Suffering Bastard
As you know I’ve been making tiki cocktail after tiki cocktail this summer. In making all these tiki cocktails I’ve learned something I never knew before: not all tiki drinks are made with rum. As a matter of fact, several of them don’t have a single drop. The Suffering Bastard is just such a tiki cocktail.
Instead of rum, this drink normally uses gin and bourbon. I say “normally” because the original recipe called for bourbon. Smuggler’s Cove decided to switch the bourbon for brandy though. That switch definitely makes for a sweeter cocktail. If however you’re not a brandy fan, or you’re looking for a little more oomph, simply try the original recipe and use an ounce of bourbon. Either way, the combination of gin and brandy (or gin and bourbon) with citrus juice is more than enough to make it taste like a tropical drink that you could be sipping on the beach somewhere. Or in the middle of a sandy desert.
I know, you probably don’t think of drinking tropical cocktails in the middle of the desert, but that’s exactly how this one started. It was created by Joe Scialom at the Long Bar inside the Shepherd Hotel in Cairo at the height of WWII. See, lots of British soldiers frequented the Long Bar looking for something to drink so they could forget about the previous or impending battle. Scialom provided the Suffering Bastard and it was a hit. The drink became so popular in fact that Trader Vic’s, as well as several other tiki bars around the country, picked up the cocktail and started serving it to their patrons.
I’m not sure what about the cocktail made people think tiki. Maybe it was the citrus juices. Maybe it was the time and location it was created. Maybe it was the ginger beer. Whatever the reason, the Suffering Bastard is now happily part of the tiki culture. So, if you’re not a rum fan, but love all things tiki, this is the drink for you.
Suffering Bastard
Ingredients:
- 4 oz. ginger beer
- 1/2 oz. lime juice
- 1/2 oz. simple syrup
- 1 oz. gin
- 1 oz. brandy (or bourbon)
- 1 dash Angostura bitters
Directions:
- Pour the ginger beer into a highball glass.
- Mix the remaining ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake vigorously.
- Strain the liquor into the ginger beer. Fill the glass with plenty of cracked ice, garnish with a sprig of mint and a swizzle stick and serve.
