A couple of nights ago I dropped into the recently opened Henry’s Brewpub in Shanghai. The beer there is US style. It is nothing like the English beer brewed at Galbraiths in Auckland, but it isn’t too bad. The prices are also reasonable, only 30 RMB a glass, compared to at least twice that for the Bavarian wheat beers at the Shanghai Paulaner.

My timing was excellent, for two reasons. First, I arrived to meet a friend at exactly 7 pm, and found that they were offering free beer for the next hour. Naturally I took advantage of this unexpected opportunity. Second, there was the most stunning looking Sri Lankan girl working behind the bar, on her first night in the place, and as it turned out probably her last.

The beer was very good. US style micro-brews aren’t exactly my thing, but there is no denying that the beer at Henrys is good. I had a pale ale, a honey brown ale, and then more of the pale ale. Me and my friend had a couple of plates of ribs, and he chatted about his messy personal life. I spent most of the conversation talking about the virtues of monogamy, something he needed a dose of. I was the very voice of temperance and self-control, a lone voice raging in defense of true love and straight dealing. While not deliberate there was something vaguely fortuitous about all this. Since the bar was virtually empty (Henry’s has only just opened and even free beer doesn’t seem to be pulling the crowds in just yet) the Sri Lankan barmaid was listening to most of our conversation. We must have sounded something like a good cop bad cop routine, but I was not just any good cop, I was the cop who was going to single handedly right every wrong in the world.

Eventually the barmaid joined in the conversation. We stopped talking about my friend’s situation and moved on to other things. It turned out that the barmaid was from Sweden. She had been born in Sri Lanka but adopted by a Swedish family. Naturally I asked her where I could find aquavit or Swedish punsch in Shanghai. To my surprise she said I would definitely find aquavit in Ikea. She didn’t know anything about Swedish punsch, which I guess isn’t common even in Sweden. I had been to the little deli in Ikea looking for interesting things before and never seen any aquavit, but she sounded very certain. I thought about asking her about Sri Lankan arrack, but figured I would sound a bit weird if I asked too many questions about hard to find drinks, and in any case she had only been back to Sri Lanka once since leaving as a child so what would she know about arrack? It turned out that the barmaid was having second thoughts about working in Henrys and probably wouldn’t be there again, so all in all I was lucky to make her acquaintance and find a source of aquavit.

The next day I headed down to Ikea. She was quite right, they had aquavit. I picked up a 500ml bottle of OP Anderson Fine Old Aquavit, plus a box containing a dozen miniatures of different brands.

The barmaid had mentioned that Aquavit was a Christmas drink in Sweden. In fact the reason she was so certain Ikea had the stuff was because her father had been there recently to buy some for Christmas. I decided to get to work and make a Christmas cocktail with the stuff.

Aquavit is more or less a herbal flavored vodka, though unlike vodka Aquavit is sometimes aged. I’m not sure if the brand I bought is aged or not. I suspect not. It has a slightly golden hue, but I think that comes from caramel rather than cask storage. OP Anderson tastes of caraway and anise, but other brands include other ingredients – for example one of the miniatures I bought is flavored with dill. The dill makes sense since the Swedes sometimes drink aquavit with smoked salmon and other fish.

After drinking a glass of the stuff straight I decided the caraway flavors would work well with Galliano and orange juice. Therefore I decided to simply make a Harvey Wallbanger, but substituting Aquavit for the vodka. It isn’t the most creative idea in the world but I thought it would work. Since the Harvey Wallbanger was named after a surfer who used to sling his surfboard up against the wall before walking into a beachside bar at the end of a day’s surfing, this drink is called Frozen Surf – imagine a despondent surfer, wearing colorful Hawaiian shorts, standing on a desolate Swedish beach around Christmas.

Frozen Surf

1.5 oz Aquavit

3 oz orange juice

1/4 oz Galliano

Build in a rocks glass, floating the Galliano on top.

You can adjust the quantity of Galliano to taste. Personally I like to keep the ratio of Galliano down so the Aquavit has a chance to shine.

This drink is crisper and more interesting than the Harvey Wallbanger. The caraway adds an extra dimension, the herbal notes in the aquavit blend with the Galliano, and the orange juice makes it all rather refreshing. Mixing the drink strong (only two parts orange to one part Aquiavit) and going easy on the Galliano stops the drink from being too sweet.

Merry Christmas!