Cocktail #46: Queen's Park Hotel Super Cocktail

This week's drink, the Queen's Park Hotel Super Cocktail, may be one of the oldest of the previous 45 that I've made. Dating back to at least 1932, this drink originates from -- you guessed it, the Queen's Park Hotel, in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. I found it in Jeff Berry's Potions of the Caribbean, and he notes 1932 as the year that "British travel writer Owen Rutter coaxed this recipe out of the hotel bartender and published it in his book, If Crab No Walk: A Traveller in the West Indies."

This cocktail is featured in Chapter 3 of Berry's book, in a section that details the colonial history of Trinidad, and in particular the fact that the Angostura company (of bitters fame) had a strong presence in Port-of-Spain in the early 20th century, after relocating from Venezuela. It's therefore fitting that this cocktail makes heavy use of Angostura bitters - a full four dashes. Here's the recipe:

1.50 oz. gold Trinidad rum (I used Plantation 3 Stars, a white rum, which is a blend of rums from Jamaica, Barbados, and Trinidad - perhaps not really correct being that it's not a gold rum ...)
0.50 oz. Italian vermouth
0.50 oz. fresh lime juice
0.50 oz. grenadine
4 dashes Angostura bitters

Shake with ice cubes. Strain into a cocktail glass (I ended up using a coupe instead of the glass pictured since the volume of this drink is fairly small).

 The Angostura bitters figure heavily in this cocktail. I usually love the addition of Angostura for an added spicy/bitter note, but 4 dashes' worth seemed a little heavy handed to me. It made the cocktail veer off into medicinal/Robitussin territory, which for me is pretty hard to do. My first impression was a "medicinal-tasting daiquiri." I didn't dislike it enough that I didn't finish it, but this is not a cocktail I'd be rushing to make again. That being said, if your taste generally veers towards that type of flavor, by all means give this one a go. From the little knowledge and experience I have of early cocktails (say, from the 1890s - 1930s), I'm not altogether surprised that this drink is from that era, and of course being from Trinidad, they would be keen to feature Angostura bitters heavily in a locally created and served drink. So, it's definitely worth trying just to appreciate for where it came from and the history behind it.

I found this interesting short film produced in the 1930s as a sort of travelogue featuring Trinidad - it's got some great footage. Skip to 2:22 to see people checking out the "world famous Angostura bitters factory, invariably the first stop on a sight seeing tour!" Until next time - cheers!

Cocktail #45: Beachcomber's Gold

Ice can be just as an important part of a tiki drink's garnish as a lime wheel or pineapple leaf. Back in the day, Don the Beachcomber had a lot of fun with different ice garnishes. The Navy Grog and Captain's Grog ice cones are great examples. Another fun trick that Don did with ice, was the ice shell. This is a garnish where you mold ice inside the cocktail coupe, in such a way that a layer of finely crushed ice coats the inside the the glass as well as rises above the edge of one half of the glass, forming a "hood." I noticed this cocktail, Beachcomber's Gold, in Jeff Berry's Grog Log recently and thought I would give it a try (the Colonial Grog in Berry's Potions of the Caribbean also employs an ice shell - my fellow tikiphile and pal The Meek Tiki made this one a little while ago, ice shell and all).

Using a large blender, I created "snow ice" - very finely blended ice - and then used the handle of a wooden spoon to help mold the snow ice inside a cocktail coupe that had been sitting in the freezer. It was a little tricky to get the "hood" to form, but with enough pressure you can basically force the ice over the edge and with any luck it will stay in place. Once I got a good ice shell in place, I quickly placed the glass back into the freezer to firm it up. Mine ended up staying in the freezer for a couple days, which worked well.

As for the drink itself, there seem to be quite a few versions of this one floating around. In the end, I actually went with a recipe I found on the wonderful site, Atomic Grog, which purports to be the "ancestor recipe" of a drink called Liquid Gold. It differs significantly from the version printed in Jeff Berry's Grog Log. Apparently Berry himself was perplexed by the many versions of the Beachcomber's Gold, as the Atomic Grog notes that Berry "devotes five pages in his 2010 book, Remixed, to this dilemma and explores three different recipes." Since Remixed is a more recent printing than my Grog Log I decided to go with the Atomic Grog's version of the cocktail. It is as follows:

0.50 ounce fresh lime juice
0.50 ounce sugar syrup (I used Demerara syrup since I already had a batch made; this will change the flavor a bit)
1.00 ounce gold Puerto Rican rum (I used Bacardi)
0.50 ounce gold Jamaican rum (I ended up using Mount Gay, which is from Barbados)
0.50 ounce dark Jamaican rum (I used the darkest rum I had, Black Seal, which is from Bermuda)
6 drops (about 1/8 teaspoon) Pernod
4 drops almond extract

Blend with around 1/4 cup of crushed ice and strain into a champagne saucer or cocktail glass lined with an ice shell.

