{"id":4140,"date":"2012-09-26T23:04:38","date_gmt":"2012-09-27T05:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregsowell.com\/?p=4140"},"modified":"2012-09-26T23:04:38","modified_gmt":"2012-09-27T05:04:38","slug":"black-balsam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregsowell.com\/?p=4140","title":{"rendered":"Black Balsam"},"content":{"rendered":"

A tremendous friend of mine was kind enough to give me a bottle of Black Balsam<\/a>. For those of you that don’t know, BB is “a traditional Latvian herbal liqueur made with many different natural ingredients mixed in pure vodka, giving a 45% abv (90 proof) drink.” I love the fact that they also refer to it as being used as a traditional medicine…hehe. If you can’t beat a cold, then burn it out of ya!
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I’m going to say right off the bat that I don’t drink \ud83d\ude42 So why would I accept such a gift you ask? If a good friend of yours from halfway across the globe brings you a gift YOU ACCEPT IT! What I did with it was to entertain friends \ud83d\ude42 Following is a couple pictures of Jimmy’s attempt \ud83d\ude1b
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Jimmy steps up to the plate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
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Here’s the pitch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
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Swing and a miss…you’re out! hehehe<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

The only person here who matters is Daniel. Daniel is the closest thing to a connoisseur I have, and I believe he reviewed it quite well. Here is what he had to say:<\/p>\n

Riga Black Balsam
\nAt first whiff of Riga Black Balsam, I detected the high alcohol content but there is a nice syrupy coffee scent that follows. The aroma is quite complex, but it is hard to pinpoint independent ingredients. When I took my first taste, I was surprised at the strong, bitter flavor because I expected it to be sweet from the scent. When I worked my way past the initial shock, the flavor was of a robust, dark coffee with some slight complexity of a flowery nature. I haven\u2019t really experienced anything quite like it. Kahl\u00faa and J\u00e4germeister are the closest things I can compare this drink to, but it isn\u2019t really like them either. If you are looking for a unique liqueur to add to your liquor cabinet, I would recommend it. It\u2019s not something I\u2019ll drink on a regular basis, but I can definitely see myself imbibing with a glass of it during a casual evening with some friends. I can see this being an excellent drink for cold, winter nights. Sitting in front of the fireplace, having a passionate debate over politics, history, or philosophy with some friends, Black Balsam would be a great accompaniment. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I love the bottle too. it is made out of some kind of porcelain…or something. It’s got a stout feel and looks very cool on my shelf of treasures. I’ve got better photos that will follow soon.<\/p>\n

I don’t know if the special donor wants to remain anonymous or not…I don’t think he supplied too many people with a bottle, but thank you sir! If you don’t mind me calling you by name, then just let me know \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A tremendous friend of mine was kind enough to give me a bottle of Black Balsam. For those of you that don’t know, BB\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregsowell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregsowell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregsowell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregsowell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregsowell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4140"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gregsowell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4148,"href":"https:\/\/gregsowell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140\/revisions\/4148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregsowell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregsowell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregsowell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}