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The Challenge: Two people, six bars, 12 shots
The Players: Kerry Leonard, Metromix producer and Thomas Hardwicke, Metromix photographer and contributor.
Shot No. 11: The Christmas Car Bomb, dreamt up by Austin at Bailey's and guzzled with glee by Kerry.
Ingredients: Guinness, 3 Olives Chocolate vodka, Rumplemintz and creme de menthe
Price: $5.50
What it tastes like: Manna from heaven. Only better, because it's Guinness, not manna. Bailey's, while the most anticlimactic upon entry (believe it or not, we were ready to be through with the challenge. You have permission to administer a roundhouse kick to our faces if you ever see us), turned out to be the most inspired stop. As with all the places, we descended upon the bar and blindsided Austin with the challenge. Yet unlike most of the other bartenders, Austin did not ask what the other bartenders had made. This was a serious gamble, as Bailey's was the last bar and really, how many Christmas shots are there. Well, apparently two more than we had previously suspected. Austin seemed to relish in the test; he gave us a sly smile, bounced some ideas off a bar regular seated nearby and then assembled THE BEST shot yet.
The Christmas Car Bomb.
When Austin slid the half-full pint of Guinness and accompanying shot in my direction, I gasped. "Is this for me??" I squealed in delight. It was. At this early point, I had already declared it my favorite in conception alone -- a freaking car bomb. Guinness with an appended shot to be submerged in the stout and slammed back. Brilliant! I think he could see into my sodden, Irish soul and knew on some level that I would appreciate this interpretation of the classic. Or he took one look at the blonde curls, fair skin and the first name shared with a county in Ireland and thought,"Hmm, probably down with Guinness." Either way, he was right.
Austin swapped out the usual shot of Jameson Irish Whiskey and Bailey's Irish Cream for 3 Olives Chocolate vodka, Rumplemintz and creme de menthe. A heady brew, no doubt, but if anything can stand up to such bold flavors, it's Guinness. When I plopped the shot into the glass, the booze infused the Guinness with a chocolate-mint essence and lent the stout an almost dessert-like flavor. Guinness is the only alcoholic beverage I know of that is given to Irish racehorses and late-term pregnant women (a great source of iron, in moderation -- just ask Gwyneth Paltrow) and a legendary one that inspires poetry, writes history and probably started a cataclysmic pub fight or two.
The minty, sweet shot made the drink far more enjoyable (for me) than the sort with the traditional whiskey. A car bomb is meant to be slammed -- and meant to be felt mightily and with immediacy. I chose to sip, both for tasting purposes and because I had to go home afterwards and make dinner using knives and an open flame. The drink got more potent as I sipped away, but it was never unpalatable or too strong. I was sad to see it come to an end but my hat goes off to Austin for blowing my mind both in the conception and execution of this drink, and for giving us, on my last shot of the series, what the Irish call a grand craic.
It's what Christmas is all about.
