The Sweaty Kestrel.

The Sweaty Kestrel is the name of a popular cocktail, comprising 50% Buckfast and 50% Lilt. But where did this drink get its name?

The story is set sometime between 1982 and 1984 in a backstreet bar in Liverpool's dockland area called Maguire's, where a young barman called Brian Ainsworth was desperately trying to invent a cocktail. Brian wanted to prove his worth as a barman by creating something that would bring people from all over Liverpool to Maguire's so his boss, James Maguire, would never be able to let him go.

One night during a quiet shift, Brian was experimenting with all sorts of concoctions behind the bar. On eventually tasting a combination of Buckfast and Lilt, he knew he was on to something. An old Scottish sailor had been sitting at the bar all evening. Brian offered the old sailor a sip of his new drink, to which the sailor replied "Ah dinnae ken wha' tae say, o'er than that tastes o' the sweet swea' o' the kes'rel, ye ken". The sailor then got up, left the bar, and was never seen again. Brian and the other customers in Maguire's were confused by the sailor's remarks, but Brian knew the Sweaty Kestrel had just been named.

Maguire's began to market Sweaty Kestrel relatively succesfully, and it became hugely popular throughout Liverpool until the late eighties. Brian went on to become manager, and eventually owner of the bar, until his death in 1994 when his home was burned down whilst he was asleep.

The Sweaty Kestrel also was popular in the town of Skagen in Denmark, the city of Kristiansand in Southern Norway, and Gothenburg in Sweden, and it is believed that these are places the Scottish sailor later visited.