Three Times A Lady

Please, No More!

Day 139, Cocktails 137, 138 & 139

So just where the heck did schnapps come from anyway?  Well, schnapps linguistically comes from Germany where the reference is to any strong, distilled alcoholic beverage.  These typically were distilled from fruits and, in fact, schnapps type beverages can be found all over Europe.  Of course, once we got a hold of it in America we had to add sugars (mostly in the form of high fructose corn syrup, yeech) and turn into something that frat boys could use to get sorority girls drunk.  Sigh.

Tonight, I bring my quest for a cocktail using peppermint schnapps to an end.  To my credit, I am going down swinging, but I just don’t see it happening.  For those of you who enjoy watching slow motion train wrecks, please keep reading.

The first effort tonight was pulled from the CocktailDB web site.  I did an ingredient search on peppermint schnapps and something called the Milwaukee Madness caught my eye.  Madness is correct for this cocktail as that is what this is – sheer madness.

  Milwaukee Madness

•  1 oz bourbon
• 3/4 oz peppermint schnapps
• 1 dash of bitters

Combine the ingredients in a rocks glass with 4-5 ice cubes.  Stir and serve.

If you enjoy cough syrup, you’ll enjoy this.  If you are a 19 year old sorority sister, you’ll enjoy this.  If you like a well made cocktail, then, well, you’ll be out of luck.

Unfortunately, hubris set in and I became convinced that I could make something enjoyable out of this mess.  I decided to amp up the bourbon content and add another liqueur to the mix.  Being a fan of maraschino liqueur I decided to go in that direction.

  Milwaukee Madness (Take Two)

• 1-1/2 oz bourbon
• 3/4 oz peppermint schnapps
• 1/4 oz Luxardo maraschino liqueur
• 2 dashes bitters

Combine the ingredients in a rocks glass with 4-5 ice cubes.  Stir and serve.

Ok, so I could finally taste a bit of bourbon and the maraschino helped subdue the schnapps a bit… but this is still too damn pepperminty syrupy.

But, being who I am, I decided to take one last stab at this.  I swapped out the maraschino liqueur for cherry heering, hoping the darker cherry flavor and inherent smokiness would subdue the schnapps and make it play nice. 

  Milwaukee Madness (Take Three)

• 1-1/2 oz bourbon
• 3/4 oz peppermint schnapps
• 1/4 oz cherry heering
• 2 dashes bitters

Combine the ingredients in a rocks glass with 4-5 ice cubes.  Stir and serve.

Uncle!  I give up.  This version is actually a step backwards towards the cough syrup end of the spectrum.

So what did I learn?  That I’m gonna’ have to either dump the peppermint schnapps or wait for a sorority party to break out at the Twilight Lounge in order to get rid of this stuff.  Maybe I’ll just stick it in the fridge and pass it off on unwitting friends playing Mexican sweat at the next party…

By the way, you find these recipes in the index because I really don’t want to ever drink them again!

Cheers!