottles clocking in at 160kr), but that's not real schnapps. Real schnapps comes in two sizes (fifth and airplane), and its quality can be distinguished depending on whether you can see bottles of it in gutters and supermarket parking lots.
Santé is some kind of hell-brew that seems to be unique to Denmark. It's firmly stuck in the 70's, both in bottle design, taste and very concept, but somehow doesn't seem to find its way onto dinner tables. Fortified flavored wine in liter bottles, with a ubiquitous 3-for-120 sale (remember our liquor taxes), with various overwhelming and bizarre fruit flavors. If the mention of kiwi, apricot and lemon flavors doesn't make you clutch your head in pain awaiting a hangover, you're square in the customer group. I recommend the blackcurrant one - the lemon one tastes like drain cleaner (no shit).
Unfortunately, the Danish liquor heritage nowadays is being buried under foreign stuff (or, more likely, we only drank our own for lack of other alternatives). The dreaded Vlakoff vodka (made from real molasses in the prestigious vodka-distilling country of France) haunts convenience store shelves around the country, and can universally be found in the gorilla-like backhand grips of piss-drunk high-schoolers (or junior high-schoolers - we're pretty okay with that here). It's the cheapest bang for your buck you're gonna get in Denmark, so better get used to it. Enjoy the bouquet of melted plastic and diesel fumes with a classy Prince Light, enjoyed by the kind of people who wear baseball caps perched sideways on the very tops of their heads and haunt train station 7-11s at 3 in the night.
Pisang Ambon, usually frou-frou, works well with chocolate milk. Try it, I swear it's actually good. Just don't expect to get drunk, and don't let strangers see it. Gin and Dr Pepper works well too, something yours truly found out in the throes of a bender during which I couldn't drink gin neat (PTSD, you must understand).

[Palinka (RIP)]

...made from real molasses in the prestigious vodka-distilling country of France...

Vodka made from molasses?!? Isn't that Rum? Vodka is usually made from a grain-mash or potatoes (to find out more, click here) but I have never of vodka made from molasses before (although now you've made me look into it, I have found a recipe which includes molasses made from Sugar Beets - to find out more about this, click here). Well, that came as a real surprise for me (and I suppose it would be a drink that would satisfy the palates of "mistah willies" and me; so I shall have to try to find a bottle or place an order for one from the "Exotic Booze Boutique", down the road, before I go a visiting).

[Dear Booze]

...made from real molasses in the prestigious vodka-distilling country of France...

Vodka made from molasses?!? Isn't that Rum? Vodka is usually made from a grain-mash or potatoes (to find out more, click here) but I have never of vodka made from molasses before (although now you've made me look into it, I have found a recipe which includes molasses made from Sugar Beets - to find out more about this, click here). Well, that came as a real surprise for me (and I suppose it would be a drink that would satisfy the palates of "mistah willies" and me; so I shall have to try to find a bottle or place an order for one from the "Exotic Booze Boutique", down the road, before I go a visiting).

Either way, welcome to the board Mayonnaise.

[Mayonnaise]

...made from real molasses in the prestigious vodka-distilling country of France...

Vodka made from molasses?!? Isn't that Rum? Vodka is usually made from a grain-mash or potatoes (to find out more, click here) but I have never of vodka made from molasses before (although now you've made me look into it, I have found a recipe which includes molasses made from Sugar Beets - to find out more about this, click here). Well, that came as a real surprise for me (and I suppose it would be a drink that would satisfy the palates of "mistah willies" and me; so I shall have to try to find a bottle or place an order for one from the "Exotic Booze Boutique", down the road, before I go a visiting).

Either way, welcome to the board Mayonnaise.

Cheers.
It really is distilled from molasses - thing is that it's filtered, which at least according to Danish laws classifies it as vodka. I figure it's cheaper than using grain or potatoes. Still doesn't make it taste like rum, or indeed like anything except for absolute ass.

[mistah willies]

Vodka made from molasses?!? Isn't that Rum? Vodka is usually made from a grain-mash or potatoes (to find out more, click here) but I have never of vodka made from molasses before (although now you've made me look into it, I have found a recipe which includes molasses made from Sugar Beets - to find out more about this, click here). Well, that came as a real surprise for me (and I suppose it would be a drink that would satisfy the palates of "mistah willies" and me; so I shall have to try to find a bottle or place an order for one from the "Exotic Booze Boutique", down the road, before I go a visiting).

Either way, welcome to the board Mayonnaise.

Cheers.
It really is distilled from molasses - thing is that it's filtered, which at least according to Danish laws classifies it as vodka. I figure it's cheaper than using grain or potatoes. Still doesn't make it taste like rum, or indeed like anything except for absolute ass.

Those are some very good links to read, Palinka.

And yes, As Dear Booze says, welcome aboard Mayonnaise. Your writing style is a pleasure to read.

Rum? How could they do such a thing to rum? I am shocked and dismayed. Rum is the elixir of life!

[Mr. Viking]

Glen's (formerly Grants') vodka is made from sugar beet. Not sure if that qualifies as mollasses.

[Resident Asshole]

Considering that bourbon is the official spirit of the USA I would have to say that is our legacy, and frankly a damn fine one IMO. I found the ginger ale available in Europe for mixing my Jameson was better than it is here.

[Smatter Noguts]

Welcome Mayo!
My son has a buddy that shines molassas and I agree with Palinka that that makes it Rum, but it has a flavor of it's own, and it's not quite rum.

[drunkenmaster]

Welcome Mayonnaise!
I like your name.

[Mr. Viking]

Considering that bourbon is the official spirit of the USA I would have to say that is our legacy, and frankly a damn fine one IMO. I found the ginger ale available in Europe for mixing my Jameson was better than it is here.

there's a spicier version called ginger beer here, which has more of a kick to it and is usually cloudy, or was it just a different brand of ginger ale you had?

[mistah willies]

Considering that bourbon is the official spirit of the USA I would have to say that is our legacy, and frankly a damn fine one IMO. I found the ginger ale available in Europe for mixing my Jameson was better than it is here.

there's a spicier version called ginger beer here, which has more of a kick to it and is usually cloudy, or was it just a different brand of ginger ale you had?

Never tried ginger beer, myself, but ginger ale can help the young and the weak to nurse their heads in the morning. Schweppes and Canada Dry are quite popular in Maine, and you have to add your own alcohol to them to make them better. Truly Dry, indeed.

Oddly enough, some folks tell me that Schweppes gives them heart burn. I think that's nonsense.

[Dear Booze]

Never tried ginger beer, myself...

WHAT?

Stop what you are doing right now. I don't care how important you "think" it is. Just stop doing what you are doing and head to BevMo or any other decent Liquor-selling store and get a bottle or can of ginger beer. Use it as a mixer in your Kraken (or any dark rum) and give it a try. It will change you life.

You're welcome!

[mistah willies]

^ ^ 6

Mixer for my Kraken?!


I feel like you do not know me anymore

BooHoo!

(Wait, what is Russian for this?)

[Palinka (RIP)]

There are alcoholic Ginger Beers:



And alcoholic Ginger Wines:



And you can make your own alcoholic Ginger Wine: from either this recipe or by following this recipe on YouTube!

Enjoy.

[AntonArkydivich]

There are alcoholic Ginger Beers:



And alcoholic Ginger Wines:



And you can make your own alcoholic Ginger Wine: from either this recipe or by following this recipe on YouTube!

Enjoy.

They both sound horrifying, but so does the Bullshot, and that drink is incredible.

Ginger is a great chaser, especially for clear liquor.

Edit: raw ginger, not ginger beer.