As the Atomic Grog goes on to note, "This is the 'Hollywood and Palm Springs' version of the Beachcomber’s Gold, which Berry traced back to 1937." The Grog Log's version is much different, employing French and Italian vermouth, as well as bitters along with rum, and Pernod. It also omits lime juice and simple syrup, and uses only one kind of rum.

Even though there are only six drops of Pernod in this cocktail, it is a dominant flavor in the drink, along with lime and the scant amount of almond extract. The rums, in a way, almost take a backseat to the Pernod. This was unexpected but not altogether a bad thing -- in fact, this is one of the more unusual, interesting drinks I've made during this project. It doesn't shine though as a favorite, but I did enjoy this cocktail. One issue with it -- well, with the ice shell -- is that after about 3-5 minutes, the ice will start to melt and eventually the drink becomes a slushy, as the melted ice slides down into the drink itself. Not a deal breaker, but slightly annoying.

Bottom line, if you're having a couple people over, this is sure to impress (but only a couple - too much effort for a big gathering, at least for me). And it's a creative, interesting cocktail for sure. Definitely worth the try. Cheers!

Since this is apparently the "Palm Springs" version of this drink, I'll leave you with a Palm Springs tourism video from the 1950s. Until next time!

Cocktail #43: Q.B. Cooler

This week I was in search of a pleasant sounding drink that used passion fruit syrup, since I made a batch a couple of weeks ago with some very expensive fresh passion fruits. I'm not sure how long this stuff keeps (perhaps the splash of vodka I added will help?) so I wanted to make use of it while it was still good.

Paging through my tiki drink companion, Jeff Berry's Grog Log, I came across the Q.B. Cooler. Berry doesn't provide much background on this one, other than to say, "by Don the Beachcomber, circa 1941, when the house rule was "a limit of two to a customer." It was only after I made and consumed this delightful cocktail that I did a little Googling to see if I could find more info on it. As it turns out, it seems that Berry himself may have updated the recipe in a later version of this book (Beachbum Berry Remixed). I'll provide both - the one I used from the Grog Log as well as the seemingly updated version I've found online.

Grog Log version:

0.50 oz. fresh lime juice
0.50 oz. orange juice
0.25 oz. passion fruit syrup
0.25 oz. sugar syrup
2.00 oz. dark Jamaican rum (I used Plantation Original Dark)
1.00 oz. light Puerto Rican rum (I used good old Havana Club)
Dash Angostura bitters
1.8 tsp Pernod

Blend with 12 oz. crushed ice for 5 seconds and pour into a double old fashioned glass. Add more crushed ice to fill. Garnish with mint sprigs.

I garnished with a long orange peel, mint, and a cocktail cherry speared to a lime wheel with a plastic flamingo pick, naturally.

My Googling led me to this version, on the lovely site, Chemistry of the Cocktail:

1.00 oz orange juice
0.50 oz lime juice
0.50 oz honey syrup
0.25 oz falernum
1.00 oz soda water
1.00 oz gold Jamaican rum
1.00 oz light Puerto Rican rum
0.50 oz Demerara rum
2 dashes Angostura bitters
0.25 tsp ginger syrup

As you can see, this version removes passion fruit syrup completely, uses some different types of rum, adds falernum, honey syrup, and ginger syrup, and removes Pernod. So, quite a different drink, it seems. I've found similar versions with ginger syrup in my Interweb travels, so it would seem this is the ultimate Q.B. Cooler recipe - I need to try it soon to compare! Many writers seem to compare this version, and in fact claim it was the inspiration for, Trader Vic's Mai Tai.

I did find one little nugget about the origin of its name - according to Kindred Cocktails, the "Q.B." stands for "Quiet Birdmen," which, according to Wikipedia, is "a secretive club in the United States for male aviators" and was originally founded in France in 1919 (and then in the USA in 1921) as a sort of drinking club.

