Silenus

Difford’s Guide
Discerning Drinkers (2 ratings)

Serve in a Nick & Nora glass

Ingredients:
1 12 oz O/Purist Tsipouro
1 13 oz Riesling wine
13 oz Honey syrup (3 parts honey to 1 water by weight)
1 dash Soy sauce
× 1 1 serving
Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

  1. Select and pre-chill a Nick & Nora glass.
  2. Prepare garnish of skewered Fragata Green Olive.
  3. STIR all ingredients with ice.
  4. FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
  5. Garnish with skewered olive.

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol
Medium
Boozy
Strength 5/10
Sweet
Medium
Dry/sour
Sweet to sour 6/10

Review:

This cocktail combines a distilled grape spirit with wine (or wines – I used 40ml of one Riesling but the original recipe specifies 28ml Dr. Loosen Demi Sec Riesling and 12ml Dr. Loosen Dry Riesling) and then adds honeyed richness and a touch of savoury soy sauce. It's tricky to nail the perfect balance of wine and honey, and even your choice of soy sauce is crucial. However, patience is rewarded, and once nailed, easily replicated.

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History:

Adapted from a recipe created by Dimitris Kaitalidis at Nectar Distillery in Thessaloniki, Greece, this was one of ten winning recipes in the 2021 O/Purist Quest. Apparently, "Sileni used to be a group of followers of the wine God Dionysus, mythological creatures with ears, tails and horse's hooves. They helped with winemaking and were characterised by drunken joy and ecstasy. Sileni, along with Satyrs and Maenads were Dionysus' entourage during his epic feasts and dances. This drink is pays homage to the God of Wine by using grape distillate O/Purist Tsipouro and wine."

Nutrition:

One serving of Silenus contains 187 calories

Alcohol content:

  • 1.3 standard drinks
  • 19.42% alc./vol. (19.42° proof)
  • 18.5 grams of pure alcohol

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Matt’s Avatar Matt
19th March at 02:09
What an interesting and diverse set of flavors! The honey and tsipouro great interplay with their sweet/nectar notes, and the reisling is also providing some apple and drying this up a bit. The soy sauce is interesting - I added a bit more halfway thru my cocktail to see impact - it seems to accentuate some of the notes of the tsipouro - reminding me of burnt marshmallow (better than it sounds). Give this cocktail a try!