Originating in Cantanhede in 1974, and the result of the humorous imagination of one of its inhabitants, Luís Nuno Sérgio, the Licor de Merda (Shit Liquor) is, thanks to its eschatological name, known nationally and internationally.
In bars and taverns, when they see it on the list, the clientele thinks it is a joke or a provocation. It is not. Save a day of your lives to taste the iconic Shit Liquor. Don’t worry, what the name says is not part of the ingredients.
Its base is milk, or milk already transformed into liquor, although there is an exotic fusion of another type of alchemy, mainly of fruits, giving it a yellowish but visibly watery color.
In that respect, you will be closer to a Licor Beirão or any brand of Bitter Almond Liquor. Its label, however, does not say too much about the mixture that it is inside. On the contrary, there we can read a new provocation: “It is extracted from various shits of confidence …”. Anyway, it seems to have notes of southern fruits, especially banana and vanilla.
A homemade approach can be made by heating milk and adding sugar and exotic fruits to taste at the same time – letting the fusion take shape for a few days, while fermenting with the help of yeast. At the end, brandy can be added to increase the alcohol content and bring the drink closer to other liqueurs.
However, as is to be expected, what is most asked about it has nothing to do with the recipe, but rather with the reason of its name. There seem to be two explanations for it.
Luís Nuno Sérgio, its creator, said he had a 20 litre bottle to where he used to send waste from other liquors he was making, and this compilation of remains was called shit liquor, which obviously had a variable flavour depending on the leftovers that interned there.
This will be the beginning of everything. Then there was a second application of the name when it was decided to crystallise the recipe and officially proceed with the product.
This application would be political, which, it is said, is a challenge to this class and to party disorder, when Left and Right did not understand each other at a time of post-revolution (which still has a certain relevance), and the country walked a few meters from a civil war.
The merchant addresses himself directly to the then Prime Minister Vasco Gonçalves, as can also be read on the label: “a high quality product, whose formula belonged at the end of the 20th century to the crazy Friar Basku Gonsalbes”.
The brand was also the target of a small joke made by two well-known Spanish TV presenters, who, upon learning that Cantanhede had made a liquor with that name, decided to call the small town Beirã to ask for more information about the said shit liquor.
And if you want to try preparing this liquor at home, here is the recipe!
Ingredients
– 1 liter of milk
– 500 gr. of sugar
– 150 gr. cocoa beans
– 1 vanilla pod open in half
– 1 cinnamon stick
– 2 slices of orange
– 2 lemon slices
– 1 liter of brandy
Put all the ingredients in a container that allows to seal well.
Stir and cover. Keep the container closed for 20 days, stirring daily with a wooden spoon.
After 20 days, filter 2 times through coffee filter paper, placed in a strainer.