Anyway ... my verdict? Wonderful cocktail. It has the potential to taste too "juicy" or "punchy" - like some nebulous "tiki drink" one might get at a cheesy Florida beach bar. But what saves it, in my opinion, is the Pernod and the Angostura bitters. These two ingredients - scant as they are - add an important spicy/dry note to the drink which gives it a bit more interest than it otherwise would have. Considering the second version, I can only imagine that aspect of it is enhanced by ginger syrup, which I've never tried, as well as the falernum.

I'll leave you with something that a good friend of mine recently turned me on to. Korla Pandit was a midcentury performer who played eerie organ music with an "Indian" twist. He purported to be a Hindu, despite the fact that Hindus do not wear turbans (Sikhs wear turbans, and do not wear jewels in them). In reality, he was an African American man from St. Louis, a secret that he kept to himself until nearly the day he died. He actually made an appearance as himself in the wonderful Ed Wood in the party scene.


His music has sort of an "Indian Esquivel" feel to it. If you like that sort of thing, check out Korla Pandit! Here he is playing Miserlou. Cheers!

Cocktail #40: Siboney

I just realized the other day that about one year has passed since I embarked on this little project. And here I am, only 40 cocktails in after 52 weeks. So it goes. I guess I need to pick up the pace!

The Siboney. Fresh Passion Fruit Syrup Makes this Drink

This week we have a very simple cocktail that's easy to make and very accessible -- and is now one of my new favorites. I found it in Jeff Berry's Potions of the Caribbean and he credits it back to Trader Vic, circa 1950s, but found in The Trader's 1974 book, Rum Cookery & Drinkery. Berry notes that the Siboney "is a good example of how Trader Vic took the Daiquiri template in interesting directions--and how he kept the inventory down at his bar. Double to Siboney, add a dash of Angostura bitters, and serve over crushed ice in a pilsner glass; now you have the Trader Vic Grog."

This cocktail contains passion fruit syrup, and readers of this blog will be familiar with my bad luck/incorrect use of Monin Passion Fruit Syrup. Well, this week I decided to bite the bullet on some expensive passion fruits at the shop and make my own. There's tons of recipes out there for this stuff, and Berry and Cate have their own variations that use passion fruit puree (which, for me has been harder to find than passion fruit), so I landed on this one from Episurious.com, which I halved:

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup passion fruit pulp (from about 7 ripe passion fruits)

Combine all ingredients in heavy small saucepan. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to low; simmer until syrup is reduced to 1 1/2 cups, about 15 minutes. Transfer to bowl, cover, and chill. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled.)

I added about an ounce of vodka to what I had leftover hoping to make this keep for a couple weeks.

Anyway, WHAT A DIFFERENCE THIS MADE! Instead of being totally overpowering, the fresh passion fruit syrup gave this just a hint of what the Monin stuff would have done with a similar amount. It was subtle and delicious, and didn't hit you over the head at all. I'm tempted to dump the Monin stuff down the drain after tasting a cocktail with the real McCoy.

To make a Siboney:

1.00 oz. dark Jamaican rum (I used Plantation)
0.50 oz. fresh lemon juice
0.50 oz. unsweetened pineapple juice
0.50 oz. passion fruit syrup

Shake well with ice cubes. Strain into a tiki-stemmed (or regular old coupe) cocktail glass. I garnished with a slice of lime.

As I said, the verdict for this cocktail for me was fabulous - a new favorite! The most present flavor is pineapple when you first sip, followed by the rum and passion fruit. The lemon juice takes the edge off of the sweetless of the passion fruit syrup, and balances it all very nicely.

This is a cocktail I will undoubtedly come back to again and again this summer. Next time I might reduce the pineapple juice by a hair to let a bit more of the rum shine through, but all in all, this one's a keeper.

Cheers, and happy spring!

Cocktail #39: Demerara Dry Float

This cocktail has been on my "to make eventually" list for a while, and it wasn't until recently that I was finally able to do so - with the gift of a bottle of Lemon Hart 151 Demerara rum from the Meek Tiki and his lovely wife Amber - thank you again!

This drink appears in both Jeff Berry's Intoxica! and in Martin and Rebecca Cate's Smuggler's Cove and I've borrowed variations on both recipes to make this drink. Here's Berry's recipe, to which he credits Donn the Beachcomber, circa 1941 (my modifications noted):

2.50 oz. fresh lime juice
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1.50 oz. passion fruit syrup¹
0.25 oz. sugar syrup²
1.00 oz. Demerara rum³
0.25 oz. Demerara rum⁴
0.50 oz. maraschino liqueur

Method: shake everything - except the 151 rum - with ice cubes. Strain into a double old fashioned glass filled with crushed ice. Carefully float the 151 rum. Do not stir.

