Ask Lemmy

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.

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.

A small bottle of the delightfully named Unicum:

Really not sure where it came from, we just found it one day!

I thought you were speaking of ghosts or demons and the like 😂

Icelandic lichen liquor. Tastes like forest.

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.

A corn liquor. It tastes like corn? It tastes wonderful 1:2 with bourbon.

Jeppson’s malort. It tastes like grapefruit and diesel fuel. It’s passable watered down with as much Squirt as you have.

You guys have homes?

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

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

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

Double Double Oaked bourbon, you could only find it for sale on site at the distiller in Kentucky. It tastes like sweet charcoal.

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.

Isopropyl

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Malort

Warning: it tastes like grapefruit flavored floor cleaner

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-/

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

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!

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

Absinthe and calvados are probably the most unusual here.