This week we have the Tonga Zombie, from Jeff Berry's Intoxica! This recipe is based on the Zombie recipe from the Tonga Room, a fabulous tiki bar inside the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, c. 1945. Despite what seems like constant rumors of its demise, as of today, the Tonga Room is still open. I've been lucky enough to go there a few times and it's incredible. It has a pond with a floating bandstand, and every so often there's a "thunderstorm" inside - it thunders and lightnings, and rain pours down into the pond. The atmosphere is absolutely incredible.
(photo via tikiloungetalk.com)
Anyway, back to the recipe:
1.00 oz. fresh lime juice
0.50 oz. unsweetened pineapple juice
1.00 oz. passion fruit syrup
1.00 oz. white Puerto Rican rum (I used Cruzan, a light Virgin Islands rum)
0.50 oz. dark Jamaican rum (I used Myers's)
0.50 oz Bacardi 151 rum (I used Don Q 151)
Shake all ingredients with one cup of crushed ice. Pour into a chimney glass, adding more crushed ice to fill. I garnished mine with a maraschino cherry speared to lemon and lime wheels using a flamingo pick, a pineapple wedge, and a pineapple leaf. I also recently picked up some bamboo paper straws which are both biodegradable and really cool looking.
On the first sip, honestly I was a bit overwhelmed by the passion fruit syrup - if I made this again, I might cut that in half. But once the ice melted a bit and things melded a little, it got less overwhelming. It packs a bit of a punch, but the booze factor is not over the top. Otherwise, it's a classic exotic cocktail - a little sweet, a little sour, and a little boozy. Nice and refreshing, and excellent to look at.
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