Up The Kriek Without A Paddle

As my friends can attest, I have a fondness for creating cocktails. The crazier the better, and I'm not averse to experimenting with strange ingredients or combining random fruits, liquors and herbs to make a really stellar drink.

This is admittedly one of my tamer concoctions in terms of ingredients and it's nearly scandalous in my eyes because it doesn't involve any actual fruit (hey, who says cocktails shouldn't be a vehicle for vitamin C?). It's a bit different from the rest of my creations though, because I had the name before I started: Up The Kriek Without A Paddle.

Kriek (pronounced 'creek') is definitely not on the list of beers that Belgium is famous for- because it's not really a beer at all. It's light (3.5% or so), fruity and tastes pretty much like artificial cherry fruit juice. But it's good. And while I deemed it cocktail-worthy because of the play on words, after a bit of experimentation it's actually pretty tasty.

So here's the recipe:

- a medium size bottle of Kriek (375mls)
- 1 shot vodka
- dash of cucumber syrup
- cucumber slice to garnish

Serve on the rocks. Serves 2...ish.