Biffy Cocktail

This cocktail was an epic journey for me. I had to acquire the ingredients to make Swedish Punsch, a cocktail in itself that used to be sold bottled and can now only be found in Scandinavia. 

I got the recipe from several I found online and made adjustments for the strength of the flavors I was working with. Central to this recipe is Batavia Arrack--a rice yeast cane sugar infusion from Indonesia that is itself difficult to find. The recipe for this is already posted earlier. Then I went about making this cocktail several times.

The first Biffy Cocktail I made was with Icelandc Vor, a heavily barley tasting gin from Iceland (shown above.) This might have been overkill, and I feel it covered over the flavor of the Swedish Punsch. On second go, I felt that Vitae Modern Gin (right) with its rum base and funky sugar smell did the drink the best justice. I also added a touch of sugar to balance the lemon juice, which also has a way of covering things, especially since it was a lot of work getting the lemon essence into the Swedish Punch without using juice.

Lastly, I don't know why such a good drink has such a bad name. Biffy is the old fashioned term for the outhouse. That's cute, but it doesn't speak well of what is really a complex cocktail. 

• 2 oz. gin
• 1 oz. Swedish Punsch (homemade used)
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. sugar (recommended)

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.