Recipe: George M aka Schorsch

This fruity and spicy sour cocktail recipe - which is mixed not with the usual spirits such as gin, rum or whisky - is especially good at the beginning of spring. Instead of the usual types of alcohol, we use fruit brandy - which unfortunately receives too little attention.

As the title suggests, this uses a fruit brandy, to be precise a Williams Bartlett pear brandy. When I'm honest, as a bartender I find the dominance of gin and rum at the bar sobering. Help us to revive the traditional German brandies and give them new life! Who knows, maybe we'll start our own new trend? At any rate, these high-quality fruit brandies have earned our attention.

Ingredients (for one cocktail):

5 cl Williams pear brandy
2 cl lemon juice
2 cl almond syrup
4 sprigs of mint
5 whole cloves

Shake - double strain - into a cooled cocktail glass, garnish with mint sprigs

By straining it twice, it stops small mint or clove pieces from getting in the final drink.

This drink, created by Oliver Kirschner himself, is - by the addition of almond syrup, mint and cloves - more than just a simple brandy sour. These additions produce an extremely complicated drink, which, through the harmonic interplay of the individual components, is never too much. Also striking is the distinctive fruitness, which comes mainly from the fruit brandy and therefore is not too sweet.