Toxic Presents

As I told you in my last entry, I got a wooden box with a toxic content for Christmas. (You could call it a "gift" if you like puns. If you don't, just call it "present").

The box looks like this:

The background is the following. Although I am definitely an adult now, I just don't do some grown-up things. For example, I do not drink wine. I am not interested in investing any amount of time and energy in learning something about the different kinds of wine or trying to find my "favourite vintage" or whatever. I am a beer person. However, I thought it would be nice to know at least a little bit about the "stylish" side of drinking, and therefore I decided to become a spirit-person instead of a wine drinker.
Naturally, I asked my father to help me with this project and give me some high quality spirits for Christmas in order to have a sophisticated alternative to beer.

And this is what I got:

Cognac, Sherry and Whiskey. I am so happy, this is really a great start for my journey into grown-up drinking... (Just to make this clear: I don't drink that much and I am not an alcoholic, but I am not a Puritan either. You should enjoy the good things in life, and drinking responsibly and not too regularly is definitely fun.)

And just for fun, here a recipe for one of my favourite alcoholic drinks, liquorice vodka, or, as they call it in Northern Germany "Schwarze Sau" (what a great name!).

"Schwarze Sau" (Liquorice Vodka)
You need one bottle of vodka (in this case a very cheep brand works just fine, I always use the one from Aldi), two packs of "Türkischer Pfeffer" (very strong liquorice sweets) and a large glass bottle.
Smash the sweets with a heavy object, e.g. a hammer or a bottle, and put them into the large glass bottle. Fill in the vodka and just let it sit somewhere for about a week, shaking it once a day. After some days, the sweets are dissolved and the drink tastes just wonderful.