1y ago

What is the most unusual spirit you have in your home bar?

I find unusual spirits interesting, and I want to hear about the ones you have.

117 comments

Some Victorian kid that died of tuberculosis in the 1800's. I really wish I could exercise it. Little shit rattles all the bottles at 3am every full moon and it's annoying as hell.
- I've heard good stuff about interval training
  
  Just make sure to incorporate deadlifts
- exorcise, btw.
  
  Nah, she fat AF

Linie Aquavit. It is a Scandinavian liquor meaning "water of life". It is a white spirit infused with botanicals, like gin. Its principal herbs are caraway or dill.
It's incredible.
- Vikre in Duluth MN makes an aquavit. I think it's pretty good.
  
  Ohhhh, I'll have to seek that out.

A small bottle of the delightfully named Unicum:

Really not sure where it came from, we just found it one day!
- Tasted it while visiting Hungary, beloved by the locals. Not being a connoisseur, it tasted to me like the extracted essence from a ton of black pepper seeds into a single ounce of alcohol. Strongest stuff I've ever had. They had also a traditional drink with like 85% alcohol. Quite a culture. Lots of warm people.
- It's exclusive to Hungary. Used as a 'digestif' before or after a heavy meal. The formula is a closely held family secret.
  They made a movie inspired by the family liquour business: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_(1999_film)
- Oh God, I've had this. It tastes like a cedar chest smells. I can't believe I didn't go blind.
- Hummm, this sure seems like a unique spirit:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicum

I thought you were speaking of ghosts or demons and the like 😂
- Yeah I was thinking the ghost of the Windows start menu

Icelandic lichen liquor. Tastes like forest.
- Is this what you are talking about?
  https://www.reykjavikspirits.is/spirits/fjallagrasa-icelandic-schnapps/
  Seems interesting
  
  OMG that's so weird, I need that.
- In a good way?
  
  This is the question. "It tastes like the forest: still, slightly sweet air, golden sunlight filtered through emerald leaves, a crystal brook babbling just out of sight" versus "It tastes like the forest. Dirt, rotting undergrowth, and animal shit".

Cacique, which is Costa Rica's national liquor (only rare because it's hard to import).
It's essentially sugar cane hooch that the government decided to nationalize in an attempt to end secret production, back around the mid 1800s. Their plan worked and it became a sort of national identity. The whole history of it is pretty neat.
It doesn't taste like anything on its own, so it's mixed with everything and the kitchen sink.

I had a bottle of Arak from Palestine, that a previous boss had imported, and then gifted to me. It's anise flavored, clear when warm, looks like a snow globe if you refrigerate it, and turns white when poured over ice. So neat, but it tasted like anise :-P
- There's a liquor from south/southeast Asia also called arak but it's totally different (not anise flavored, made from coconut or palm sap). Wonder if the etymologies are the same.
  https://balipedia.com/bali-arak/
  
  That sounds good, too! Interesting read, thanks!
- I love Arak. Every country in that region has its local anise booze, and Israeli Arak is my favorite. I basically make my own by infusing vodka with anise.
  
  That's basically what I tasted when I drank it - anise and intense alcohol is what I remember. It smelled/felt really strong, but I couldn't read the label at all so I have no idea what the proof actually was. At least making your own with a base like vodka you get to know that :-P
- I love that stuff! Helps that I like anise. It's a lot like Ouzo, of course... I first ran into arak at a college bar in Lansing, MI. It's cool how it turns milky when you add water. A similar spirit is aguardiente, the national liquor of Columbia. Arak is hard to find but I located it in a couple stores in Denver.
  
  Man, I don't know if it was as potent as it felt, or if it was just the anise flavor making it feel more so, but it seems like a good fit for college town bars 😄
  I was so happy to hear that it's not unusual to serve it on the rocks and/or watered down. He referred to it as some kind of "milk"... "Lion's milk" maybe? (I maybe should have paid closer attention, but he was kind of a creeper)
- Sounds similar to absinthe
  
  Absinthe would be closest but this is essentially the anise and then a sweet grape flavor to it. A bit less complexity in ingredients yet it still has quite a lot of depth depending on the bottle.

You guys have homes?
- Home is where the heart is
  
  Or in this case, the bar.
- They tend to be pretty common
  
  Less so, lately.

A bottle of North Korean soju I got while visiting the DMZ.

42 year old schnapps, made by my grandfather in the year I was born.

