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CHAPTER 1
(1) Mai Tai
Probably the most famous of all tiki-tropical drinks. The classic is a very simple and delicious drink, created by Vic Bergeron of Trader Vic's in 1944 in Oakland, California. The story goes that Vic created this rum drink for some friends who were visiting from Tahiti. Upon tasting it, one of his friends exclaimed, "Maita'i roa ae!" which means "Very good of the very best!" Thus Vic named the drink the Mai Tai. Unfortunately, many restaurants and bars across the country have taken a number of liberties with the recipe, making drinks that are pale replicas of the original.
1 ounce silver or gold rum
Combine the silver or gold rum, lime juice, aged rum, orange liqueur, almond syrup, and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker. Top with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh crushed ice. Float the Jamaican rum on top, if desired. Garnish with the mint sprig.
(2) Planter's Punch
A great classic tropical punch. Quite a few variations of this cocktail exist on the Internet.
2 ounces dark rum
Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Top with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a tall glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with the cherry, pineapple leaf, and orange wheel.
(3) Blue Hawaiian
One of the few vodka-based tiki drinks.
2 ounces pineapple juice
Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Top with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a tall glass filled with fresh crushed ice. (Or simply combine everything in a blender cup. Add ¾ cup of crushed ice and flash blend for 5 seconds. Pour into cocktail glass.) Garnish with the pineapple leaf and lime wheel.
(4) Sidewinder's Fang
From the Lanai restaurant in San Mateo, California, circa 1960s.
1 ½ ounces fresh lime juice
Combine the lime juice, passion fruit syrup, orange juice, and both rums in a blender with ½ cup of crushed ice. Blend for 10 seconds. Pour into a tiki mug or cocktail glass. Top with club soda and stir. Garnish with the orange twist.
(5) Rum Runner
Created in the early 1970s in the Holiday Isle Resort in the Florida Keys. Originally, the bartender concocted this recipe using leftover ingredients at the end of the night, but it soon became a hit. The name Rum Runner refers to rum smugglers during Prohibition. This is my version of the classic.
1½ ounces silver rum
Combine all the ingredients in a blender cup. Blend for 10 seconds. Add ½ cup of ice and blend until smooth. Pour into a cocktail glass. Garnish with 2 blackberries and 2 banana slices.
(6) Bahama Mama
2 ounces unsweetened pineapple juice
Combine the pineapple juice, orange juice, silver rum, aged rum, coconut rum, coconut cream, grenadine, and bitters in a cocktail shaker. Top with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a tall glass filled with fresh ice. Float the dark rum on top. Garnish with the cherry.
(7) Caribbean Cosmopolitan
1 ½ ounces Cruzan Mango rum
Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Squeeze in the lime wedge and discard. Top with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the pineapple stick on the edge of the glass.
(8) Ginger Beer (Non-Alcoholic)
Ginger beer is similar to ginger ale, but much more intense. It's a common ingredient used in many tropical and tiki drinks. There are many on the market these days — many more than just a couple of years ago, including Reed's, Bundaberg, Gosling's, and one of my favorites, Fever-Tree. Most grocery stores carry them. But if you have the time (and a juice extractor), nothing beats making your own ginger beer. It's well worth the effort.
One of the best recipes I have found (and use frequently) is by Jeffrey Morgenthaler, a mixologist, blogger, and friend based in Portland, Oregon. Check out his website for some really juicy mixology tips: www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com. He has a few recipes, but this is one of my favorites because it's so dang easy. You start by making a "Ginger Syrup," which you can keep in the fridge for several weeks. Simply mix it with club soda when ready to serve.
4 parts club soda
Mix the two over ice and voilà!
GINGER SYRUP
3 parts simple syrup (see page 15)
Combine all the ingredients in a pitcher or sealed container. Keep refrigerated until ready to use. Stir the mixture well prior to using.