¹ Given my experience with the Monin passion fruit syrup of it being way too overpowering if used in recommended quantities, I decided to halve the amount for this drink to 0.75 oz. If you have made your own passion fruit syrup or perhaps use a different, less powerful brand, your mileage may vary. For the Monin, 0.75 oz. was just about right.
² I used Demerara sugar syrup instead
³  I upped this slightly to 1.25 ounces
⁴ I went with Martin Cate's version and used 0.75 oz. of the Lemon Hart 151

I also went with Cate's version of serving this drink - with a "side of danger!" - and poured the 151 rum into a separate shot glass. Cate recommends "encourag[ing] guests to pour as much or as little of the overproof rum into their drink as they like, and experience how the drink flavor changes."

A side of danger! Lemon Hart 151

When I realized that a full 2.5 ounces of lime juice went into this sucker, my expectations dropped slightly since I assumed that the citrus would be overpowering. While indeed tart, it actually was nicely balanced by the Demerara syrup and passion fruit syrup. The Demerara rums played really well with the tartness of the lime, and the sweetness of the syrups. I ended up really enjoying this drink from the get-go. I drank several sips before floating any of the Lemon Hart 151 onto the top of it. After the float of about half of the shot glass, the flavor did indeed change, and not just strength-wise in terms of the alcohol. The drink became a bit smokier from the 151, with a bit more caramel flavor. Really very nice!

If you're a person who likes tart and sour things, you'll be into this. As my better half said, after tasting it and making an unpleasant pucker face, "of course you like this. If you could, you'd probably rim the glass with Sour Patch Kids coating!" Hmmmm ...!

Floating the 151 rum

Post 151 float

Jeff Berry ends the recipe page for the Demerara Dry Float with the "Beachcomber's Creed" composed in the early 1940s by Donn's first wife, Cora "Sunny" Sund:

"Our number one pre-requisite / Never stand when you can sit / And if you can - lie down a bit / Relax - no matter what you do / Enjoying life is up to you / The world is just a point of view / When day is done - and comes the night / No pastime makes the stars so bright / As greeting dusk with rum's delight / of all life's pleasures, deeplly drink / At every worry give a wink / It's much later than you think"

Cheers to that.

A slightly different take on the same sentiment, about 40 years later:

Cocktail #34: Queen Charlotte Fruit Punch

Drynuary.

A terrible name for what is probably a great idea.

After all the excesses of the holiday season, I decided to start 2017 off right and not drink alcohol for the month of January, following the example of John Ore (subject of article linked above) who has been doing Drynuary for 10 Januaries.

But what about the blog? The tiki drink project? Well, doing this little reset was more important. Plus, it gives me a chance to explore the niche of non-alcoholic tiki drinks. Oh yes, they exist. And let's be thankful they do, because if you're throwing a tiki-themed party, it's always a great idea to have drinks available for either drivers or teetotalers alike that are just as attractive and taste just as great as the drinks with some ammunition in them.

Jeff Berry has a couple non-alcoholic drinks in the Grog Log and so does the Trader Vic's Tiki Party book, which is also a great source for Hawaiian/tiki-themed party food recipes.

Unfortunately the drink I chose sucks.

The Queen Charlotte Fruit Punch is a mix of fruit juice, passion fruit syrup, and grenadine. It was cloyingly sweet at first and then turned extremely tart. There really is nothing redeeming about this one, even though Trader Vic himself apparently came up with it in the '70s. Little kids or juice-box addicted adults might like it and get a kick out of it. But I'd advise skipping this one.

Here's the recipe if you're interested:

I'm currently letting some Smuggler's Cove Cinnamon Syrup steep and I have some ideas for my own non-alcoholic tiki drinks that don't involve so much juice. Stay tuned for the next one!

Artwork on the wall by Nat Reed. 

Cocktail #33: Corn and Oil

Corn and Oil. Not a terribly evocative or attractive name for an exotic cocktail is it? But this one goes back a long time, long before Donn the Beachcomber or Trader Vic set up shop in the 1930s. Corn and Oil is a traditional drink from Barbados, and the version I present below is adapted from the traditional recipe by Martin Cate of Smuggler's Cove.

