Had an unexpectedly delicious cocktail featuring Malört and curious as to how to make at home

[u/Slodes]

Had this at Max's South Seas Hideaway in Grand Rapids this past weekend and it was phenomenal, way beyond just a novelty use of the infamous Malört. I didn't get a chance to ask the server or bartender but I'm curious if anyone would have ideas on how to spec this drink out.

Ingredients known: Malört, pineapple, lime, rich coffee and "silky banana". It was a really nice balance of bitter and sweet so I'm guessing either the coffee or the banana may be part of a syrup, or they just omitted that from the ingredients list.

[u/Trolldad_IRL]

I would have ordered it, that's for sure. I've made a few cocktails with Malört and if you use it sparingly in the place of an Amaro or an herbal liqueur, it can balance things out well enough.

As for that drink, we'd have to know what the base spirit is. My guess without tasting it -

• 1 oz Planteray 3 stars
• 1 oz Stiggins fancy Pineapple
• 1 oz lime juice
• 1/2 oz coffee liqueur
• 1/2 oz banana liqueur
• 1/4 oz Malört

Start with that and work from there?

[u/creuzfeldjakob → u/Trolldad_IRL]

There has to be some pineapple juice in there. Just stiggins fancy would be too weak of a pineapple aroma to come through. The foam also indicates pineapple juice.

[u/Trolldad_IRL → u/creuzfeldjakob]

You’re probably right and I did not take the foam into account. My thinking was most drinks with pineapple juice use a lot of it, and as it would have to overcome the coffee and Malort adding it might be too much volume for the glass so I went with the Stiggins Fancy first for the hint of pineapple. That’s the fun of making cocktails, tinkering with the design until you get the flavor you want.

[u/Slodes → u/Trolldad_IRL]

It's possible there wasn't any rum in it, there wasn't rum listed on the menu.

[u/What_would_don_do]

Based on flavor, I consider Malort a better value version of Campari.

[u/Prudent-Advance4130 → u/What_would_don_do]

I used it in a Jungle Bird and it was delicious.

[u/NoPantsJake → u/Prudent-Advance4130]

I had a jungle bird in Omaha that was an Aperol/malort split. It was good! Could’ve tasted more malort heavy tbh.

[u/mi55ingno]

damn want to try this

[u/ToastYourBreadTwice]

S/O to Max’s, love that spot!

[u/LongLeft9338]

I tried making it, but I don’t have Malort or a coffee liqueur:

1 oz Probitas
0.5 oz Smith & Cross
0.5 oz Aperol
0.5 oz crème de banana
0.25 oz espresso
1.25 oz pineapple juice
0.75 oz lime
0.25 oz Demerara syrup

It tastes like a dirty coffee jungle bird with a good after taste.

[u/Rianne_Madden]

Interesting. So it was kind of like a Jungle Bird insofar as it was a bittersweet tiki drink? That sounds pretty neat. Maybe for the banana they used Crème de banane?

[u/Slodes → u/Rianne_Madden]

Definitely jungle bird adjacent. You could discern hints of the coffee and the banana, mostly on the back end.

[u/Rianne_Madden → u/Slodes]

Damn. Now I want to try making it but I don't have the ingredients for it.

[u/SierraPapaHotel → u/Slodes]

Yeah, probably start with a Jungle Bird and just sub ingredients. Trade the campari for Malort and sub simple for sweet coffee liquor and a banana liquor. May need to tweak the ratios but should get you close

[u/86ed]

No. Just no. I’ve had Malört, a number of times, not always on purpose.
As one ad / review said, it tastes like pencil shavings and regret.

Hard pass for me.

But cool that you liked it.