Jeppson's Malort cocktail challenge Victim Participant No. 4: Preston Eckman of APO

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Jeppson's Malort cocktail challenge Victim Participant No. 4: Preston Eckman of APO

POSTED: Wednesday, May 12, 2010, 11:52 PM

Filed Under: Booze

We recently challenged Philly's best bartenders to come up with a tasty cocktail using Jeppson's MalÃ¶rt, a notoriously disgusting Chicago-based spirit. The first person to take us up on the challenge was Christian Gaal of Noble, followed by Colin Shearn and Al Sotack of The Franklin Mortgage & Investment Company. In this installment, Preston Eckman of APO Bar + Lounge takes things in a pithier, hoppier direction.

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First off, it should be noted that Eckman, APO's beverage manager, is the most stone-faced Malort drinker we've encountered so far. While most people's mugs tighten up into a counter-clockwise death pucker the second the infamous Chitown spirit hits pummels the back of their throats (see Flickr for empirical proof), the nonchalant Eckman gave a pour a whiff and downed it like a champ. After a brief pondering period (he casually cast his eyes toward the ceiling as if he was dissecting a standardized test question), he declared himself ready to go. Not sure if he was faking or not, but if he was, he's a helluva faker. For Eckman's first few drinks, he decided to double down on Malort's bitter-times-infinity handshake with fellow-traveler additives (Aperol) as well as cut it with citrus, in the form of lemon juice, Lillet, Angostura orange bitters and apricot liqueur. Combier (triple sec) acted almost as a mediator between these two camps, as the silky liqueur has some bitter orange pith backbone to it. 1 oz. Pisco (white grape brandy) 3/8 oz. Aperol .5 oz lemon juice .5 oz Malort Combier orange twist 1 oz. Beefeater 3/8 oz. honey .5 oz Malort .5 oz. Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot Liqueur Angostura orange bitters Lillet Of these two cocktails, we found ourselves gravitating toward the second mix-up. Perhaps it was the Orange Iguana-like hue of the thing (thank Rothman & Winter for that), but it's more likely that it was our trusty Yeoman Warder who set that irascible Malort bloke straight. After sipping on these cocktails, Eckman got a little more off-the-wall with it. He mixed Malort with Dogfish Head 60-Minute IPA (yes) and close to an ounce of Gosling's Dark Rum for something that resembled a beer but didn't quite taste like one. We both figured the ale's hoppiness would beat the Malort into submission -- we were right, but almost too right, as the concoction straight-up destroyed whatever Malort element was present. (Yes, for our purposes, this was a bad thing.) In perhaps his most original and peculiarly tasty rendition, Eckman tossed Cynar (a weird, bitter artichoke-based apertif), Ron Zacapa (a brilliant high-end Guatemalan rum), lime juice, ginger beer and a full ounce of Malort together. A photo of this drink now appears in the 2010 edition of the Merriam-Webster dictionary next to the word "holyshitihavenevertastedanythinglikethatbefore." (Yes, that is a real word.) Its name? The "Dark and Malort-y."

June 28: Seven cocktail beasts form boozy Voltron at Oyster House :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper

Posted 2010-06-18 14:07:47

[...] through their list, will host Preston Eckman (formerly of APO, now of the forthcoming Adsum, and a Malort Challenge victim); Phoebe Esmon (Chick’s CafÃ©); Al Sotack of The Franklin (also a Malort Challenge victim); [...]

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Founded in October 2008, Meal Ticket is a City Paper blog about food, drink and assorted other things that make you go mmm. We do recipes, interviews, restaurant news, commentary and much more. We don't do restaurant reviews here — those are handled in print, mostly by our critic (and Meal Ticket contributor) Adam Erace. Got a tip, question, thought or concern? Just want to say hello? Please shoot a note to caroline@citypaper.net.

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