Ouzo

[Alamo_Beer]

What is it exactly? It's a liqure right? Do most bottle shops carry it?


Thanks!

 

[elkdog]

I've seen it in bottle shops- if you know a place to have a wide selection, they probably have it. It's an anise-flavored liqueur from Greece, and is in my experience a love-hate type thing (I don't care for it, myself).

 

[Warped04]

What is a bottle shop?

 

[Ryan_PA]

It is a liquorice flavored liquor. It is clear, but when ice is added it turns white. My wife is first generation greek american. Her church serves that stuff like coffee every sunday after services in the hall. i can down it, but perfer single malt scotch.

 

[Vermicous]

I happen to love Ouzo. Mix it about half and half with water.

 

[Klainmeister]

I happen to love Ouzo. Mix it about half and half with water.

This works well, or with ice kinda like scotch.

In Crete they take a shot before each meal kinda like Sake. Good stuff

 

[Fish]

This stuff is what makes life good. I even see it now at Supermarkets. But it is a love it or hate it thing. IMHO its a great thing to have when its really hot out.

 

[Bulls Beers]

It is a liquorice flavored liquor. It is clear, but when ice is added it turns white. My wife is first generation greek american. Her church serves that stuff like coffee every sunday after services in the hall. i can down it, but perfer single malt scotch.

+1. My wife is also first generation greek. Her father loves it. It's pretty strong. I drink it once in a while.

 

[Vermicous]

It is a liquorice flavored liquor. It is clear, but when ice is added it turns white. My wife is first generation greek american. Her church serves that stuff like coffee every sunday after services in the hall. i can down it, but perfer single malt scotch.

With that kind of after service activity, I may have just found a new church.

 

[skinfiddler]

What is it exactly? It's a liqure right? Do most bottle shops carry it?


Thanks!

It is a headache-in-a-bottle. Went through that stage years ago. I still kind of shudder to think about drinking it. Get good and wasted on it and you might understand.

JW

 

[homebrewer_99]

Me like Ouzo...

 

[cowgo]

If you like black licorice, you'll like ouzo. I can't stand the stuff, or anything with anise seed for that matter. I get ill just thinking about it....

 

[mr x]

If you like Ouzo, you may also like Sambuca. Making some black sambuca is on my to do list.

 

[Evan!]

I prefer Pernod. Had a martini last week made with Pernod and vodka (aptly named 'Pernod-U-Didn't'), and it was delicious. A couple friends and I once snuck a bottle of Pernod, some shot glasses and a bag of ice into a theater and got wrecked watching Land of the Dead. Nothin' better.

 

[McCall St. Brewer]

If you like black licorice, you'll like ouzo. I can't stand the stuff, or anything with anise seed for that matter. I get ill just thinking about it....

I've always hated the flavor of black licorice. Back in my college days, though, I did have an ouzo incident. I finished final exams one hot July afternoon in summer school and a couple of friends and I went over to the corner tap for a few beers. One of my friends got the bright idea to order some shots of ouzo and we were soon rather trashed. I remember walking out into the heat and feeling as though my feet were sinking into the hot pavement as I walked.

I went home and fell asleep under the A/C unit in my apartment woke up and took an all night Greyhound ride to Kalamazoo to visit my girlfriend. I think I slept for two days straight once I got there!

 

[Revvy]

When I was 20 and not quite legally old enough to imbibe, I was doing a college internship with the Detroit Downtown Development Association. I was sent to broker a meeting between the head of the Greektown Merchant's Association and the head of the Chinese Merchant's association.

There isn't a formal Chinatown in Detroit, there was one in the 20's but it faded away after the 67 riots, leaving a block of empty old buildings, but there is a large bustling area known as Greektown, with several blocks worth of resteraunts, bars and Casinos. The Chinese wanted help from the Greeks about how to revitilize their area. I had gotten chummy with the heads of both groups so my boss asked me to set up the meeting.

