**Boring background story:** 

I've had some fun experimenting with clarified cocktails the last couple of months, and I had an idea to make a cocktail themed for Christmas. Now, the big star in this cocktail is the cloudberry, which is a key ingredient in a traditional Norwegian dessert called Multekrem, which basically is just cloudberry and whipped cream, often used as filling in a [Krumkake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krumkake).   
Cloudberries are very tart, not very tasty to eat alone, but mixed with something sweet, they are wonderful and quite unique. My mother and I used to go into the forrest and pick buckets of these before she died, so it's very nostalgic for me. A real taste of Christmas. 

**Ingredients & how to make:** 

I used used [this recipe](https://www.diffordsguide.com/cocktails/recipe/4002/under-the-clouds) as a basis, but found I wanted to double the amount of lime: 

* 40 ml white rum (Bacardi and Great Dane)
* 10 ml sweet vermouth (Antica)
* 20 ml Lapponia Lakka Cloudberry
* 30 ml cloudberry pulp 
* 20 ml lime juice
* 15 ml simple (or sweetness to your taste)

I mixed it first without the pulp, but found the cloudberry taste to be too faint/weak, and I suppose I could have experimented more with the Lapponia Lakka, but I found some of the last berries we picked and put them in a blender, then added them to the cocktail. Then I added about 40 ml of milk to a mixing glass, and poured the cocktail into it. After a little while I poured the whole thing into a coffe filter sitting inside a funnel into a bottle. 

**Result:** 

It has a great mouthfeel. I find it to have a very good balance between the cloudberry taste, the sweet elements, and the natural tartness from the berries and lime. The white rum is quite mute, but the Great Dane has some funky notes to it, which can be welcome in very small doses. I think my S&C would have overpowered everything in this cocktail. It's not sweet, but nowhere near as bitter as a negroni or something like that. I think the clarification did a good job at marrying the flavors and taking the edge of the stronger flavors. 

I made a liter of this stuff and served it to guests at a couple of parties, with overall amazing feedback. 







Clear Or Cloudy Christmas