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Honestly Greg, I want more of these "I try and come up with drinks" series. I love watching you be creative, and test everything out. It's fascinating to see how your pallet interacts, and what things you can pull from your bum to try and make this stuff work. This is my favorite content of yours, and so if we can get more wild and hair brained things, I'm totally in!
I love how the parrot bay rum is so bad that he just buried it with 2.5 oz of good rum, orgeot, grenadine and fresh pineapple juice. I feel like the drink would have tasted just the same without the parrot bay
Life's just too short to go around drinking bad liquor just because you're embarrassed to pour it down the drain. Those microorganisms living in your pipes deserve an opportunity to experience just how bad "it" is.
Haha and could do "The Poor Nerd" on the flip side one good liquor carrying a bunch of bottom barrel liquors. Like someone trying to make the 10 percent effort of the rest of the group actually mesh. Tastes like a stressful B.
One of my friends lived in Taiwan for a few years, and informed me that the younger generation often drinks Baiju mixed with coca cola and a sprinkle of salt. The same friend bought a bottle to torture us with and I tried the mixture. Strangely enough, it worked! The salt was absolutely necessary, but I don't have the expertise to explain how. I'd love to see you revisit this and maybe try whipping up a cocktail with a salty lean to the flavor to see if you can figure out what sort of magic is going on to make it work.
the salt probably helps cut the bitter/mildew aspects of some of the flavours. I picked up a bottle of some sort of mostly huang jiu (mostly rice, but also some soy?) and it's got these weird bitter, moldy notes. Haven't really tried using it in cocktails because if you're trying so hard to cover up the flavour, why not just use something else? I've taken to using it for cooking and oddly enough the weird flavours disappear -- perhaps the salt, perhaps the heat, perhaps all the other ingredients and aromatics.
I think it makes sense. I find there's a mineral edge to a lot of baijiu and the adding of salt complements that, while rounding off the edges so it doesn't go in hard with the coke. Coke actually lends itself well to savoury/spicy options; the Indians have a thing called masala coke, which is just coke with a sprinkle of black salt (kala namak) and masala spices. Not everyone's thing but it actually works reasonably well. Once you neuter the strong chemical smells of the baijiu, you basically have a vodka/coke with a bit of a grain-mold edge. Said it in a separate comment but I agree, the more savoury route is the way to go. We already use grain wine/spirit in cooking, so leaning into that, something that uses the earthier elements like ginger and pepper on a coke or coke-like base would really work well.
Salt suppresses the perception of bitterness. A pinch of salt makes an amazing difference in bad coffee, too. (The free stuff from there machine at work becomes drinkable, if still not good.)
I live in Taiwan and it’s actually really good. Locals freeze it and drink it. It’s strong, sweet, and smooth. Not supposed to be ingested at room temp.
I had a similar take on Screwball when I first tried it. I thought it was too sweet for me. I didn't want to have picked up a bottle for nothing though, so I set about coming up with a drink to use it in. First thing I came up with was a peanut butter cup using just the Screwball and chocolate bitters. That was good since the bitters helped cut the sweetness, but I wanted to try something with citrus. With the help of a co-worker, I came up with the Siam Swizzle. Named after a favorite Thai restaurant in town, this drink has become a favorite of my wife. 2.5 oz peanut butter whiskey 0.75oz lime juice 0.25oz lemon juice 0.25oz simple syrup 12 drops Napa Valley Tamarind Lime Chili Bitters 2 dashes Fee Brothers Whiskey Barrel-Aged Bitters 6 to 8 small Thai Basil leaves Put the basil leaves in a highball glass and press them against the inside with your bar spoon to express the oils. No need to muddle them. Then build the rest of the drink in the glass, add crushed ice, and swizzle the drink. You can also shake this drink, open pour it into your glass, and use the basil as a garnish. It's just not a swizzle then.
I love Greg frantically trying to cover up the pineapple rum with anything he can think of. It was the addition of actual pineapple juice that really sold it for me.
My sister lives in Taiwan, and I've visited a few times. Lovely place! Kaoliang is the single worst spirit created by any civilization. I also always buy a small bottle on my way out, mainly to get my friends to taste it prefaced with "hey wanna taste the worst liquor", and I'm thrilled to try this
Viewers: "What is that stuff?" Greg: "Black bitter blood of the Earth." Viewers: "You mean coffee liqueur?" Greg: "No, I mean black bitter blood of the Earth."
I have a submission for this series! My mom is an insane person who likes her whiskey sour with a pinch of salt instead of Simple Syrup or sugar of any kind. She seems to like it best with a Canadian whiskey like Crown Royal or a strong bourbon like Wild Turkey 101. She loves how the egg white mellows it out. I would love to see what you think of this drink.
Exactly. It's for the kind of people who prefer dry red wines and islay scotch. Drinks with absolutely minimal sweetness but a lot of complexity. You can throw in a squeeze of tangerine juice to take it up a notch. The salt level is delicate though. If you overdo it it tastes terrible.
"It's not the bottles, it's how you mix them." Would love to see more of this. Reminds me of the time me & my friends ended up with a bottle of campari and had no idea what to do with it. We tried drinking it straight and quicky learned that was a mistake, we christened it "cherry assholes" and then made a game of trying (and failing) to mix it with things until it was gone.
To be clear, we did eventually find a use for it by adding small amounts to things to give them that slight cherry flavor. But yeah, drinking it straight is an obvs bad idea. Lol.
I like the inclusion of screwball. Something that’s not a bad product, but doesn’t have a lot of utility. Super insightful on how to be a better bartender with ingredients you don’t necessarily want.
On a similar note, I think it'd be fun to see an episode on the theme of "I got this weird bottle for one very specific drink that I'm now over. What else can I do with it?"
I'm surprised you didn't take the Skewball in a more savory direction. Would be interesting to see what could be done to make it taste more like a spicy peanut sauce ( Satay? ). Like an eastern cousin to the Bloody Mary.
Thai peanut sauce tastes more like peanuts or peanut butter from a jar. Greg said Skrewball tastes like the highly sugary PB you'd get in a Reese's cup. Doesn't sound like that'd work well for a satay or a pad thai.
I'm a palaeontologist, and I was invited to serve on an advisory panel for the creation of geoparks in China about a decade ago: At a formal banquet, I asked to taste a local liquor and I was served something akin to kaoliang. Not only was I then exclusively served the stuff for the rest of the hours-long dinner, but protocol dictated that I matched my hosts drink for drink. The memory alone is still enough to make me retch. In case you've never had it before, not only is it intensely pungent as you drink it, but you can taste baijiu for days afterward. I know that this opinion is sometimes seen as demeaning towards Chinese culture, but "acquired taste" doesn't even begin to describe it.
Yes! Love this! The number of times I’ve looked at my liquor shelf like “ what else can I do with this bottle of Chambord, 101 peppermint schnapps, and apple pucker….”🤣
Chambord works pretty well in a tequila sunrise: I kind of copy the Difford's Guide recipe, replacing the cassis with the Chambord. You're only using 1/4oz of Cham at a time but that'll empty it out over a while.
I've got a similar collection. People would bring random alcohol over to make shots and just leave them at my house so I end up with a mishmash of booze that doesn't work in anything besides that one specific shot.
I know this sounds weird, but I make a Pad Thai drink with screwball. Strong Ginger Beer, Screwball, lime juice, and Peychaud bitters. You can pretty much guess what the ratios would be. Better than the traditional peanut butter cup drinks.
my first thought for peanut butter whiskey was also Thai food. I was thinking more along the lines of cilantro, lemongrass, and chili. But yours is an elegant solution. Mine would take a lot of dialing in.
To me the most obvious move for the PeanutButter whiskey would be to put it into a boozey hot chocolate in much the same way people add kaluha or baileys to coffee drinks.