A NOTE ON GINGER BEER. Ginger is a stomach settler and helps with nausea, so Ginger Beer (or a cocktail with Ginger Beer) is great to have on a boat, where seasickness often strikes. I've made these many times going back and forth from Marina del Rey to Catalina Island, where my husband and I used to live on a sailboat. It was our house cocktail.
(9) Dark & Stormy
One of the very few cocktails where a brand has actually succeeded in trademarking a cocktail (sort of). Technically, you can't call it a "Dark & Stormy" if you don't use Gosling's Black Seal rum, but, in all honesty, there are really only a few other rums on the market that could even come close to duplicating the same flavor. Most bartenders just add the rum with ginger beer. But, unless I'm making the ginger beer myself (see prior recipe), I like to add a little lime or lemon juice.
1 ½ounces Gosling's Black Seal rum
Combine the rum, lime juice, and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker. Top with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a tall glass filled with fresh ice. Top with ginger beer and stir well. Garnish with mint sprig.
VARIATION: If you do make your own Ginger Beer, this is how I like to make my Dark & Stormy:
1 ½ ounces Gosling's Black Seal rum
Fill a tall glass with fresh ice. Add the rum. Add the ginger syrup. Top with club soda. Stir and garnish with the mint sprig.
(10) El Diablo
1 ½ ounces reposado tequila
Fill a tall glass with fresh ice. Add the tequila. Add the ginger beer. Top with the crème de cassis. Serve with the lime wedge.
(11) Major Bailey
Sort of a gin "mojito." A classic tiki drink.
5 to 8 mint leaves
In a Collins glass, muddle the mint leaves with the simple syrup, lemon juice, and lime juice. Add the gin. Top with fresh crushed ice and stir well. Garnish with the lemon and lime wheels.
(12) Zombie
The story goes that Don the Beachcomber created this cocktail to help one of his hung-over customers get through a business meeting. He came back the next day and said that the drink had turned him into a "Zombie" for the entire day.
If you do an Internet search on the Zombie cocktail recipe, you are guaranteed to come across at least five versions and then some. But the one common factor in all of them is that they are made with a variety of different rums, including an overproof rum. All are strong and deadly, hence the name.
1 ounce dark or aged rum
Combine the dark rum, gold rum, juices, white rum, brandy, and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker. Top with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a tall glass filled with fresh crushed ice. Float of overproof rum on top. Garnish with the cherry and the pineapple wedge.
(13) Demerara Dry Float
Another classic from Don the Beachcomber. This is my own delicious variation that is a little lighter on the citrus component.
2 ounces fresh lime juice
Combine the lime juice, passion fruit syrup, Demerara rum, simple syrup, and maraschino liqueur in a cocktail shaker. Top with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a tall glass filled with fresh crushed ice. Float the overproof rum on top. If fresh passion fruit is in season, garnish with a half a passion fruit. If fresh passion fruit is not available, omit the garnish.
(14) Rum Swizzle
The grandfather of all swizzle drinks. "Swizzle" is really the name of the tool used in making the drink. The original swizzle stick was a small dried branch found from a tree in the Caribbean islands that has a few extended smaller branches on the end that help to stir (or "swizzle") the drink. CocktailKingdom.com sells some great authentic swizzle sticks.
In making a Swizzle drink you need:
a) a swizzle stick (if you don't have one, the smallest hand-whip you can find will work)
b) a tall, skinny glass
c) fresh crushed ice
2 ounces rum (you can use a white rum, but I like the complexity of a slightly darker rum such as 10 Cane or even Cruzan Single Barrel)
Combine the rum, lime juice, and simple syrup in a tall glass. Top with crushed ice. Carefully push down the swizzle stick in the glass all the way to the bottom. Place the swizzle stick handle between the palms of your hands and rub together swiftly. (Use the same movement as you would when rubbing your cold hands to generate some heat.) This chills the drink very fast, mixes the ingredients, and lightly aerates them. When the drink develops frost on the outside of the glass (about 45 seconds to 1 minute), you know it's ready! Add the bitters right before serving. Garnish with the mint sprig.
