Manhandlers

A couple days ago, the recipe on my calendar again called for Pernod - the author must really like licorice/anise - so I went looking in my bartender's guide and came up with something called a Manhandler, sort of a Long Island ice tea minus the Coke and a few other ingredients: equal parts bourbon, vodka, Southern Comfort, and sloe gin.

I have a new motto: if it sounds awful, it probably tastes awful too. This wasn't great. I drank about 2/3 of it and rinsed the rest down the drain. The sloe gin really didn't work for me.

However, yesterday's drink (I forget the name, and who cares anyway) called for gold rum, apricot brandy, creme de banana, lemon juice, and a dash of sloe gin. This one was much better. The banana and apricot flavors together gave it a bit of a chocolate taste (or maybe I was thinking of the flavors in a banana split; I should have added strawberry liqueur).

I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy a bottle of Pernod, or else I'll be missing out on half the recipes in this calendar. The rules (my rules) don't say I have to drink the whole thing once I make it. They also now say don't mix bourbon, SC, and vodka.