Scandinavian Leather Cocktail

 

The Scandinavian Leather is a beautifully green cocktail, made with fresh cucumber juice and cucumber stripes as decoration. The recipe is from Oskar Kinberg’s “Cocktail Cookbook“. It’s an unusual cocktail as it’s based on aquavit (hence the name of the cocktail). Aquavit is relatively bitter, and in Scandinavia it’s usually consumed plain, as a “snaps”. But lately cocktails based on this spirit has started to appear, and the Scandinavian Leather really showcases what a great cocktail ingredient aquavit can be.

 

“if you list cucumber as an ingredient in a cocktail list it will

instantly be ordered more than any other drink on the menu”

 

These are the words of Kinberg himself, so obviously cucumber is the crowdpleaser in this cocktail. To maximize the cucumber flavor it’s good to juice it. We juiced one whole cucumber in an electric juicer, and were chocked how much juice is produced. Look at the video below :

 

 

 

Anyway, we had more than enough cucumber juice and shook up the cocktail. It’s nice to decorate the cocktail glasses with long stripes of cucumber. Not only does it look pretty, it also adds even more cucumber flavor to the drink.

 

What’s in it

1,5 oz aquavit

1 oz cocchi americano

1/3 oz maraschino

2/3 oz fresh lemon juice

1 bar spoon simple syrup

1/3 oz cucumber juice

Shake all ingredients with ice, pour and strain into cocktail glasses.

 

 

Using tall narrow glasses makes it easier to dress the interior with the cucumber peels. Add the cucumber before pouring the drink, it eliminates unnecessary mess.

 

Close up study: