Slow Show – Lantenhammer Schlehengeist

For the festive days there is a great cocktail which almost has nothing to do with Christmas. The Mistaken for Strangers by Misty Kalkofen basically is a Grappa Last Word cocktail. So, when I got my hands on a sloe eau de vie from Lantenhammer I thought I mix up a variation of this festive tasting drink.

While every discerning gin drinker has at least tried a sloe gin, sloe eau de vies are rather rare in a regular bar. In this case, the Lantenhammer Sloe eau de vie uses mostly wild picked sloe berries. At the distillery, the sloes are macerated in neutral grain spirit for ten days. Afterwards, everything is distilled twice on stills smaller than 450 litres to around 70 % ABV. After three years of ageing in stoneware jars the eau de vie is diluted with water from the “Bannholz” spring and filtered at 4 °C. The finished eau de vie has an ABV of 42 %.

Marzipan and berries

The sloe eau de vie tastes exactly like you would imagine it to be: You can find marzipan, dark fruits and most of all sloe berry notes in the taste. Additionally, the sloe eau de vie has a funky forest and umami note to it. This way, it kind of tastes like a sloe gin, but without the astringent quality. If you are into marzipan and bitter almond notes, you definitely should check out the Lantenhammer Schlehengeist. All in all, I quite enjoyed it and reckon it also would make a great Sloegroni.

A Grinch variation

While I favour the name “Mistaken for Strangers” for the grappa Last Word by Misty Kalkofen, the original cocktail was named “The Grinch”. It is also where the Christmas reference comes from. Basically, all I did was to split the base between the great Capreolus Siegerrebe grape marc spirit and the Lantenhammer Sloe eau de vie. I just had the feeling that lemon juice would work better with grappa and the Schlehengeist.

Besides the missing juniper note, the “Slow Show” clearly reminds me of a Last Word. You clearly can taste the sloe eau de vie in the drink, but it blends in especially well. Of course, you also could use another unaged grape, but the Siegerrebe grape marc spirit works extremely well with the sloe eau de vie and the other flavours of the cocktail. The drink particularly benefits from the Chartreuse’s herbal kick. All in all, the drink is very well-balanced and a great use of grappa, sloe eau de vie and Chartreuse!

*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. The Sloe eau de vie was provided by Lantenhammer.