(15) Aperol About It
A group of us from Arizona Cocktail Week produced a pop-up tiki bar in town called the Tiki Hideaway. One of the drinks we served was called "Aperol About It," created by master mixologist and friend Jason Asher. This is a variation of the 1956 tiki cocktail the Demerara Sour using Aperol, an Italian aperitif. It's easy to make and soooooo good!
2 ounces Appleton V/X (Jamaican) rum
Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Top with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh ice. (If you can use larger square cubes, those are ideal.) This drink has no garnish.
(16) Eureka Punch
Created by Martin Cate, owner and creator of Smuggler's Cove in San Francisco. (If you've never been to this tiki bar, it's one of the best in the nation.) This cocktail is made with Yellow Chartreuse, an herbal liqueur created by the Carthusian monks in France. It's been around since the 1700s and is similar to the Italian herbal liqueurs Galliano and Strega. While probably not available at your local convenience market, you can surely find it at specialty grocery stores and online. They also make the more popular Green Chartreuse, which is more pungent.
1 ½ ounces fresh lemon juice
Combine the lemon juice, rum, honey syrup, Chartreuse, and bitters in a cocktail shaker. Top with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a Collins glass filled with fresh ice. Top with ginger ale and stir. Garnish with the lemon wedge or twist and the mint sprig.
(17) Guava Basil Cooler
Guava is such a great tropical flavor — it's tart, aromatic, and sweet all at the same time. It has a very short season and may be hard to find fresh. This cocktail uses a guava nectar you can usually find at most grocery stores. But if you do find fresh guava, by all means use it. I would flash-blend a small scoop of the fresh fruit in a blender with all the other ingredients and just a few cubes of ice.
I find that tequila goes really well with guava. The agave flavor plays nicely with the sweetness and tartness of the fruit.
1 ½ ounces reposado tequila
Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Top with ice and shake vigorously. Pour contents into a tall Collins glass. Top with additional ice, if needed. Garnish with a basil leaf.
(18) Mango Mai Tai
A riff on the classic Mai Tai made with Cruzan Mango rum and a touch of mango nectar.
1 ½ ounces Cruzan Mango rum
Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Top with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a tall glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with the orange twist.
(19) Fog Cutter
A classic tiki cocktail using gin and a sweet sherry.
2 ounces fresh orange juice
Combine the orange juice, rum, lemon juice, brandy, gin, and almond syrup in a cocktail shaker. Top with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a tall glass filled with fresh ice. Float the sherry on top. Garnish with the lemon wedge and mint sprig.
(20) Morning Dew Sparkle
½ ounce pineapple juice
Combine the pineapple juice and Midori in a cocktail shaker. Top with ice and shake moderately. Strain into a champagne flute. Top with chilled Moscato. Garnish with the pineapple wedge, if desired.
(21) Classic Daiquiri
This is the traditional recipe, created in Cuba, simple, tart, and delicious. This is another cocktail that has really gotten its share of manipulation through the years.
2 ounces white rum
Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Top with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a floating lime wheel.
(22) Banana Daiquiri
So, now that we have the classic Daiquiri covered, this is a fruity twist on the original.
2 ounces aged rum
Combine all the ingredients in a blender cup without ice. Blend on High for 10 seconds. Add ½ cup of ice (preferably crushed). Blend on High for another 10 seconds. Pour into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a dried banana chip, if desired.
(23) Hemingway Daiquiri
Created by a bartender at the La Florida Bar in Cuba for Ernest Hemingway — who didn't like his drinks too sweet — this drink is also nicknamed "La Papa Double" because he was known to order "doubles."
There are quite a few variations of this cocktail, but this one is mine. I simply love this drink and it will always be one of my favorites. It was one of the first "real" cocktails I had when I lived in New York City and it still reminds me of what a great cocktail should be: layers of flavor, balanced, but not overly complicated.
1 ounce light rum (such as 10 Cane rum)
Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Top with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the grapefruit twist or "flamed" grapefruit peel.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "101 Tropical Drinks"
by .
Copyright © 2013 Kim Haasarud.
Excerpted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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