Sharkbait’s Cocktail of the Week: We’re all Suffering

Happy Friday fellow shut-ins. Hopefully the majority of you have the ability to work from from home, or have some time off during this global pandemic. While the bars here may be closed, the liquor stores are not. I’m sure many of you have heard jokes about the “Quarantini” this week right? The martini you drink alone in quarantine?

So, despite the joke being overplayed after about 5 minutes, I found a New York Post article and decided to read it. Much to my surprise, it linked to a tweet by a bartender who was telling people what they could make based on their bar ingredients. The bartender in question mentioned a “Suffering Bastard”, which has a base of both gin and bourbon. Intrigued with this dual threat concoction, I went to Google to see what I could find out about it. Hoo boy does this drink have some history behind it.

According to We Are The Mighty, this drink was invented in Cairo in 1941 as a hangover cure for the British army. Due to the war, quality liquor was hard to come by, so hangovers were plenty. The bartender at the Shephard Hotel, Joe Scialom was tasked with coming up with a drink that was boozy enough to get the “desired effect” the soldiers were looking for, but to also cure the hangover from the previous night. So, he invented the Suffering Bastard. By 1942, the army requested gallons upon gallons be sent to the front at El-Alamein. Now the first battle of El-Alamein was a stalemate, but the second battle is what broke the Afrika Korps and halted their advance. Was it the change in leadership to Bernard Montgomery that did it? The overstretched German supply lines? Or, did the Suffering Bastard turn the tide of the war? The world may never know…

Anyway, history lesson over. Let’s mix!

Suffering Bastard

1 oz Bourbon

1 oz.Gin

1 oz Lime, less if using concentrate

2 dashes angostura bitters

Top with ginger ale/beer

Add the bourbon, gin lime juice and angostura to a shaker with ice. Shake and pour directly into a rocks glass. Top with ginger ale/beer

The initial impression I get is a bitters aroma on the nose, despite the shaking. I figured the smell would be less pronounced. The first flavor is get is tart, because I forgot to take into account how much stronger lime juice from concentrate is vs. fresh. So I measured out too much lime. Thankfully it did not kill the drink as the ice melted, I was able to add a touch more ginger ale and that helped balance the tart overtones.

Another characteristic this drink has going for it is the fact that it hardly tastes boozy at all. Despite the fact it has gin and bourbon as the base. the lime and bitters really keep the intensity down for better or for worse. This definitely borders on dangerously delicious territory. I am very curious to see how this will help a hangover. Though, if it can defeat Nazis, I’m sure a hangover is no match for its healing powers. I’ll definitely give this cocktail a try the next time that I find myself in the unfortunate position of waking up in the morning praying for the sweet release of death.

Stay healthy everyone.

(Banner image found here)