Tuesday, September 17, 2019

swedish paralysis

1 1/2 oz Malört (Jeppson's Malort)
1 1/2 oz Orange Juice
1 1/2 oz Pineapple Juice
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Orgeat
1/2 oz Cinnamon Syrup

Whip shake, pour into a Tiki mug, fill with crushed ice, and garnish with an edible flower.
After returning home from work two Tuesdays ago, I decided to riff on a drink instead of finding a new recipe at that hour. Actually, I first had opened up the Smuggler's Cove book in hopes of quickly finding a novel recipe and had spotted their Norwegian Paralysis that I had made prior. Their riff was an aquavit variation on the okelehao-based Polynesian Paralysis, and I had recently tinkered with an Italian amari direction in the Dolce Far Niente. To change things up, I opted for Malört as the spirit and switched the demerara syrup to cinnamon to better complement the herbal liqueur, and I dubbed this one the Swedish Paralysis. Once prepared, the Swedish Paralysis tingled the nose with pineapple, nutty, and cinnamon aromas underneath the floral notes. Next, a creamy orange and lemon sip led into the malört's wormwood-driven botanicals, the orgeat's nutty, and the syrup's cinnamon flavors with a pineapple and cinnamon finish.
I competed with a slight variation on this recipe on 9/23/25 for the Boston Malört competition at Vera's in Somerville and placed 3rd! I increased the Malört to 2 oz (the original recipe was created with the rougher Florida liqueur), added in 5 drops of 20% saline, used toasted pepita orgeat instead of almond orgeat (I had no clue if any of the judges were allergic to nuts), and switched the garnish to a pineapple wedge, mint sprig, and smoldering cinnamon stick.

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