@@monicawitt9368 maybe? Like a sort of mixed berry liquor? Probably not something too cheap as it’ll taste like straight syrup, but something in the mid range
It's still DEFINITELY on the sweet side of things, but I had surprisingly good luck using Skrewball as a modifier to an Irish Coffee. Including it in a hot drink brings out some of the nuttier flavors, and the coffee helps tame the syrupiness. I bet you could even completely forego the brown sugar in the "classic" Irish Coffee and just use the Skrewball.
I love seeing people's reactions to baijiu. (Kaoliang is a type of baijiu.) There are many different kinds of baijiu; most are extremely potent in both alcohol content and flavor. I love it, but it is definitely not to everybody's taste. Though I usually drink it neat, I have experimented with mixing it. I have a bottle of kaoliang that is the same brand as the one in the video but is only 38% alcohol, and it isn't quite so potent. Its dominant flavor element is earthy, but it also has that lovely flavor of something-went-bad-in-an-interesting-way. (I also have a 58% kaoliang that has strong floral/medicinal notes but doesn't really remind me of a wet sheepdog. It's a different brand.) The 38% kaoliang goes nicely with citrus in a margarita-style drink or with Campari and vermouth in a negroni-style drink. Sauce-fragrance baijiu (Moutai is the most famous) is quite different from kaoliang. It has a strong umami note along with the usual baijiu funk. I find that the cheaper, simpler versions of it go very well with grapefruit. I don't mix the expensive stuff - it is wonderful on its own.
Honestly the last one had me thinking Eldritch Sour since it seemed to instantly cause madness. Funny how you too eventually settled on it being some cosmic horror of a drink.
Greg: 1. I would love to see more of these. Absolutely, Malort and Jeremiah Weed would both be hilarious to see you mix 2. There is a place in Dayton Ohio called Warped wing that makes their own root beer. They mix that with screwball and it's actually quite good (I also share your dislike for screwball so I was surprised I liked it)
@@davidl5452 hahaha yo, that might not be half bad. Ill have to ask them about that. The rootbeer might be a touch on the sweet side but it could probably work. Love the name tho.
Damn. Used to think I was a semi good bartender, then started watching this channel and realised I had a lot to learn. But damn I've been enjoying these videos the last couple of days. Loved being a bartender, and making wacky things from what people felt like drinking. This is just fulfilling to watch, and entertaining. Big props, this is a good ass channel to sub to
This reminds me of the Food Network show Chopped, where chefs are given unusual mystery ingredients to work with and make a presentable dish. It would be cool if you could organize some of the youtube cocktail channels and host your own mini "Chopped" but with unusual spirits, liqueurs, etc. The only challenging thing is you wouldn't be able to taste their drinks from afar.
Sure he could, he could just give them the ingredients, let them decide which way they want to go with those ingredients, then simply send him the recipes to try and he picks the best.
i used to work at a brunch place that would make a manhattan variant that was 2 dashes chocolate bitters, 2oz screwball, .5oz st george raspberry liqueur, and .5oz dry vermouth. it sold rly well actually
@@jaredbobier2844 it has bitters, whiskey and vermouth clearly its a riff on a manhattan lmfao they at no point claimed it WAS a manhattan, stop having autism
Genuinely surprised Malort wasn't in here. I guess he was serious when he said it wasn't in the same league of bad. PS, they can call Skrewball whiskey for the same reason they can call Fireball whiskey.
My friends in FLA host pool parties in the summer and I am always in charge of "Liquor Cabinet Clearing" ( made with the whatnot people always gift or leave at parties) and there is ALWAYS Parrot Bay rum in it. It's actually not bad if tart and sour juices like bottled cherry/cranberry and fresh lime/orange are added to it. I always call it "After Prom Punch" - it's super strong, fruity in a nondescript way and tastes like the drinks you had when you were 17.
That made me think of like Del Monte's Fruit Cocktail which contains peaches, pears, grapes, pineapple and cherries. I wonder how it would be with white grape juice, peach juice, pear liquor, parrot bay and garnished with a maraschino cherry. Thinking like 2oz grape juice 1oz peach juice 1oz pear liquor 1oz parrot bay garnish with 2 cherries.
@@YouKnowWhereYouWentWrong Thanks, I was trying to think of how to make a proper cocktail out of it and not just some kind of shot type of drink. I'm just worried about peach juice being too sweet and strong but subbing peach schnapps would have made it far too heavy alcohol wise and as far as I know there is no ready easy to find pear juice out there. I would prefer pear and do the same parts of that and grape. Mind you this is thinking in lines of a clear/clean cocktail, I do think my original thought may work nicely as a frozen cocktail (Blended with crushed ice)
@@matthewuzulis5016 I think doing 1/2 oz peach schnapps instead of 1 oz peach juice would make a fantastic frozen drink. You'll get the full peach flavor with a slight bump of alcohol, but blending it with crushed ice will weaken the total % of alcohol by probably a third and it won't be as strong as doing it shaken and done over cubes.
Around when I was much younger and very broke, my roommate's girlfriend brought over half a bottle of Parrot Bay coconut. Really vile stuff. We eventually mixed it with Hawaiian Punch Fruit Juicy Red and it tasted just like Tiger Blood snow cone. It would give you a guaranteed hangover if you drank a lot of it, but it served us well enough to kill the awful bottle.
I did a PB&J old fashioned style drink with a blackberry simple syrup and the peanut butter whiskey. Came out pretty decent but you can’t drink more than 1 without feeling like it’s too sweet
I work at a liquor store and when people discover peanut butter “whiskey” they always ask me, “What do you do with that?” We eventually got to where you did, but we also suggest PB&J shots (add Chambord) or what I termed The Elvis (add banana liquor and garnish w/bacon). Anyway, as a beer drinker who understands wine but also has to sell spirits I appreciate these types of videos because I am not a bartender.
A series like this is perfect because I always get bottles of weird stuff from people. They just tell me "well you're good with cocktails, you'll find a use for it." Vids like this get the creative juices going to do just that
Skrewball is very much a "main note" flavor. Doesn't especially matter what you cut it with, peanut butter is gonna be front and center if you use any appreciable amount. That said, it combines quite well with fruity liqueurs. An ounce of Skrewball, two ounces of any kind of fruit or berry liqueur (I love black raspberry, personally), stirred into some soda over ice will make you a fizzy PB&J of your preferred flavor.
Just started watching the video, but as a concept, I love the idea of a "cocktail rescue". Take a drink that's bad and fix it, or take a set of bottles that you're ashamed to own and how do you use them (saving the bottle from the drain, lol)
I'd especially want that concept mixed with the "Customer is always wrong" episode. Make the ordered drink as is to show how wrong the customer is, then try to salvage it
mine + my parents's (I store some of my liquor there as I lack space) would make for quite the ride with the more eclectic ingredients lol (including Poitin for an extra measure of pain)
I've made very good drinks from Screwball. For ex: "Horchata" 1.5oz Japanese Rice Whiskey .5oz Screwball .5oz Frangelico 1oz oat milk Dash cinnamon Squeeze of cinnamon syrup Shake and strain on ice
Usually even if my palate disagrees with him I can understand where he's coming from, but screwball isn't bad. It might not taste like whiskey but it tastes good
@@nk-dw2hm I know what you mean... Straight that can be too sweet and cause uneasyness, easily. As a mixer, so many possibilities! Like with Banana liquor
I would love a series about making good drinks with the cheapest alcohol like store brand stuff in the plastic bottles, and then get us familiar with the thought process for how to balance the flavors and cover up bad flavors.