The most unusual spirit I have in my collection is a raspberry liquer, made from distilled raspberries.
It is called RoslagsHallon and is made a few scandinavian miles borth of where I live by Nortälje Brenneri:
https://www.norrtaljebranneri.se/destillat/roslagshallon/
(Just click "JAG HAR FYLLT 20 ÅR" to get in)
It makes a fantasticly dangerous summer drink when mixed with sprite, you hardly feel the alcohol, but the taste is amazing, with a fairly standard sprite tast first, that explodes into a full raspberry taste with the aftertaste.
I seldom drink, and drink little when I do, but this is brilliant.
- Sounds great!
- Similar to kirchwasser, I’d guess? I love fruit brandies. At various times I’ve drank raspberry, pear, cherry and more common ones like grappa.
  
  I have never tried Kirchwasser, so I don't know myself, but from the description it is peobably similar

I have an unopened bottle of Seagrams from 1946, and a bottle of Old Forester from 1953, where time + the VERY heavy glass stopper cracked the plastic seal and broke the cork. Both belonged to my better half's grandfather
- Oh shit. That stuff is probably delicious.
  I once tasted some regular Cuervo gold my buddy brought to a cabin weekend. He was going to make margaritas (with HFCS mix) and I nabbed a pour to sip on. It was one of the best tequilas I've ever tasted. I couldn't believe it was Cuervo, and then he told me that it was a bottle his Dad brought back from Mexico in the 80's. Apparently that stuff was really good back in the day.

Double Double Oaked bourbon, you could only find it for sale on site at the distiller in Kentucky. It tastes like sweet charcoal.
- Ooh, that sounds amazing. What distillery???
  
  Woodford Reserve. They make a Double Oaked you can find in most liquor stores. I'd try that first, but I don't think they taste all that similar. The double double is much oakier in flavor, but the nose is similarly pleasant.

Milk & honey gin. Doesn’t taste like milk, but once the dregs have evaporated, there’s a lingering smell of sweetened condensed milk.

Hucked - A Huckleberry Bourbon that is as good as it sounds. It’s by Lolo Creek Distillery out of Lolo, Montana.

Isopropyl
- Thats the spirit!
- I don't recommend drinking that...
  
  I've been using it (70%) to prep my face before hair removal sessions, soaked onto a cotton ball. But the effect is that I can somewhat taste the stuff. Not terrible, but not good. Intriguing. Which got me to thinking, I wonder how desperate a person would have to be to drink this...
  
  I don't drink alcohol of any kind. Hence the submission of the close I have to such.

Mekhong Whisky. The spirit that Thais drink when they can't afford Jack Daniels. Has no relation to actual whisky as far as I can tell. It smells and tastes like the glue we used in kindergarten.
Or maybe sea-buckthorn liquor. Made from a shrubbery that grows on the northern German islands, it tastes sweet, citrusy and slightly salty, but not in a good way.

Habanero Brandy Liqueur from Flying Leap Vineyards & Distillery in Elgin, AZ.
It uses a derivative from the production of their Habanero chili wine, the neutral grape spirits they use to sterilize the habaneros that would normally be discarded. The result is undrinkably hot, but they found they could dilute it and combine with a grape brandy and cane simple for a nice spicy result. Not as spicy as you'd think to be honest considering it is habanero.
Goes really well in hot chocolate this time of year.
https://www.flyingleapvineyards.com/product/habanero-brandy-liqueur-200-ml-/

I guess the spirit itself - vodka - is not unusual, however I like to infuse local produce, and I have a fucking delicious passionflower vodka made from ripe local fruits. I also had a pawpaw rum, but that has a short shelf life so I had to imbibe it quickly.
- Vodka in and of itself is not that unusual, but there are unusual vodkas, and I would absolutely classify home made passionflower vodka as beeing unusual.
  At the moment Inonly have one bottle of vodka at home, a bottle of Nemiroff DeLux vodka from Ukraine, I just saw it at Systembolaget and thought it was a cool way to both get Vodka and in a small way support Ukraine.
  I also have a bottle of Japanese rice vodka on order, I mainly ordered it as it has a beautiful bottle.

A bottle of Canadian Club legit from 1963. We drank it neat while watching Mad Men.

Pisang Ambon, banana liqueur, I tried it in a bar in Spain, really liked it, and bought it. But what do you do with Banana Liqueur in your house? Nothing mixes well with that. Occasionally I sip it, but I've had it a decade and drunk maybe a third.
- But what do you do with Banana Liqueur in your house? Nothing mixes well with that.
  Try mixing it with vanilla ice cream? I dunno, that sounds like it could be f'n delicious as one of those ice cream drinks (like grasshoppers are vanilla ice cream and creme de menthe)
  Try it and let me know! :-P
- I wonder if you could use banana liqueur with milk and ice cream to make an aloholic banana milkshake...
  I just found Pisang Ambon at Systembolaget, what an intencly colored bottle!
  
