The Blind Squirrel is one of those drinks that you hope you never have, but if you find yourself with the right ingredients, you’d be doing yourself an injustice by not having it. It calls for three items that even the most spirited cocktail enthusiast won’t have in the cabinet: Mou Tai, Mekhong Thai Rum, and Chinese lychee liqueur. Here’s the story.
“Just get one. It might really suck.”
About a year ago, Tim was watching some crazy show on cable called “What They Drink in Asia.” The show closed with a crazy grain liqueur called Mou Tai, which is apparently what Chinese war chiefs were given by their troops. Apparently the hooch was so popular that a law was passed that only wartime chiefs could drink it, because they didn’t want all the millions of commoners drinking the supply. A few months later, I was browsing the Oriental/Import Spirits section of Don Quixote, a Japanese supermarket in Honolulu. Lo and behold, I came across shelf of Mou Tai. I immediately called Tim and asked him if I should get it.
“How much are they,” he asked. “On sale at $41.99″ I replied, “it’s pretty expensive for a small bottle. But should I get two?”
“No, you never know. Just get one. It might really suck” was Tim’s wise reply.
Was he ever right. That stuff smells like gasoline (literally) and tastes like shit. And it has an aftertaste of burning hair.
Mekhong Thai Rum and Chinese Lychee Liqueur
I used to live in Chinatown, and when I first moved in, I wanted to get to know the neighborhood, so I began venturing and shopping in the real hole-in-the-walls that you probably wouldn’t go in if you were just coming to Chinatown to eat dimsum. One of these was a liquor store. I had tried a variety of Chinese and Thai beers that the store had; they were mostly really light beers, not unlike Tsingtao. They weren’t bad, so when the store manager suggested I try the Mekhong rum and lychee liqueur, I was like “Ok, sure.”
To be fair, the lychee liqueur isn’t that bad. It’s just that I haven’t seen it anywhere else. It’s a dark, semi-thick syrup. I don’t know why it’s dark, because lychee juice is clear. That’s kinda scary in and of itself. The Mekhong rum, on the other hand, sucks. It’s got a very slight sweet sugar cane taste. It’s gold in color but you wouldn’t use it as a gold rum. I’ve also never seen it anywhere else before.
The Challenge
Tim and I went down to DRINK (348 Congress St, Boston) with our three troubled ingredients and begged for a solution. What drink could be concocted that uses all three of these shitty liquids as the majority of its recipe? First we asked Sam. He took one whiff of the Mou Tai and was like “Hell no.” Some of the other bartenders also refused to touch it. However, Aaron stepped up to the plate! The result: the Blind Squirrel.
Aaron’s Blind Squirrel Recipe
3/4 oz. Mekhong Thai rum
1/2 oz. Kweichow Mou Tai
1/2 oz. Lychee liqueur
3/4 oz. Fresh grapefruit juice
1/2 oz. St. Germaine
1/2 oz. Honey simple syrup