This is amazing, thank you! Being half Taiwanese, I’m very familiar with being treated to shots of kaoliang (GAU-lee-ong, with lee-ong blending together into one syllable) at the end of a night. We usually keep it in the freezer. It’s definitely… odd… but at least it smells less like farm than Chinese maotai! I figured there was something in there that could be worked with but, as you’ve seen, so much that makes it difficult to use. Well done. Good name, too. Also, orgeat is magic.
I've only ever had Screwball in an "Elvis." It was mixed with a creamy banana liqueur and garnished with bacon as I recall. Nope, nope, nope... but my wife liked it.
Its a take on the " fried peanut butter banana and bacon sandwich " supposedly one of Elvis Presley's favorite sandwiches. The other one he really loved was the "fools gold loaf" You take a loaf of French bread (no, I'm not making the portions up ) split in half lengthwise and Layer on: 1 32 ounce jar of peanut butter, 1 32 ounce jar of grape jelly and a full pound of bacon. Enjoy...
As someone who likes to cook, I love the idea of this becoming a series. I truly think that any flavor can be made enjoyable, and I like that challenge in drink form.
Please continue with this series.; it’s amazing for you to make good, if not drinkable cocktails. Here’s a request: make drinks use cheap AND Bad liquor (like a Mad Dog 20/20 as an example).
"A kazeen? Oh, a business cuisine." The tasting notes are a beautiful part of this series. Never change. Also Greg, don't ever change either. You bring me such joy.
This could totally be a series, making up new drinks starting with one bizarre ingredient! We've definitely acquired some over time that just don't seem to have many obvious use cases, it would be fun to get some ideas for stuff like that
Great stuff, definitely can try again! Stuff like this and "The Customer is Always Wrong" are pretty entertaining. The cursed cocktails stuff gets a bit gross for my tastes, like those aren't meant to be any good.
one of the fun experiences ive had is my mother making *screwball soaked gummy bears*. ungodly flavors. just the worst. no one touched them past the first few tastes, they ended up sitting in the fridge for months ("you never pour out booze! its too much of a waste!!") until we had to throw out a perfectly good glass jar bc no one wanted to open that nightmare again.
An ex girlfriend of mine used to work in Kinmen, Taiwan, so I had my fair share of Kaoliang. There are some Kaoliang cocktails you can find in bars near there and in Taipei, but overall impressed with the process! By the way I'm pretty sure its pronounced as if it were spelled "galiung".
I got the skrewball specifically to mess around with a cocktail idea: a peanut butter jelly cocktail. What I ended up doing was basically a whiskey sour base with less whiskey and then adding equal parts chambord and skrewball in place of the sweetener.
Great episode. It never fails, when you throw a party there is always someone who brings a bottle of something that they don’t like or don’t know what to do with it and now you are saddled with. Great ideas.. Thanks Greg you are always creative.
Hey Greg, stumbled across your videos lately and have been wanting to get into mixology. I don't have any of the tools, or mixers etc so I've just been mixing what I've got on hand. Recently came up with a drink I like to call Pink Drink (it's fun to say when your tipsy). I don't have anything to measure so it's all rough estimations and pour to taste, but here goes. (Main ingredients were chilled prior so no need for ice) Roughly 4. oz Lemon flavored seltzer (I used la croix) .5-1 oz. Tequila (I used Cuervo Especial) 1ish oz. vodka (used Tito's) A splash of cranberry juice (basically just enough to give it a pink hue) 2 squirts of concentrate lemon juice 1 Teaspoon of sugar Stir until the sugar is decently disolved And that's it! I don't know is this is already a thing, or close to something that already exists, but anyway I was hoping you might try out The Pink Drink, give your thoughts and perhaps give it the Greg touch. Also, love your show, it's whats inspiring me to get into mixology and cocktail making
I work at a liquor store, the moment I saw the Skrewball, I started giggling cause that shit is so damn popular it's not even funny. We run out of it on the regular. One thing I consistently suggest to customers though, is mixing it with Howler Head Bourbon, go a bit of Elvis with it with a peanut butter banana sandwich sort of thing.
This was really fun to watch! My husband and I genuinely hope that you will do more. Surely there are others like us who don’t have a lot of experience with alcohol and don’t know what to do with certain bottles now that they’ve elevated their tastes and/or liquor cabinet.
Id love to see a penut butter pie egg whip! The penut butter whiskey, vanilla whiskey, and a little almond liquor. I think that would be an amazing drink!
A bar near me uses a combination of Skrewball Whiskey, Creme de Banana and Chocolate bitters. It smells like a peanut butter and banana sandwich and tastes like a peanut butter and banana shake. It sounds like a weird old fashion, so I assume it uses a similar build as that. 2 oz Skrewball, .5 oz Creme de Banana and a few shakes of the chocolate bitters.
I'm sure anyone that's ever had even a passing interested in mixology has that special bottle of the rankest, nastiest swill given by a relative or a friend. I'd love to see more episodes like this. Save us from these bottled horrors Greg!
Interesting video. I hope you continue making these! I would have done 1.5oz of bourbon, 1oz of Screwball, 1/2oz of Ancho Reyes, and 1/2oz of lime juice with a single dash of either angostura or peychaud's. Kind of a riff on the idea of a satay or spicy peanut flavor.
More shows like this please! All of us have some unfortunate bottles in our collections (why don't we throw these away !?) so I think it is actually useful to see your approach to making something useful out of them. Specifically I would appreciate a way to use a whiskey with a _strong _*_acetone_* note. I can't drink these. How would I bury that?
I can tell you why we don't throw them out, it's the sunk cost fallacy. We spent good money on those bottles, dammit, and we're gonna get drunk off of them!
Gotta say skrewball isn't "terrible" its just weird - and difficult to work with because of it... Sweet peanut butter? Like what do you do with it besides make a peanutbutter cup inspired drink? (Which is really quite good by the way)
I grow a after eight mint.. the plant smells and tastes exactly like the chocolate mint candy. Incorporating something like that would be good in that first drink. Maybe a garnish or stir/shake it like in a Chicago southside
I'd love to see a part two! Honestly just more vids from you in general lol. I've loved watching your vids for well over a year now, you even inspired me to get my own mixing gear and a couple books with countless recipes to try and make
I dont drink much. I cant remember the last time i drank any kind of alcohol... even beer. Im a pothead so i just focus on that. But while im getting stoned your videos have become some of my favorite stuff to watch. Its mostly you so bravo bro. Uoure entertaining af even when talking about stuff i have zero interest in. I found you from the critical role stuff then saw your video with brennan and absolutely loved it.
This video unironically makes me want to get some Kaoliang Liquor to see if I can do something with it. The line "If you can convince people that Fernet is good, you could convince people that this is good" kind of sold me. Since the only way to work with it is to match it, I can't help but wonder how it might stand up to Absinthe.
Hey Greg, I have recently watched a ton of your videos and subscribed to see more. As a chef, I love food and drinks and especially how they are paired together in a delicious meal. I saw that you already talked about aperitifs and digestifs, as well as cocktails and wines that are suitable to pair with certain meals. However, while many American/European cuisines often only pair wines with a meal that has multiple courses (and sometimes beers or cocktails), I think Japanese sake is highly undervalued in this regard. Sake can be used as a cooking ingredient, just like wine, and also pairs really well with many types of food you find in diner meals. I could not find a video in your vast library that covered sake and I hope you consider doing an episode on this subject. Cheers/Sláinte from the Netherlands!
I used the Screwball and a fig liqueur to make a PB&J manhattan: 2oz of Screwball, 3/4oz of sweet vermouth, 1/4oz of fig liqueur, 1 bar spoon of demerara simple syrup. Definitely tasted like a PB&J, and was a hit with the crowd I served it to.
