Schiedam Salute

 

Schiedam is the southern town of Holland known for its particularly rich flavored malt barley gin. Advocaat is also a Dutch spirit made with eggs, sugar and brandy. The idea of combining the two suggests something thick and potent--even heavy on the calories. I'm happy to say, however, that this cocktail is quite balanced, though it is a dessert drink. The Schiedam Salute is a good way to get to know often misunderstood or maligned Dutch heritage spirits. 

My journey to arriving at this cocktail has involved making both the Schiedam gin and the advocaat, because both ingredients are pretty much impossible to find where I live. But Youtube has lots of videos on how to make advocaat that is as good as or better than Dutch brands. I also modeled my gin after Bols barrel aged genever, by tasting and comparing until I got the steeped ingredients just right. It was a matter of using white whiskey infused with juniper berries and a few fresh herbs and then topping it off with malt barley whiskey with some age to give the gin a nice barrel finish. 

All this sounds really heavy, and it is. But this much citrus really spreads the cocktail out into something you might have before getting into bed (or after getting out of it, as is sometimes the case). I used Aguardiente in place of Galliano as a mild and sweet anise spirit substitute. The only difference is that Galliano has vanilla flavor, but then so does my advocaat, so that seemed unnecessary. The final result was like combining eggnog with a Harvey Wallbanger. There was the familiar vanilla, anise and citrus of the Wallbanger with the creaminess that was almost like having egg white dropped in.

• 2 oz. genever/ jenever (homemade Scheidam gin used)
• 1 oz. advocaat (homemade used)
• 2 oz. orange juice
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. Galliano (Aguardiente used)

Shake all ingredients except Galliano (or anise spirit) with ice in a cocktail shaker and strain into a chilled highball glass. Float Galliano (or anise spirit) on top. (Note: I didn't think that the highball was the proper size for a 5 oz. drink with no ice. By all means use one if it is all you have, but I went with a whiskey sour glass for a more appropriate size and very effective container for a cocktail with a scented float.)