There are numerous recipes online for Corn and Oil with differing proportions of ingredients. Many use a very dark or Black Strap Rum, and Cruzan offers a version which seems popular. However, I stuck with a Barbados rum (Mount Gay) since this purports to originate from Barbados. It doesn't get much more simple that this (you don't even need a cocktail shaker!):

0.50 oz. John D. Taylor's Velvet Falernum
2.00 oz. blended aged rum (Barbados) - I used Mount Gay - not aged - see below
2 - 4 dashes Angostura bitters

Add all the ingredients to an old fashioned glass and fill with crushed ice. Stir to combine until frost forms on the outside of the glass.

Cate notes that there should be no garnish with this one, but I couldn't resist adding a lime wheel, a couple sprigs of mint, and a pink flamingo straw.

Given the simplicity of this drink, the rum that you use becomes more important. Hence why Martin Cate suggests using not only a Barbados rum, but one that is aged. The Mount Gay Eclipse I used in this cocktail was probably not an ideal choice - it felt a little sharp. Using a longer aged, darker rum like an El Dorado 5 or 8 Year or a Mount Gay Black Barrel probably would have been a better fit (add one of those to my shopping list!). The falernum and Angostura bitters I felt enhanced the sharpness or spiciness of the drink which made it a little less palatable. After I had drank about half of it, I squeezed a quarter of a lime into the glass and that bit of citrus took the edge off a bit and made it more enjoyable (though obviously less traditional).

Given how simple this cocktail is, this is worth a try if you have the right rum for it. I'll revisit this one after my next trip to Binny's! Cheers, and happy holidays!

Cocktail #29: Mauna Kea Mist

It's been a rough couple of weeks, given the fact that ~45% of the population voted for a racist, misogynistic, lazy know-nothing for president. While I find myself in a constant state of low-level rage, the moments away from the computer or phone screen, away from social media, are increasingly pleasant. I know we mustn't ignore what is happening in our country, but after 6+ months of digesting so much news and following the election so closely, only to witness this awful outcome, it's nice to have a break. And one thing I love about tiki is its escapism. The creator of the wonderful site Critiki briefly touched on this in a recent post. There is work to be done and fights to fight, but right now, I need a little escape. Which leads me to our next drink ...

The Mauna Kea Mist (even it's name sounds relaxing) is a drink found in Jeff Berry's Intoxica! and it hails from the Gang Plank Lounge of the Ship's Tavern Restaurant at the Surfrider Hotel in Waikiki, Hawaii, circa 1960s.

Here's what you do:

1.00 oz. unsweetened pineapple juice
0.50 oz. sweet and sour (I made my own from scratch for a previous cocktail - super easy)
0.50 oz. half & half
0.50 oz. coconut cream
0.50 oz. light Puerto Rican rum (I was out so I used Bacardi gold)
0.75 oz. Grand Marnier (I was lucky enough to find an airplane bottle size at Binny's so I wouldn't have to drop the cash on a full bottle that I won't use very often)

Blend with a cup of crushed ice until slushy. Pour into a chimney glass. Add crushed ice to fill. Garnish with an orange slice and an orchid (lacking an orchid, I simply stuck a cocktail cherry to the orange using a cocktail sword).

True to its name, origin, and ingredients, this is a lovely cocktail. It's heavy on the pineapple and coconut, so I might reduce those slightly next time. The Grand Marnier comes through just slightly, with a subtle bitter orange note. The half and half combines with the coconut cream to make this a lovely creamy, frothy drink. Put down the phone, turn off the TV and computer, blend one up, and float off to the warm breezes of Waikiki ...

To help get  you in the mood, I'll leave you with a track from this wonderful LP I recently found used. It's "On the Beach at Waikiki / Hawaiian War Chant / My Honolulu Tomboy" by Andre Kostelanetz. Cheers, and hang in there.

Cocktail #28: Captain's Blood

I was going to skip a week given the horrific result of the US election. I'm not sure anyone's in the mood to read about tiki drinks or crazy garnishes. But, perhaps you are in the mood to drink. I'm not going to let that orange piece of garbage disrupt the things that I enjoy doing, so -- onward!