I'd love to see more of this series - your creativity with flavor is one of my favorite things about this channel. You could also take this in the opposite direction and use top-shelf booze; I've noticed this weird stigma around using really good bottles in cocktails. You could make drinks that highlight the profile of the high end bottle while still being, y'know, a cocktail.
I actually love Fernet. The industry workers at my local bar turned me onto it, I loved it the first time I tasted it. I like to sip it straight lol. Also: Anyone ever notice how handsy Greg gets when he's drunk? Haha, he's all over the curves of those bottles.
Since Fernet made a cameo in this video, I’d love to see him make a drink with it as the base spirit. Also, Slivovitz would make for a funny segment too in my opinion
The first time I drank Malort, instead of gagging like my friends expected, I immediately started theorizing how to build a cocktail with it. DO NOT add lemon or lime juice. It only exaggerates the bitterness. I ended up doing 2oz of Malort, 1oz of Falernum, and 1 oz of benedictine, which was probably more than it needed.
I found it works out pretty well in a Bloody Mary. The herbal flavors of the malort really go well with all the veggie flavors going on in a Bloody Mary. But yeah, Malort is mostly a drink based on a dare. I once convinced my uncle who was training to be a sommelier to drink straight Malort. He said it ruined him for a week.
I lived in Kinmen for a year and everyone on the island drinks Kaoliang for every celebration!! There is only one factory in the world on Kinmen Island that makes it and the recipe is a secret. It's a huge point of pride for the local culture. I got 3 bottles as gifts over the year I worked as a teacher. No one makes cocktails though, you have to do it as shots because it tastes like actual gasoline and burns. But if you build up a tolerance the local uncles will respect you. I'm so impressed you made something to cover that flavor!!
Have not tried it myself, but have been told that adding some skrewball to swiss miss hot cocoa is incredible. I am diabetic, and allergic to artificial sweeteners, so I avoid hot chocolate
@@Ulixes_the_Wanderer I do make that occasionally. or a home made hot chocolate mix with cocoa powder, powdered milk and use dark agave nectar as a sweetener
My brother made quite a tasty and interesting drink with skrewball actually. I made him a tonka bean liqueur for Christmas and he came up with a drink with skrewball coffee liqueur and the tonka liqueur. it was a tad sweet(but far from overbearingly sweet) but otherwise the combination of those makes for one of the coolest and most unique evolutions in a drink ive ever tasted.
Funny I saw this yesterday, the same day I also had to be creative with Screwball. Earlier I was looking at that bottle I got as a gift and which is way too sweet for my taste. I opted to do a hard coffee. 2/3 espresso coffee and 1/3 Screwball. Nothing more. It was pretty good.
My partner is a big fan of just mixing screwball with grapejuice for a Peanut Butter Jelly angle, certainly isn't going to do anything to reduce the sweetness if that bothers you, though.
hadn't watched in a little while, worst bottles in the bar brought me back good energy and excitement, also I tend to be the one that likes the things most people hate. Thanks Greg!
16:57 Honestly, call it a Hair Tonic. That's kind of the impression I get watching the poor, and I knew exactly what you meant when you said it. I'm sure you could sell it as a dare cocktail in a college bar.
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is good
Is very good
Is very very good
Is very very very good
Give me more
Honestly Greg, I want more of these "I try and come up with drinks" series. I love watching you be creative, and test everything out. It's fascinating to see how your pallet interacts, and what things you can pull from your bum to try and make this stuff work. This is my favorite content of yours, and so if we can get more wild and hair brained things, I'm totally in!
A mere like isn't enough. I definitely would love to see this too!
Seconded!
Thirded...?
I agree
Yes please
I love how the parrot bay rum is so bad that he just buried it with 2.5 oz of good rum, orgeot, grenadine and fresh pineapple juice. I feel like the drink would have tasted just the same without the parrot bay
Exactly! If you're adding rum and pineapple to parrot bay pineapple... why even bother with the parrot bay? For a tiny hint of coconut?
@@Keenath to get rid of it without pouring it out or choking it down
Life's just too short to go around drinking bad liquor just because you're embarrassed to pour it down the drain. Those microorganisms living in your pipes deserve an opportunity to experience just how bad "it" is.
No, it would have been a lot better with all the other ingredients, but without the Parrot Bay.
@@christopherreed4723 It might make your sink smell bad for a long time, though .
Honestly I always enjoy “Greg likes something he thought he’d hate” more than “Greg reacts to drinking something awful”
Or hates something he expects to like. It’s such a different reaction to when he braces himself
Who's Greg?
Could’ve called that third drink the “Group Project.” Because the good liquors are carrying that wet dog bottle like a lazy classmate.
Lmao that's genius
I might call it a "Pittsburg Steeler"
@@CrystalblueMagesee, if you wanted it to be accurate to Pittsburgh you want your drinks to keep the smell of wet dog and poison.
Haha and could do "The Poor Nerd" on the flip side one good liquor carrying a bunch of bottom barrel liquors. Like someone trying to make the 10 percent effort of the rest of the group actually mesh. Tastes like a stressful B.
One of my friends lived in Taiwan for a few years, and informed me that the younger generation often drinks Baiju mixed with coca cola and a sprinkle of salt. The same friend bought a bottle to torture us with and I tried the mixture. Strangely enough, it worked! The salt was absolutely necessary, but I don't have the expertise to explain how. I'd love to see you revisit this and maybe try whipping up a cocktail with a salty lean to the flavor to see if you can figure out what sort of magic is going on to make it work.
the salt probably helps cut the bitter/mildew aspects of some of the flavours. I picked up a bottle of some sort of mostly huang jiu (mostly rice, but also some soy?) and it's got these weird bitter, moldy notes. Haven't really tried using it in cocktails because if you're trying so hard to cover up the flavour, why not just use something else? I've taken to using it for cooking and oddly enough the weird flavours disappear -- perhaps the salt, perhaps the heat, perhaps all the other ingredients and aromatics.
I think it makes sense. I find there's a mineral edge to a lot of baijiu and the adding of salt complements that, while rounding off the edges so it doesn't go in hard with the coke. Coke actually lends itself well to savoury/spicy options; the Indians have a thing called masala coke, which is just coke with a sprinkle of black salt (kala namak) and masala spices. Not everyone's thing but it actually works reasonably well. Once you neuter the strong chemical smells of the baijiu, you basically have a vodka/coke with a bit of a grain-mold edge. Said it in a separate comment but I agree, the more savoury route is the way to go. We already use grain wine/spirit in cooking, so leaning into that, something that uses the earthier elements like ginger and pepper on a coke or coke-like base would really work well.
Salt suppresses the perception of bitterness. A pinch of salt makes an amazing difference in bad coffee, too. (The free stuff from there machine at work becomes drinkable, if still not good.)
I live in Taiwan and it’s actually really good. Locals freeze it and drink it. It’s strong, sweet, and smooth. Not supposed to be ingested at room temp.
I had a similar take on Screwball when I first tried it. I thought it was too sweet for me. I didn't want to have picked up a bottle for nothing though, so I set about coming up with a drink to use it in. First thing I came up with was a peanut butter cup using just the Screwball and chocolate bitters. That was good since the bitters helped cut the sweetness, but I wanted to try something with citrus. With the help of a co-worker, I came up with the Siam Swizzle. Named after a favorite Thai restaurant in town, this drink has become a favorite of my wife.
2.5 oz peanut butter whiskey
0.75oz lime juice
0.25oz lemon juice
0.25oz simple syrup
12 drops Napa Valley Tamarind Lime Chili Bitters
2 dashes Fee Brothers Whiskey Barrel-Aged Bitters
6 to 8 small Thai Basil leaves
Put the basil leaves in a highball glass and press them against the inside with your bar spoon to express the oils. No need to muddle them. Then build the rest of the drink in the glass, add crushed ice, and swizzle the drink.