  I'm sure there's one you could but the one I have curdles the milk. That was one of the first things I tried.

Probably the earl Grey infused gin I've had in a decanter for 4 years now. It's pretty goof, but hard to mix with

Partner made a jalapeño infusion we call jalapeño-cello (as in limoncello)
Seven Caves Tiki Gin is pretty unusual. Fruity.
And some odd amari I suppose!

Becherovka, it's an herbal alcohol, kind of a cousin to Jägermeister.
Best described as "Christmas in a bottle."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Becherovka

Malort
Warning: it tastes like grapefruit flavored floor cleaner
- And if you wanna see God / create the five loko get yourself some charged lemonade
- Not unusual here.
  It was when I was living in California though.
  It's bad, sure. But it's not as bad as people make it out to be. I always join in when I convince people to drink it for the first time.

Centerba. It means hundred grasses in Italian. It tastes like grain alcohol infused with whatever they cut down in a field. Maybe a hint of mint too? It's fluorescent green now because food coloring is cheaper than bright green glass apparently.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centerbe
- That looks really cool, I will have to try and get one just for the look if nothing else

Absinthe and calvados are probably the most unusual here.

I just got a bottle of malort. Yes. It's vile. Bitter, herbal, barely sweet, acrid, astringent.... It's bad.
I have a whiskey aged on chestnut. It's very good. Different than all the oak whiskey out there. A little earthier?
I have a bottle of aquardiente. It's kind of a minty drink. Not good or bad persay.
Ouzo and absinthe are pretty typical I guess. Rhubarb liqueur and I'm not sure what to do with it.

Zwack Unicum from Hungary and 58% Kaoling sorghum liquor from Taiwan. The Kaoling can melt the bottom of plastic cups.
Had a bottle of fermented mare's milk Kumis gifted from Kazakhstan, but it tasted like rancid cheese. Didn't want to risk keeping it around once the bottle had been opened.

The spirit of Christmas future.

You should post this in !cocktails@lemmy.world too.
There are a couple of things I have to order online, that aren't in the shop here but I like - Heirloom Pineapple Amaro is one. I do make liqueurs so those I guess are the rarest. Like someone else in this thread, I tried infusing cocoa nibs, but in whiskey and it was similarly awful.
- I wanted the largest reach to get as many responses as possible, so this community seemed like the best bet.
  Can you crosspost like on reddit here?
  
  Yes, the copy button at the top.

Just finished off a bottle of chartreuse.
Now it would be sacrificio, a type of mezcal.
Most unique I've had might be Zirbenz stone pine liqueur.
- I was gonna say chartreuse isn't that exotic but then I remembered I'm French and it might be, when you're not.

I have a 5000 yo former prince of some whacky kingdom I can’t pronounce. His head is partly caved-in but he’s generally cheerful despite his gruesome cause of death. He lives (haunts?) in the sink but comes out to scare the dog and MIL. Classic white robe type deal but older than the usual ghosts I encounter.
- You should bottle him, that would be a unique part of your home bar

A jar of what I've been told is legitimate moonshine from Popcorn Sutton

A bottle of Sam Adams Utopia
- It's like a punch in the face. We bought 2 bottles, passed one around on my wedding night and most people hated it, it's so strong, we didn't even finish it. I ended up giving that one to a buddy, and I still have the other bottle, but I haven't found a reason to crack it open yet.
- I've always wanted to try it. They passed around a bottle to sniff on the brewery tour and the thick maple syrup smell was intoxicating.

A handle of tequila with cacao nibs added. I do infusions, and this was a failed experiment. Should have tried it in a mason jar.
Though it usually works out well. I have a bottle of premium Costco vodka with two anise stars and some simple syrup added. It's like a homemade ouzo and delightfully sippable for $18 a handle. I also have slices of pear in another bottle, and it's yummy. And a mason jar of bourbon with black peppercorns, which I like to splash into an Old Fashioned.
Hot tip: Buying flavored liquor is expensive and never as good as infusing it yourself.
- Have you tried it with Sichuan peppercorns? I hear it's really different.

Jumex.
The straight up instant refreshment of chugging a jumex after I get off work is far more pleasing than alcohol IMO.
- There have been a few people mentooning not drinking alcohol, so perhaps the next thread will be about "what is the must unusual non alcoholic ingredient in your home bar?"

Her name is Gladys and she a kind gho- ooooh
Screwball. Does that count as a spirit?

Spirits of my dead balkan grandmothers and some decent greenery. Alcohol is for losers.
- Noted.

This one: https://feddit.uk/post/5822127

It's not particularly rare but the we have a spiced rum called Kilo Kai. It's mostly sold near Chicago.
We've had a consistent supply from visiting family members over the last few years.

117 comments