Cocktail #20: Dr. Funk's Son

Last weekend we had the pleasure of visiting the great city of Milwaukee, WI just 90 minutes north of Chicago. The highlight, at least for me, was visiting the venerable tiki bar, Foundation, which may be one of if not the best tiki bar I've ever been to. Upon entering, you are immediately transported to an exotic, tropical fantasyland.

The fishtank at Foundation, Milwaukee, WI

The decor is amazing, the drinks are fantastic and well priced (most around $8; a few $12 ones include the tiki mug!), and the folks working there friendly and accommodating.  We also had the pleasure of checking out a great store called the Tip Top Atomic Shop, which has a great selection of mens and womens vintage clothes and decor. It is where I purchased the Fu Manchu tiki mug seen below (it should be acknowledged that the whole "Fu Manchu" character has been widely criticized as being a racist stereotype that fed into the "Yellow Peril" racist color metaphor in books, films, and television that, in less enlightened times, depicted Asians as a race to be feared. I mean no disrespect by referring to it here; I see it more as a cultural artifact).

I thought I remembered seeing a specific cocktail that made use of this mug in either one of Jeff Berry's books or in Martin Cate's Smugger's Cove book. Paging through Smugger's Cove there it was on page 256 - a menu from the Hu Ke Lau restaurant in Bloomfield, CT showing the Fu Manchu mug listed as a "Doctor Funk of Tahiti." Cate includes the recipe on page 266, and credits it to Trader Vic, 1946:

0.50 oz. fresh lemon juice
0.50 oz. fresh lime juice
0.25 oz. grenadine
0.50 oz. Demerara simple syrup
0.25 oz. Herbsaint*
2.25 oz. black pot still unaged rum
1.00 oz. seltzer

* Cate goes on to note that, "if Herbsaint is not to your taste, the Trader also made an alternate version called the Dr. Funk's Son, in which the Herbsaint is dropped, and 0.50 oz. of the black pot still unaged rum is substituted with 0.50 oz. of black blended overproof rum."

Since I did not have Herbsaint or Pernod on hand, I opted to go the Dr. Funk's Son route. But still, I have broken one of the tenets of my original aim when I started this project which was to stick to the recipe without modification. I had neither black pot still unaged rum, nor black blended overproof rum on hand. So, I used what I thought was the closest - good old Myers's and Don Q 151. So it goes ...

Cate always uses a drink mixer, but absent that, I added all the ingredients except the seltzer to a cocktail shaker half filled with crushed ice, and shook vigorously. I added some crushed ice to Mr. Fu Manchu and then open-poured the contents of the shaker into the mug.  Then, I topped with the seltzer. I garnished with a homemade maraschino cherry speared to a lime wheel with a cocktail sword. As you can see, I also used a really neat new "ice cube" I got at Foundation (it was included in a drink that included the mug, so I assumed it also included this really neat glowing "ice cube" too; hopefully they didn't want it back ...).

The effect this little glow emanating from your cocktail has in a very dark tiki bar is fantastic. Of course, you can get them on Amazon for a song. These would be great for a tiki cocktail party!

As a cocktail, Dr. Funk's Son was good, but not great. Perhaps it was because I didn't have the "correct" rums, who knows. The first sip hit me like a ton of bricks, with lots of sourness and and almost a spiciness. After some ice had a chance to melt to dilute the drink a bit, I found it more and more pleasant.

Cate has an interesting history behind this drink, which apparently started out as a cocktail featuring absinthe, lime, and seltzer and may have originated in the 1920s in Tahiti. Trader Vic and Don the Beachcomber both had a version of this cocktail, and they added the rum making it closer to the drink we know today.

My lovely better half getting into the spirit of things

For some excellent exotica with an Asian flavor, check out this Tak Shindo album from 1959:


Cheers!