You can also shake this drink, open pour it into your glass, and use the basil as a garnish. It's just not a swizzle then.
I love Greg frantically trying to cover up the pineapple rum with anything he can think of. It was the addition of actual pineapple juice that really sold it for me.
Hiding the Parrot Bay under another rum :D
I wonder if he should recreate it without the parrot. Is there really a difference, or would it be even better?...
Lmao yeah, it's like he took the flavors that parrot bay is supposed to be and just added twice the amount
My sister lives in Taiwan, and I've visited a few times. Lovely place! Kaoliang is the single worst spirit created by any civilization. I also always buy a small bottle on my way out, mainly to get my friends to taste it prefaced with "hey wanna taste the worst liquor", and I'm thrilled to try this
People who don’t know don’t know. Nothing compares to this stuff. It’s actually unimaginable.
@ummm yeah So what your telling me is MSG fix anything
A buddy of mine brought me back a bottle, I used to bring it to parties to torture friends.
Viewers: "What is that stuff?"
Greg: "Black bitter blood of the Earth."
Viewers: "You mean coffee liqueur?"
Greg: "No, I mean black bitter blood of the Earth."
Sick reference lol
Great movie!
A man of true culture
Jack Burton approves
Oil?
greg impressing himself with his ability to Create balanced and delicious drinks is forever my favorite thing to watch.
GREG YOU ARE A MAD GENIUS
I wanna see customer is always wrong again, loved that series
I have a submission for this series! My mom is an insane person who likes her whiskey sour with a pinch of salt instead of Simple Syrup or sugar of any kind. She seems to like it best with a Canadian whiskey like Crown Royal or a strong bourbon like Wild Turkey 101. She loves how the egg white mellows it out. I would love to see what you think of this drink.
@@sexyyogadude that sounds pretty good tbh. No sweetener so it's drier, but the salt cuts the bitterness
Exactly. It's for the kind of people who prefer dry red wines and islay scotch. Drinks with absolutely minimal sweetness but a lot of complexity. You can throw in a squeeze of tangerine juice to take it up a notch. The salt level is delicate though. If you overdo it it tastes terrible.
Honestly, if you released a cocktail book composed of all the drinks you've created or improved upon, I would absolutely buy it.
Absolutely second this
THIS
"It's not the bottles, it's how you mix them." Would love to see more of this. Reminds me of the time me & my friends ended up with a bottle of campari and had no idea what to do with it. We tried drinking it straight and quicky learned that was a mistake, we christened it "cherry assholes" and then made a game of trying (and failing) to mix it with things until it was gone.
Heresy! Campari is good in any form!
@@robertallan8035 well I havent tried it with Coke but thats probably not something I would like tbh...
Haha that's great. Soda water and ice makes it pretty palatable for most people.
To be clear, we did eventually find a use for it by adding small amounts to things to give them that slight cherry flavor. But yeah, drinking it straight is an obvs bad idea. Lol.
I like the inclusion of screwball. Something that’s not a bad product, but doesn’t have a lot of utility. Super insightful on how to be a better bartender with ingredients you don’t necessarily want.
Mix with a chocolate based drink to make a Reese's cup
It actually goes with more than you’d think.
I kinda want to see a Mudslide with Screwball
@@hunterstephens3671 some crushed peanuts and lightened with cream to cut the sweetness
On a similar note, I think it'd be fun to see an episode on the theme of "I got this weird bottle for one very specific drink that I'm now over. What else can I do with it?"
*laughing hysterically*
“i can’t believe we made a drink with that shit!”
never change, greg. you’re amazing
I'm surprised you didn't take the Skewball in a more savory direction. Would be interesting to see what could be done to make it taste more like a spicy peanut sauce ( Satay? ). Like an eastern cousin to the Bloody Mary.
I was thinking the same thing, like a pad Thai cocktail.
Thai peanut sauce tastes more like peanuts or peanut butter from a jar. Greg said Skrewball tastes like the highly sugary
PB you'd get in a Reese's cup. Doesn't sound like that'd work well for a satay or a pad thai.
maybe mix it with some tequila and Ancho Reyes?
@@adamgreenhaus4691 I thought that too, but that could be a good counter to some salty notes from soy sauce
That was the first place my mind went too.
Now do that old bottle of pink Cuervo that's been in my fridge since 4th of july 2019!
You should have drunk it on the morning on the 5th
Finely aged
I'm a palaeontologist, and I was invited to serve on an advisory panel for the creation of geoparks in China about a decade ago: At a formal banquet, I asked to taste a local liquor and I was served something akin to kaoliang. Not only was I then exclusively served the stuff for the rest of the hours-long dinner, but protocol dictated that I matched my hosts drink for drink. The memory alone is still enough to make me retch.
In case you've never had it before, not only is it intensely pungent as you drink it, but you can taste baijiu for days afterward. I know that this opinion is sometimes seen as demeaning towards Chinese culture, but "acquired taste" doesn't even begin to describe it.
Yes! Love this! The number of times I’ve looked at my liquor shelf like “ what else can I do with this bottle of Chambord, 101 peppermint schnapps, and apple pucker….”🤣
Chambord works pretty well in a tequila sunrise: I kind of copy the Difford's Guide recipe, replacing the cassis with the Chambord. You're only using 1/4oz of Cham at a time but that'll empty it out over a while.
I like to use a bit of Chambord in my sparkling wine when I have it.
Chambord on vanilla ice cream
1oz of chambers, 1oz of vodka, 2oz of lemonade, stir in a rocks glass w ice
I've got a similar collection. People would bring random alcohol over to make shots and just leave them at my house so I end up with a mishmash of booze that doesn't work in anything besides that one specific shot.
I know this sounds weird, but I make a Pad Thai drink with screwball. Strong Ginger Beer, Screwball, lime juice, and Peychaud bitters. You can pretty much guess what the ratios would be. Better than the traditional peanut butter cup drinks.
... okay I'm sold on this one.
my first thought for peanut butter whiskey was also Thai food. I was thinking more along the lines of cilantro, lemongrass, and chili. But yours is an elegant solution. Mine would take a lot of dialing in.
My first thought was a PB&J cocktail. But that honestly sounds awful, I'm not sure I want to wish that on anyone.
I was thinking peanut satay using the screwball and some Mekhong as the base spirit
ooo, that sounds rather good to be honest.
To me the most obvious move for the PeanutButter whiskey would be to put it into a boozey hot chocolate in much the same way people add kaluha or baileys to coffee drinks.
Yeah my mom loves that stuff, she mixes it with Bailey’s caramel and drinks it just like that. Strong and it tastes good
I've been meaning to try to work up some kind of pb&j with this stuff. I think maybe a more dry berry liquor with something wheaty?
@@monicawitt9368 maybe? Like a sort of mixed berry liquor? Probably not something too cheap as it’ll taste like straight syrup, but something in the mid range
@@vampup Exactly. It needs to be on the bitter side. There are some Polish fruit brandies like that.
Best is mudslide with a peanut butter floater
It's still DEFINITELY on the sweet side of things, but I had surprisingly good luck using Skrewball as a modifier to an Irish Coffee. Including it in a hot drink brings out some of the nuttier flavors, and the coffee helps tame the syrupiness. I bet you could even completely forego the brown sugar in the "classic" Irish Coffee and just use the Skrewball.
