Big thanks go to Lindsey for an awesome Mixology Monday theme with a Wednesday deadline. If you're not familiar with the brown, bitter, & stirred genre of drinks, they are what they sound like: brown spirit, something bitter, not much sugar, and no shaking. Incidentally, I witnessed Lindsey's creation of the drinking meme one late Saturday night at the Teardrop Lounge almost exactly a year ago, but you might say the style is rather old fashioned.

Also, incidentally, I created a drink of the brown, bitter, & stirred variety recently for Lindsey and Paul Clark's recent Crowd-sourced Cocktail Competition. It fared well in the polls but was never seen at Tales due to the scarcity of one ingredient: Unicum. Despite being the national drink of Hungary, its no longer imported to the US; but with all the angry potency of Fernet Branca, less sweetness, and some odd floral notes, Unicum is one of my favorite bitter beverages. At first glance, the bottle is nigh identical to Zwack (and produced by the same folks) but the contents taste nothing alike. If you can't get your hands on some, Fernet Branca is your best bet for a substitution in this drink. Enjoy.

Preparation: add ice and stir.