In week 46 of our Year of Drinking Adventurously, we are experiencing the pickleback. Let’s start by breaking this down… what is a “back”. According to Food Republic, a back is “a shot served to brace up another potable.” Our Author tells us to think about the pickleback and it’s pairing as a cocktail deconstructed.
As a kid, I loved drinking picklejuice from the jar. I even have a certain way I like to eat pickles so I get the most juice separate from the pickle. I’ve told y’all about the snack cart we have been rolling at work to raise money. What I may not have mentioned is our best selling item… pickles… and peppermints… Together. (shudder)
I’ve been told by my coworkers who enjoy this tasty treat, that this is the poor black equivelant of salted caramel. Sweet and Salty. I this may be the most vile combination I could imagine. We have been selling like mad, so who am I to judge. Tonight, my judging is over. I’m stunned to say, it was wierdly not terrible.
Take a sour pickle and take a bite. Your face puckers like you just sucked a lemon. Now take a bite of the sour pickle with your peppermint. Let it sit on your tongue for just a moment, then chew and wait, chew and wait… Oddly, the flavors balance and complement. One friend I had try this said it had an odd finish like cough syrup. Another friend agreed with me, the flavors somehow end up tasting like a sweet pickle with an odd kick, something you just can’t put your finger on. Well, I can now cross this off my to-do list.
To take this week’s challenge one step further, I did have a pickleback. One of my favorite spirits is New Deal’s Hot Monkey, a hot pepper infused vodka. Great flavor and some serious heat. The obvious choice is a bloody mary and as I mentioned last week, one of the best secret ingredients in a bloody is pickle juice. So, I had a sipper of Hot Monkey with a little dill pickle back. Yum!
If you are so inclined to experiment and try the peppermint pickle or if have some childhood story about pickles, I’d love to hear it. For now, see what Meg did this week. I’m fairly certain she took a pass.
In case you were wondering, last year we sold over 30 GALLONS of pickles. This year is pacing to beat that. Happy Tuesday!
Lula Harp 
Pickles and peppermints?!? Who’d a thunk…. Well now I have to try it. I love briny pickles, love it as an ingredient, but I was not about to do a shot and follow it with a pickle juice chaser!
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I cannot wait to hear what you think about the pickle and the peppermint. It is the weirdest thing
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As I shared on Meg’s blog, I loved pickle juice as a young teen until my mom told me the salt in it would make me retain water and look fat! I realize now that she didn’t like me drinking from the jar and leaving the pickles without juice to preserve them!
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I used to love drinking the pickle juice as well. In my office they do it all the time for leg cramps.
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How are you selling the pickles? Straight out of the jar, or repackaged in ziplock, etc? What are some of your other best sellers?
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Before we start rolling in the morning, we are putting them in ziploc bags. I’m boiling 30-60 eggs a night and selling them 2 for $1. Bananas and boiled eggs are a close second after the pickles.
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