I would love a "let's make something good from bottom shelf liquor" series
That's called college dorm party my friend
Turn shity liquor to a descent drink
Yeah I tired that a few years ago and people just called me poor. Spoiled t w a t s
I support this!
mix literally anything into a coke
I love seeing people's reactions to baijiu. (Kaoliang is a type of baijiu.) There are many different kinds of baijiu; most are extremely potent in both alcohol content and flavor. I love it, but it is definitely not to everybody's taste. Though I usually drink it neat, I have experimented with mixing it. I have a bottle of kaoliang that is the same brand as the one in the video but is only 38% alcohol, and it isn't quite so potent. Its dominant flavor element is earthy, but it also has that lovely flavor of something-went-bad-in-an-interesting-way. (I also have a 58% kaoliang that has strong floral/medicinal notes but doesn't really remind me of a wet sheepdog. It's a different brand.) The 38% kaoliang goes nicely with citrus in a margarita-style drink or with Campari and vermouth in a negroni-style drink. Sauce-fragrance baijiu (Moutai is the most famous) is quite different from kaoliang. It has a strong umami note along with the usual baijiu funk. I find that the cheaper, simpler versions of it go very well with grapefruit. I don't mix the expensive stuff - it is wonderful on its own.
Do you also enjoy eating months expired cheese?
I know I would. but that's just me with cheese. @@dysphoria_1.040
thank you, been meaning to try it (without getting too costly)
Honestly the last one had me thinking Eldritch Sour since it seemed to instantly cause madness. Funny how you too eventually settled on it being some cosmic horror of a drink.
Badass name.
Greg:
1. I would love to see more of these. Absolutely, Malort and Jeremiah Weed would both be hilarious to see you mix
2. There is a place in Dayton Ohio called Warped wing that makes their own root beer. They mix that with screwball and it's actually quite good (I also share your dislike for screwball so I was surprised I liked it)
Seeing the name Jeremiah Weed brings back college memories…
@@rchen3 Lmfao, my apologies for making you remember that horrible taste.
Wonder if you could drop a shot into Esther's Secret for a Buckey Boilermaker?
@@davidl5452 hahaha yo, that might not be half bad. Ill have to ask them about that. The rootbeer might be a touch on the sweet side but it could probably work. Love the name tho.
Damn. Used to think I was a semi good bartender, then started watching this channel and realised I had a lot to learn.
But damn I've been enjoying these videos the last couple of days. Loved being a bartender, and making wacky things from what people felt like drinking. This is just fulfilling to watch, and entertaining.
Big props, this is a good ass channel to sub to
Use Chambord and bourbon with that PB whiskey and make a PBnJ drink! Also, that Pirate bay pineapple rum just SMACKS of my college days LOL
This reminds me of the Food Network show Chopped, where chefs are given unusual mystery ingredients to work with and make a presentable dish. It would be cool if you could organize some of the youtube cocktail channels and host your own mini "Chopped" but with unusual spirits, liqueurs, etc. The only challenging thing is you wouldn't be able to taste their drinks from afar.
Everyone knows what chopped is
@@majikss Okay . . . ?
@@majikss i didn’t know that was the gimmick of chopped. I thought it was just another cooking show.
Sure he could, he could just give them the ingredients, let them decide which way they want to go with those ingredients, then simply send him the recipes to try and he picks the best.
i used to work at a brunch place that would make a manhattan variant that was 2 dashes chocolate bitters, 2oz screwball, .5oz st george raspberry liqueur, and .5oz dry vermouth. it sold rly well actually
I do old fashioneds with screwball and use jam instead of the simple. Tastes amazing.
So like, not a Manhattan at all
@@jaredbobier2844 it has bitters, whiskey and vermouth clearly its a riff on a manhattan lmfao they at no point claimed it WAS a manhattan, stop having autism
@@Strawberryscent_ Ableism...not a good look
@@jaredbobier2844 2 spirit 1 modifier 2 dashes bitters
Genuinely surprised Malort wasn't in here. I guess he was serious when he said it wasn't in the same league of bad.
PS, they can call Skrewball whiskey for the same reason they can call Fireball whiskey.
I thought of fireball as well
he said at the start he was all out (and that it wasnt that bad)
It's also how spiced rum especially Captain Morgan which isn't even 40% gets to be called rum. Or Malibu, that should also be considered a liqueur lol
Greg is clearly master of his domain. Well done. Your reaction to not unpleasant alcohol is the best.
My friends in FLA host pool parties in the summer and I am always in charge of "Liquor Cabinet Clearing" ( made with the whatnot people always gift or leave at parties) and there is ALWAYS Parrot Bay rum in it. It's actually not bad if tart and sour juices like bottled cherry/cranberry and fresh lime/orange are added to it. I always call it "After Prom Punch" - it's super strong, fruity in a nondescript way and tastes like the drinks you had when you were 17.
That made me think of like Del Monte's Fruit Cocktail which contains peaches, pears, grapes, pineapple and cherries. I wonder how it would be with white grape juice, peach juice, pear liquor, parrot bay and garnished with a maraschino cherry.
Thinking like
2oz grape juice
1oz peach juice
1oz pear liquor
1oz parrot bay
garnish with 2 cherries.
@@matthewuzulis5016 I'd absolutely drink that. It's got a good balance of sweet and sour, like a good Caribbean rum punch.
@@YouKnowWhereYouWentWrong Thanks, I was trying to think of how to make a proper cocktail out of it and not just some kind of shot type of drink.
I'm just worried about peach juice being too sweet and strong but subbing peach schnapps would have made it far too heavy alcohol wise and as far as I know there is no ready easy to find pear juice out there. I would prefer pear and do the same parts of that and grape. Mind you this is thinking in lines of a clear/clean cocktail, I do think my original thought may work nicely as a frozen cocktail (Blended with crushed ice)
@@matthewuzulis5016 I think doing 1/2 oz peach schnapps instead of 1 oz peach juice would make a fantastic frozen drink. You'll get the full peach flavor with a slight bump of alcohol, but blending it with crushed ice will weaken the total % of alcohol by probably a third and it won't be as strong as doing it shaken and done over cubes.
Around when I was much younger and very broke, my roommate's girlfriend brought over half a bottle of Parrot Bay coconut. Really vile stuff. We eventually mixed it with Hawaiian Punch Fruit Juicy Red and it tasted just like Tiger Blood snow cone. It would give you a guaranteed hangover if you drank a lot of it, but it served us well enough to kill the awful bottle.
This just became the go-to ep for first timers. Perfect language to describe respecting ingredients and a genuine plot twist. Bravo.
I did a PB&J old fashioned style drink with a blackberry simple syrup and the peanut butter whiskey. Came out pretty decent but you can’t drink more than 1 without feeling like it’s too sweet
I make a white Russian and substitute it for the Kahlua, equally sweet, a little higher proof
@@noahgilchrist7170 that sounds very good as well! Going to try that
@@noahgilchrist7170 the tan Russian?
Because peanut butter is that color
The Russian on vacation?
Could probably be really good with a really sour berry liqueur, like unsweetened cranberry or sour cherry or something.
@@Windigowithsalad that could be fantastic. Would really cut the sweetness and help out! Gonna try this for sure
I'm not sure how good Screwball is in any cocktail, but my sister made some Christmas fudge with it and it was FANTASTIC!
I work at a liquor store and when people discover peanut butter “whiskey” they always ask me, “What do you do with that?” We eventually got to where you did, but we also suggest PB&J shots (add Chambord) or what I termed The Elvis (add banana liquor and garnish w/bacon). Anyway, as a beer drinker who understands wine but also has to sell spirits I appreciate these types of videos because I am not a bartender.
A series like this is perfect because I always get bottles of weird stuff from people. They just tell me "well you're good with cocktails, you'll find a use for it." Vids like this get the creative juices going to do just that
More "Customer is always wrong" would be hilarious as well!
