Day 253

"The Aunt Roberta is the strongest cocktail in the world. Invite a friend over today and sample it."

The Aunt Roberta was invented in the late 1800's by an Alabama woman known today only as Aunt Roberta. Little is known about Roberta except that she was the mulatto daughter of a slave owner who fled an abusive home life and alcoholic father at the tender age of 11. Early on, she made her living picking cotton, and was nomadic for much of her early life.

She worked as a prostitute before her bootleg shack, where she began her career in the alcoholic beverage business by selling drinks made of homemade gin and moonshine. Most of the patrons of her establishment were homeless people, and it's 34 people are rumored to have died over the two years she sold her homemade concoction.

Apparently, she stumbled upon it when drunk and was never able to get exactly the right measures again. She died in poverty aged 32 in 1886.

The drink was made famous when a customer of Aunt Roberta's, a raccoon hunter named Billy Joe Spratt, introduced his version of the cocktail to New York after Aunt Roberta's death. Spratt opened a series of bars based on the Aunt Roberta cocktail, and within two years became a millionaire.

The Aunt Roberta

2 shots Absinthe

1 shot Brandy

3 shots Vodka

1.5 shot Gin

1 shot Blackberry Liqueur

Overall, this was a very bad idea. Not only was I unable to drink the entire cocktail due to the insane amounts of alcohol, the drink itself didn't taste very good at all. I mean, I suppose that's what happens when you have a glass filled with random booze, but I expected it would be at least somewhat palatable.