I've been devouring the New York Times over the last few months, including some non-political content. They have a wonderful recipe site and app, and there are a lot of cocktails as well as food on the site. I recently came across this cocktail, the Captain's Blood, in Rosie Schaap's latest column, and while it may not exactly be considered a "tiki drink," its simplicity and riff on the classic daiquiri intrigued me. I didn't have it in me to do a whole big complicated one this week, so this seemed to fit the bill.  Schaap is their occasional drinks writer (and has also written a wonderful book called "Drinking With Men," which I highly recommend). Here's the Captain's Blood:

1 ½ ounce Jamaican dark rum (I ended up using a slightly lighter Barbados rum from Mount Gay; Myers's or another darker Jamaican rum probably would have been a little better)
¼ ounce falernum
1 ounce fresh lime juice
2 dashes Angostura bitters
½ teaspoon superfine sugar (or more to taste; I ended up using 1/4 oz. simple syrup instead)
Lime wheel or wedge for garnish

Not a lot to expound on for this cocktail. It goes down very easily, and I found Schaap's portions just right. As she notes, you can play around with the sugar / citrus portions if you like a drink on the more tart or sweet side, but for me this was just right.

The falernum and the Angostura bitters add nice slightly spicy notes to it to take the edge of the tartness. Bottom line: really nice, simple cocktail that will go down easily.

It's going to be a rough four years ahead of us. In the meantime, let's take a moment to remember at least one good thing that this country was capable of. Perhaps it can be again. Cheers.

Cocktail #27: Blue Hawaii

If one word could sum up the last 12 months as it relates to politics in the USA (and about 45% of the population of our country), I think it would be deplorable. This Tuesday is, at least, a pause in the insanity (though with all of the damage that Trump has done to the body politic, the insanity will undoubtedly continue, no matter what happens). The last couple months for me have been filled with fitful nights of sleep, and a constant low-level (and ever heightening) anxiety. I'll be glad when this is over.

Back in 2008 on Election Night my wife and I had friends over to watch the returns as we rooted for Obama. To pay homage to his heritage, as well as the color that has come to symbolize democrats, we made a version of the Blue Hawaii, way before I had any appreciation for proper tiki drinks. So it seemed appropriate on this Sunday before the 2016 election, that I revisit the Blue Hawaii - again to honor probably the best president I will see in my lifetime, and also to root for blue.

As my favorite, now retired from blogging, political writers used to say, "know hope."

Ok, we're going to need this. Let's get into the drink.

The Blue Hawaii was invented by the famous bartender of the Hilton Hawaiian Village, Harry Yee, in 1957. A sales rep for a new Blue Curacao liqueur asked Yee to create a cocktail that featured it, and after experimentation he came up with this gem. I found a recipe for the Blue Hawaii in Jeff Berry's Grog Log which I modified slightly with some attributes of this recipe from Modern Tiki. Berry's is probably the most historically accurate so here it is:

2.00 oz. unsweetened pineapple juice
1.00 oz. sweet and sour mix (I made mine from scratch, recipe here)
0.75. oz. blue Curacao
0.50 teaspoon cream of half and half
1.50 oz. vodka

His only instruction is, "mix everything in a tall glass packed with crushed ice."

Since I'm not a huge fan of cocktails with vodka as the only spirit, I decided to go with the Modern Tiki version where they do split of 0.75 oz. light rum and 0.75 oz. vodka. If I were to make this again, I would stick with Berry's 2.00 oz. pineapple juice instead of the 3.00 oz. Modern Tiki used. Also, I shook everything with lots of crushed ice in a cocktail shaker and poured it unstrained into a Pilsner glass (though a Hurricane glass would probably be more appropriate). I added ice as needed. I garnished with a pineapple wedge, three pineapple leaves, and an umbrella.

Blue Curacao gets a bit of a bad rap, especially in today's world of "craft, grain-to-glass" cocktail snobbery. But what the hell? Blue drinks are ridiculous and fun. Is this bottle of Blue Curacao going to last me the next 20 years? Probably. But once in a while it's fun to whip up something that the characters in the Fifth Element would have been drinking. And what is tiki if not fun?

As for the taste - like I said, I would have held back a bit on the pineapple juice, but otherwise, this drink was absolutely wonderful. Sweet, fruity, frothy - this is absolutely a cocktail that you would drink at some Disney resort, and it goes down so, so easy. It's not complex, it's easy to make, and your guests would love it if you served this at your election night gathering. Grab that $10 bottle of Blue Curacao at the supermarket and mix one up for Tuesday night.

Hopefully we will be celebrating, and not drowning our sorrows.

Know Hope.