Skrewball is very much a "main note" flavor. Doesn't especially matter what you cut it with, peanut butter is gonna be front and center if you use any appreciable amount. That said, it combines quite well with fruity liqueurs. An ounce of Skrewball, two ounces of any kind of fruit or berry liqueur (I love black raspberry, personally), stirred into some soda over ice will make you a fizzy PB&J of your preferred flavor.
Just started watching the video, but as a concept, I love the idea of a "cocktail rescue". Take a drink that's bad and fix it, or take a set of bottles that you're ashamed to own and how do you use them (saving the bottle from the drain, lol)
I'd especially want that concept mixed with the "Customer is always wrong" episode. Make the ordered drink as is to show how wrong the customer is, then try to salvage it
Meredith and Greg: I still say you should have your viewers send in pictures of their liquor cabinets/cupboards and see what Greg can do with them.
mine + my parents's (I store some of my liquor there as I lack space) would make for quite the ride with the more eclectic ingredients lol (including Poitin for an extra measure of pain)
@@xander1052 I ended up posting a picture of my alcohol collection on Instagram. We'll see if Greg and Meredith bite.
I definitely feel like there are a lot of “makes him shiver bad” bottles he forgot on this list…
16:58 the comedic timing on him taking a slow, cautious sip slam cutting to him backed up against the wall in an almost fearful cower made my night
I've made very good drinks from Screwball.
For ex: "Horchata"
1.5oz Japanese Rice Whiskey
.5oz Screwball
.5oz Frangelico
1oz oat milk
Dash cinnamon
Squeeze of cinnamon syrup
Shake and strain on ice
Usually even if my palate disagrees with him I can understand where he's coming from, but screwball isn't bad. It might not taste like whiskey but it tastes good
@@nk-dw2hm I know what you mean... Straight that can be too sweet and cause uneasyness, easily. As a mixer, so many possibilities! Like with Banana liquor
I would love a series about making good drinks with the cheapest alcohol like store brand stuff in the plastic bottles, and then get us familiar with the thought process for how to balance the flavors and cover up bad flavors.
This is amazing, thank you! Being half Taiwanese, I’m very familiar with being treated to shots of kaoliang (GAU-lee-ong, with lee-ong blending together into one syllable) at the end of a night. We usually keep it in the freezer. It’s definitely… odd… but at least it smells less like farm than Chinese maotai! I figured there was something in there that could be worked with but, as you’ve seen, so much that makes it difficult to use. Well done. Good name, too.
Also, orgeat is magic.
There is nothing on earth worse than Chinese spirits
I've only ever had Screwball in an "Elvis." It was mixed with a creamy banana liqueur and garnished with bacon as I recall. Nope, nope, nope... but my wife liked it.
Bacon garnish? That’s a big no from me.
@@ninboy01 Like some sort of cursed bloody mary garnish
Its a take on the " fried peanut butter banana and bacon sandwich " supposedly one of Elvis Presley's favorite sandwiches.
The other one he really loved was the "fools gold loaf"
You take a loaf of French bread (no, I'm not making the portions up ) split in half lengthwise and
Layer on: 1 32 ounce jar of peanut butter, 1 32 ounce jar of grape jelly and a full pound of bacon.
Enjoy...
As someone who likes to cook, I love the idea of this becoming a series. I truly think that any flavor can be made enjoyable, and I like that challenge in drink form.
Please continue with this series.; it’s amazing for you to make good, if not drinkable cocktails. Here’s a request: make drinks use cheap AND Bad liquor (like a Mad Dog 20/20 as an example).
"A kazeen? Oh, a business cuisine."
The tasting notes are a beautiful part of this series. Never change. Also Greg, don't ever change either. You bring me such joy.
The best thing I've ever done with Skrewball (it was actually my favorite for a while) was a 2-1 ratio of banana cream rum and Skrewball.
This could totally be a series, making up new drinks starting with one bizarre ingredient! We've definitely acquired some over time that just don't seem to have many obvious use cases, it would be fun to get some ideas for stuff like that
Great stuff, definitely can try again! Stuff like this and "The Customer is Always Wrong" are pretty entertaining. The cursed cocktails stuff gets a bit gross for my tastes, like those aren't meant to be any good.
one of the fun experiences ive had is my mother making *screwball soaked gummy bears*. ungodly flavors. just the worst. no one touched them past the first few tastes, they ended up sitting in the fridge for months ("you never pour out booze! its too much of a waste!!") until we had to throw out a perfectly good glass jar bc no one wanted to open that nightmare again.
An ex girlfriend of mine used to work in Kinmen, Taiwan, so I had my fair share of Kaoliang. There are some Kaoliang cocktails you can find in bars near there and in Taipei, but overall impressed with the process!
By the way I'm pretty sure its pronounced as if it were spelled "galiung".
I got the skrewball specifically to mess around with a cocktail idea: a peanut butter jelly cocktail. What I ended up doing was basically a whiskey sour base with less whiskey and then adding equal parts chambord and skrewball in place of the sweetener.
That sounds tasty 😋
was it any good?
I do the same. It’s nice
Love the episodes where you get to be creative with drinks as a challenge, so yes, we'll happily watch more of this.
Great episode. It never fails, when you throw a party there is always someone who brings a bottle of something that they don’t like or don’t know what to do with it and now you are saddled with. Great ideas.. Thanks Greg you are always creative.
Screwball in hot cocoa is a personal fav for cold weather
Hey Greg, stumbled across your videos lately and have been wanting to get into mixology. I don't have any of the tools, or mixers etc so I've just been mixing what I've got on hand. Recently came up with a drink I like to call Pink Drink (it's fun to say when your tipsy). I don't have anything to measure so it's all rough estimations and pour to taste, but here goes.
(Main ingredients were chilled prior so no need for ice)
Roughly 4. oz Lemon flavored seltzer (I used la croix)
.5-1 oz. Tequila (I used Cuervo Especial)
1ish oz. vodka (used Tito's)
A splash of cranberry juice (basically just enough to give it a pink hue)
2 squirts of concentrate lemon juice
1 Teaspoon of sugar
Stir until the sugar is decently disolved
And that's it! I don't know is this is already a thing, or close to something that already exists, but anyway I was hoping you might try out The Pink Drink, give your thoughts and perhaps give it the Greg touch.
Also, love your show, it's whats inspiring me to get into mixology and cocktail making
I work at a liquor store, the moment I saw the Skrewball, I started giggling cause that shit is so damn popular it's not even funny. We run out of it on the regular.
One thing I consistently suggest to customers though, is mixing it with Howler Head Bourbon, go a bit of Elvis with it with a peanut butter banana sandwich sort of thing.
We’ve always just taken shots of it. No one I know mixes drinks with it lol
I love making proper grilled Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches:)
at the bar I used to work at, they made a peanut butter and jelly shot
This was really fun to watch! My husband and I genuinely hope that you will do more. Surely there are others like us who don’t have a lot of experience with alcohol and don’t know what to do with certain bottles now that they’ve elevated their tastes and/or liquor cabinet.
Id love to see a penut butter pie egg whip! The penut butter whiskey, vanilla whiskey, and a little almond liquor.
I think that would be an amazing drink!
A bar near me uses a combination of Skrewball Whiskey, Creme de Banana and Chocolate bitters. It smells like a peanut butter and banana sandwich and tastes like a peanut butter and banana shake.
It sounds like a weird old fashion, so I assume it uses a similar build as that. 2 oz Skrewball, .5 oz Creme de Banana and a few shakes of the chocolate bitters.
I'm sure anyone that's ever had even a passing interested in mixology has that special bottle of the rankest, nastiest swill given by a relative or a friend.
I'd love to see more episodes like this. Save us from these bottled horrors Greg!
Oatmeal Stout and peanut butter (Reese's Pieces) work extremely well together. Use the Screwball to make a peanut butter Black & Tan.
