Cocktail #2: The Royal Hawaiian

This week's cocktail may be a departure for many people who have come to expect rum in their tiki drinks (I was one of them!). Also, it's incredibly easy to make with relatively easy-to-find ingredients (the orgeat being the most obscure, but even that is getting easier to find these days). The recipe is as follows:

1.5 oz. pineapple juice
0.5 oz. fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon of orgeat syrup
1.5 oz. gin

Add all the ingredients to a cocktail shaker that's filled halfway with ice, and shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. I've chosen to garnish mine with a lemon slice and maraschino cherry speared by an umbrella.

This is the first time I've tried this cocktail, and I quite enjoyed it. I'm a sucker for sour - which this drink is - but even if you're not, the lemon is not overpowering here, as it's tempered by the sweetness of the pineapple juice, and orgeat. The drink will form a thin layer of sweet foam on the top, which is really nice before the more sour liquid beneath hits you.

Beachbum Berry has a short history of this cocktail:

"From the Moana Hotel, Honolulu, Hawaii, circa 1948. Webley Edwards' then-famous radio program Hawaii Calls, featuring the Singing Surfriders and the Waikiki Maidens, was often broadcast live from the Banyan Court of the Moana; up to 3,000 middle aged tourists at a time would pack the courtyard to hear Edwards open the show with his trademark 'Aloha,' to which the crowd would always respond, 'a-LO-ha!'"

As you mix up  your own Royal Hawaiian, throw on these Webley Edwards records from YouTube:






Cheers, and enjoy!