Sourz Apple Sweet & Sour Liqueur

When I was an ickle kid, I did like my sweeties. I had a sweet tooth so sweet it was surely made from sugar. One of my favourite things then was standing in a shop staring at the rows upon rows of sweets in jars, trying to decide what to buy a “quarter” of. If there were such a thing as a sweetie connoisseur, then I was that kid. I could tell you simply from looking at a jar of Midget Gems whether or not the blacks were blackcurrant flavoured, or liquorice flavoured. What does this have to do with Sourz liqueur, you’re no doubt asking yourself? Well, the answer is simple.

Apart from Midget Gems (made by Lion, with the liquorice flavoured blacks), I was quite partial to a set of sweeties called “Apple Tarts”, which were apple flavoured, if you hadn’t guessed. They were boiled, sphere shaped sweets around the same sort of size as brandy balls etc. and they were lovely.

The taste of Sourz is remarkably like that of the Apple Tarts, although not as sweet. If you have tasted Apple Tarts before, imagine them wrapped in the sour sugar that used to coat Sour Cola Bottles (and other sour sweets) and you’ll be spot on with the flavour of Sourz. It’s also quite strong in flavour, but in a more pleasant way that, say, Aftershock or Goldschlager may be.

I first tried this in a local pub on the Sunday before the May Day bank holiday when I went out for a quiet drink with my sister and her boyfriend. Quite unexpectedly, it turned into a marathon session, and we all stumbled home in the early hours of the morning and this was one of the drinks we tried.

It’s hard to describe the sensation of drinking it – I think I’ve accurately described the taste, but there’s something else to it that I can’t quite put my finger on. We had it in shooter form (although the manufacturer also recommends serving over ice and sipping, or adding to carbonated water) and while drinking it; it didn’t really feel like I was actually drinking anything. It seems to be a lot smoother and a lot “lighter” than other shooters I had been drinking that night, and despite my uncertainty on how to describe the sensation, I actually liked this a lot.

It’s (perhaps unsurprisingly) a green liquid and comes in 70cl bottles which I believe are around £9 (my bottle was bought for me as a present, and I can only guess at how much it cost) which I think is very cheap, especially for what is described as an imported alcoholic drink (from the USA). The strength is 15% Vol. which is quite weak (certainly in comparison to some spirits) and there’s not much of an alcoholic “kick” in the taste, probably because the sour taste hides it.

I recommend two parts of Sourz with one part of lemon vodka and plenty of ice for a nice drink with a bit of a kick.

I’ve been searching for this in off licences in my local town of Belfast, but it was my sister who finally found it, and bought me it as a pressie. If you’re looking for it, try these addresses:

JBB plc
310 St. Vincent Street
Glasgow
G2 5NG

Or:

Munson Shaw Co.
Deerfield
IL.
USA

And on that note, I’m off to find my bottle to do a bit more “research”. Cheers!