The Burnt Trailer Cocktail Is Popular For Being Painful
The Great Lost Bear in Portland, Maine prides itself on local brews. Food Network estimates that nearly one-quarter of the most popular beers poured at the pub are made in-state, and while it's an impressive figure, there is one specific cocktail that seems to collect all the attention. It's called the Burnt Trailer and includes some of Maine's most renowned beverages. Whether this concoction is a drink you'd like to try, we'll let you decide, but you'll certainly need some "moxie" to send it down the hatch.
If you're from Maine, you know. Described as "medicinal Doctor Pepper" by local radio station WJBQ, we can't describe the Burnt Trailer without first understanding the cultural relevance of one of its key ingredients: Moxie.
In 2005, Moxie was named Maine's official soft drink (via Maine.gov). As Atlas Obscura notes, the word moxie was hardly used before the drink came onto the scene. Consider it a result of targeted advertising. In the 1900s, Moxie was on billboards and buildings, in magazines and songs, and was even associated with a game (via CBS News). On the company's website, Moxie proudly claims the title of America's first bottled carbonated beverage, with a "distinctively different flavor [that] has helped people live their life with Moxie since 1876." But as New England Today admits, people either adore or despise the bubbly soda — and it is a key element of the Burnt Trailer recipe.
You need moxie to drink this
A physician invented Moxie with ingredients intended to cure — gentian root, wintergreen, sassafras, and reportedly even cocaine — whatever he used, it worked, because the drink outsold Coca-Cola in the early 1900s, according to New England Today. (Fun fact: Coca-Cola bought Moxie in 2018, per NPR). "I personally think it tastes like a little bit of flat root bear, a little bit of flat Pepsi, mixed with a little drop of cough syrup," Brittany Payne told CBS News.
For a Burnt Trailer, take Moxie and mix it with Allen's Coffee Flavored Brandy. Whether or not you add milk is a point of contention, according to WOKQ 97.5 radio.
Allen's Brandy has its own reputation to uphold as the best-selling liquor in Maine, beating out all other rums, whiskeys, and vodkas (per The Daily Beast). At one tavern in Maine, a patron informed The Morning News, "I drank a fifth of Allen's one night and I couldn't breathe." As advertised, the brandy is sweet and smells like coffee, but at 60 proof, it packs a punch. The label explains on its website that the drink originally found favor with fishermen who wanted to add something extra to their morning brews.
To make the drink at home, The Mighty Plantain instructs you'll need to mix one part Allen's with two parts Moxie, don a t-shirt that shows New England pride, and ... we wish you luck.