Interesting video. I hope you continue making these! I would have done 1.5oz of bourbon, 1oz of Screwball, 1/2oz of Ancho Reyes, and 1/2oz of lime juice with a single dash of either angostura or peychaud's. Kind of a riff on the idea of a satay or spicy peanut flavor.
More shows like this please!
All of us have some unfortunate bottles in our collections (why don't we throw these away !?) so I think it is actually useful to see your approach to making something useful out of them.
Specifically I would appreciate a way to use a whiskey with a _strong _*_acetone_* note. I can't drink these. How would I bury that?
I can tell you why we don't throw them out, it's the sunk cost fallacy. We spent good money on those bottles, dammit, and we're gonna get drunk off of them!
Comfy ad break Greg is such a mood.
20:13 Since you used the Kaoliang to make a version of the Victory Gin from "1984", you could call this an "Inner Party Sour".
Okay, definitely do more of this. This was honestly fascinating to see how you can mask the terribleness of terrible liquors.
Gotta say skrewball isn't "terrible" its just weird - and difficult to work with because of it...
Sweet peanut butter? Like what do you do with it besides make a peanutbutter cup inspired drink? (Which is really quite good by the way)
I have only recently discovered you, but so far these success stories from foul ingredients are my favorites. Thanks for these!
I grow a after eight mint.. the plant smells and tastes exactly like the chocolate mint candy.
Incorporating something like that would be good in that first drink. Maybe a garnish or stir/shake it like in a Chicago southside
Maybe some everclear and cotton candy bang TWU!
I'd love to see a part two! Honestly just more vids from you in general lol. I've loved watching your vids for well over a year now, you even inspired me to get my own mixing gear and a couple books with countless recipes to try and make
I dont drink much. I cant remember the last time i drank any kind of alcohol... even beer. Im a pothead so i just focus on that.
But while im getting stoned your videos have become some of my favorite stuff to watch. Its mostly you so bravo bro. Uoure entertaining af even when talking about stuff i have zero interest in.
I found you from the critical role stuff then saw your video with brennan and absolutely loved it.
*Immediately recognizes Skrewball because I shoot it with friends and kind of love it*
Aww Geeze, I'm a garbage person.
I had a smores cocktail made with Skrewball that was pretty good. It's decent alone, but I'm not a shot drinker really.
It smells amazing
This video unironically makes me want to get some Kaoliang Liquor to see if I can do something with it. The line "If you can convince people that Fernet is good, you could convince people that this is good" kind of sold me. Since the only way to work with it is to match it, I can't help but wonder how it might stand up to Absinthe.
Hey Greg, I have recently watched a ton of your videos and subscribed to see more. As a chef, I love food and drinks and especially how they are paired together in a delicious meal. I saw that you already talked about aperitifs and digestifs, as well as cocktails and wines that are suitable to pair with certain meals. However, while many American/European cuisines often only pair wines with a meal that has multiple courses (and sometimes beers or cocktails), I think Japanese sake is highly undervalued in this regard. Sake can be used as a cooking ingredient, just like wine, and also pairs really well with many types of food you find in diner meals. I could not find a video in your vast library that covered sake and I hope you consider doing an episode on this subject. Cheers/Sláinte from the Netherlands!
I used the Screwball and a fig liqueur to make a PB&J manhattan: 2oz of Screwball, 3/4oz of sweet vermouth, 1/4oz of fig liqueur, 1 bar spoon of demerara simple syrup. Definitely tasted like a PB&J, and was a hit with the crowd I served it to.
I'd love to see more of this series - your creativity with flavor is one of my favorite things about this channel. You could also take this in the opposite direction and use top-shelf booze; I've noticed this weird stigma around using really good bottles in cocktails. You could make drinks that highlight the profile of the high end bottle while still being, y'know, a cocktail.
I feel the Kaoliang is best mixed with kitchen scraps and auto stirred in the garbage disposal
This was a really good episode. I like seeing how the sausage gets made, and then watching you drink the sausage
I actually love Fernet. The industry workers at my local bar turned me onto it, I loved it the first time I tasted it. I like to sip it straight lol.
Also: Anyone ever notice how handsy Greg gets when he's drunk? Haha, he's all over the curves of those bottles.
I don't know how you do it. All fernet I've tried just tastes like watery cough syrup
I mix Screwball and Kentucky Mist strawberry moonshine 1:1 with 2 dashes Aztec chocolate bitters in a rocks glass and large ice cube/sphere. So nice!
Since Fernet made a cameo in this video, I’d love to see him make a drink with it as the base spirit. Also, Slivovitz would make for a funny segment too in my opinion
The first time I drank Malort, instead of gagging like my friends expected, I immediately started theorizing how to build a cocktail with it. DO NOT add lemon or lime juice. It only exaggerates the bitterness. I ended up doing 2oz of Malort, 1oz of Falernum, and 1 oz of benedictine, which was probably more than it needed.
I found it works out pretty well in a Bloody Mary. The herbal flavors of the malort really go well with all the veggie flavors going on in a Bloody Mary. But yeah, Malort is mostly a drink based on a dare.
I once convinced my uncle who was training to be a sommelier to drink straight Malort. He said it ruined him for a week.
Malort is vile.
I lived in Kinmen for a year and everyone on the island drinks Kaoliang for every celebration!! There is only one factory in the world on Kinmen Island that makes it and the recipe is a secret. It's a huge point of pride for the local culture. I got 3 bottles as gifts over the year I worked as a teacher. No one makes cocktails though, you have to do it as shots because it tastes like actual gasoline and burns. But if you build up a tolerance the local uncles will respect you. I'm so impressed you made something to cover that flavor!!
Haven't even watched this video yet and I already want more in this series.
Have not tried it myself, but have been told that adding some skrewball to swiss miss hot cocoa is incredible. I am diabetic, and allergic to artificial sweeteners, so I avoid hot chocolate
even if the hot chocolate is made with actual chocolate bars?
@@Ulixes_the_Wanderer I do make that occasionally. or a home made hot chocolate mix with cocoa powder, powdered milk and use dark agave nectar as a sweetener
@@Keith_KC8TCQ tbf, you aren't missing out with the cheap shit that has artificial sweeteners.
@@xander1052 I have to agree I personally make mine with bars of high quality chocolate if I make some just tastes better.
I love this. The law of the conservation of happiness holds true. It can neither be created or destroyed only taken from the maker of amazing content.
Love the concept of this one - there's always something in the back of the cupboard that only gets used in increasingly drunk cocktails
My brother made quite a tasty and interesting drink with skrewball actually. I made him a tonka bean liqueur for Christmas and he came up with a drink with skrewball coffee liqueur and the tonka liqueur. it was a tad sweet(but far from overbearingly sweet) but otherwise the combination of those makes for one of the coolest and most unique evolutions in a drink ive ever tasted.
I love making a pb&j "old fashioned" with grape simple syrup. Yum.
Funny I saw this yesterday, the same day I also had to be creative with Screwball. Earlier I was looking at that bottle I got as a gift and which is way too sweet for my taste. I opted to do a hard coffee. 2/3 espresso coffee and 1/3 Screwball. Nothing more. It was pretty good.
My partner is a big fan of just mixing screwball with grapejuice for a Peanut Butter Jelly angle, certainly isn't going to do anything to reduce the sweetness if that bothers you, though.
I make them the same way.
Same lol. Its super simple too
hadn't watched in a little while, worst bottles in the bar brought me back good energy and excitement, also I tend to be the one that likes the things most people hate. Thanks Greg!
16:57 Honestly, call it a Hair Tonic. That's kind of the impression I get watching the poor, and I knew exactly what you meant when you said it. I'm sure you could sell it as a dare cocktail in a college bar.