We began the meeting with dinner in a not yet open high-end Chinese Restaurant, just the 3 of us and the Restaurant staff. Me the skinny 20 year old, the 70 or 80 year old Chinese restauranteer who was skinny, frail and very traditional, and the big, happy go lucky 60 some year old Greek multimillionaire business man....

After the meal, the greek invites us back to his office to look at plans for his new casino. So we go back to his office where he brings out a bottle of Ouzo...Which began a long night of drinking and a very successful meeting....At least I think it was.

Now Chinese food, is not really conducive to a night of heavy drinking, especially if you are a lightweight 20 year old, who's never had anything stronger than a snuck mbc in his life.

I don't remember too much of the rest of the night, just that there was a lot of ouzo (which doesn't taste bad after the 3rd or fourth shot), a lot of back slapping and laughter between the greek and the chinese busineman (which was interesting to see because the Chinese businessman was so serious and dour all the time), and that at some point I had left the office to find a bathroom...

...and that they found me an hour later curled up under the secretary's desk.

It took me awhile to live that down...I took a lot of good natured ribbing from both of them for months about being a lightweight kid...

 

[Alamo_Beer]

Hehe some good stories here...

I asked bc we had a Greek night at our house on Saturday and I was wondering what drinks we should make. We ended up making sort of a Cape Cod of sorts with oj, grapefruit juice, ouzo, and grenadine. It was pretty tasty. I also had a few ouzo's with ice water which was pretty good. I didn't take any shots of the stuff but I think I'll pick up another bottle for our bar.

Thanks guys

 

[zoebisch01]

I prefer Pernod. Had a martini last week made with Pernod and vodka (aptly named 'Pernod-U-Didn't'), and it was delicious. A couple friends and I once snuck a bottle of Pernod, some shot glasses and a bag of ice into a theater and got wrecked watching Land of the Dead. Nothin' better.

Same here. Pernod is nice. But Ouzo (as long as you get a quality brand) is pretty tasty. I must add, I absolutely LOVE real black liqorice...especially salt liqorice.

 

[HenryHill]

2 pages and you still haven't got the real deal with REAL ouzo.

About 25 years ago, my BIL was in the Navy on a sub tender in the Med. He was dental tech and liked to drink a lot. He had told me stories of how the brass would tell the boys to do what they wanted but STAY AWAY from the ouzo. Seems the REAL ouzo from over there has opium in it and the combiniation of heavy drinking by young sailors and the drugged ouzo was causing the MP's to do a lot work. I didn't believe him.

When he came home, they packed his stuff in this huge shipping crate-damn near big enough to put a Chevette into, standing on end. Nothing is checked by border people-what you pack in comes home.

So there we were, sitting out in the back yard of the In-laws, drinking a lot of beers and enjoying a nice summer afternoon, when he decides to throw the ouzo into the freezer. You pour out a 3 or 4 ounces onto ice, and the stuff turns to the color of milk instantly. He said over there it is called "Tiger's Milk". I sipped the stuff and it tasted like candy-the cold makes it not seem alcoholic at all-since the licorice flavor is quite strong. Tasted so good I had about 3. Wasn't long and I was chair locked and felt like I had just downed a CHITLOAD of downers.

I would pass on the domestic stuff, but would jump at the chance to drink the REAL STUFF. Maybe why REVVY was found curled up under a desk....bettin' the Greek millionaire had the GOOD STUFF.

And Greektown ROCKS! I suggest anyone in Motown looking to eat head to Greektown for saganaki and beer and lamb and green beans or octopus in wine sauce on rice. Greek bread, like Italian only better, is a free appetizer brought to all tables, and comes in handy to put the flaming sanaki (kaseri; goat cheese) onto.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saganaki

 

[cowgo]

Several people have referred to it as tasting like licorice.

It doesn't taste like red licorice, it tastes like black. Liquid black licorice. Gag.

 

[Ryan_PA]

With that kind of after service activity, I may have just found a new church.

3+ hours of mumbling in greek, during which you hope and pray you can get out in time for kickoff, the trade off is not really worth it.