Cocktail #41: Jet Pilot

I've been wanting to try to make a Jet Pilot for a long time. It's one of the more complicated cocktails out of the previous 40 I've made, and it seemed to tick a lot of boxes on my "usually like" list - interesting history, a sort of dark/spicy flavor profile (with the cinnamon syrup, herbstura, etc.), and on top of that, a name inspired by the jet/space age.

The recipe comes from Martin and Rebecca Cate's Smugger's Cove. Cate credits the recipe back to Jeff "Beachbum" Berry's Sippin' Safari book, which I do not own, and from what I understand, the drink was created in 1956 by Mariano Licudine (who worked for Donn Beach at one point), and based the drink on Donn Beach's Test Pilot. The version below, Cate notes, comes from The Luau in Beverly Hills, CA.

Postcard from the Luau, via Critiki. From the personal collection of Tim Haack

Get your shakers ready ...

0.50 oz. fresh lime juice
0.50 oz. fresh grapefruit juice
0.50 oz. cinnamon syrup
0.50 oz. John D. Taylor's Velvet Falernum
1.00 oz. black blended rum (I used Gosling's Black Seal)
0.75 oz. blended aged rum (I haven't sprung for an aged rum yet, so I used my old standby, Plantation Original Dark)
0.75 oz. black blended overproof rum (I used Lemon Hart 151)
1 dash Herbstura (equal parts Pernod/Herbsaint [a licorice liqueur] and Angostura bitters mixed together)

Add all the ingredients to a drink mixer tin, or a shaker. Fill with crushed ice (and some "agitator cubes" if using a mixer), flash blend or shake, and open pour with a gated finish into a double old fashioned glass. No garnish*.

* Given the name of this blog, and the fact that my lovely wife Jen can create nearly anything in miniature form out of sculpy clay, I asked and she kindly agreed to sculpt a mini 1960s style fighter jet to be used as a garnish. I also couldn't resist using a blinking ice cube!

Astro ponders the limits of outer space

Verdict: Fabulous. As I suspected I would, I really loved this cocktail. It's pretty strong, but it has a wonderful spicy flavor profile, with a hint of sweetness. This may not be everyone's cup of tea (Jen made quite a face when she tasted it) but I found this to be really a lovely drink. Granted, there's a ton of ingredients, some difficult to make or find, but if you've already got a lot of this stuff in your bar, this one is a winner in my book, and worth trying out.

Cheers!

Enjoying a Jet Pilot on the patio on one of Chicago's first warm afternoons

Now, enjoy some Jazz for the Jet Age from Dave Pike: