Cocktail #16: The Hurricane

Happy tiki Tuesday! This week we have the ultra-simple (or so it seems) hurricane. 

Jeff Berry credits the hurricane to Pat O'Brien's Restaurant - an Irish-themed restaurant (which is still operating!) - in New Orleans, circa 1960s. This drink has become one of the most common exotic cocktails on menus around the world. I've ordered hurricanes before that neither looked nor tasted anything like this one. 

I believe this is the only drink in my little journey so far that only uses three ingredients:

2.00 oz. fresh lemon juice
2.00 oz. passion fruit syrup
4.00 oz. dark Jamaican rum (I used trusty old Myers's)

Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with about 2 cups of crushed ice, shake until the shaker gets frosty, and pour, unstrained into preferably a 15-oz. hurricane glass (which I did not have, so I used a large Pilsner glass), and garnish with a drink umbrella (I "distressed" my umbrella because, well, it's a hurricane!) and a slice of citrus.

It had to happen some time - this is the first drink in 16 weeks that I really did not like at all. Not sure what happened - I measured carefully, though I bet my lemon could have been a little more fresh. Each sip started with a heavy taste of passion fruit, quickly followed by what I thought was overly sour or too much lemon. The rum was nearly lost between the passion fruit sweet and lemon sour. Each sip inspired a bit of a pucker. I suppose it's a good lesson - the simplest cocktails can sometimes be the most difficult to get right. One must ensure she is using the best, most fresh ingredients, and measure carefully.

I won't be making (or ordering) another one of these any time soon. So it goes - drink and learn!

Sticking with the hurricane theme, sit back and relax with a little Keely Smith as she sings "Stormy Weather." Cheers!

Cocktail #15: Lei Lani Volcano

I don't know why, but I had a hankering to try using a real coconut as my drink vessel this week. So, off to the grocery store I went, and found a Thai (young) coconut (which I read were easier to get into than the brown, hairy kind). I then found a cocktail in Jeff Berry's trusty Intoxica!  that involved serving the drink in either a ceramic coconut mug or an actual coconut and came across the Lei Lani Volcano. Berry doesn't give much of a backstory to this cocktail other than: "From the Polynesian Village Resort, Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida, circa 1970s."

Now, forgive me, but unlike many folks in the tiki and vintage scene, I just don't have a soft spot for Disney. That being said, this drink is really delicious. Here's the setup:

3.00 oz. guava nectar (check the international foods section of your grocery store)
1.50 oz. unsweetened pineapple juice
0.75 oz. fresh lime juice
0.25 oz. rock candy syrup
2.50 oz coconut rum (Cruzan or Malibu)*

I garnished with a cocktail umbrella, slice of lime, and a flower from our backyard.

* Since I didn't have any coconut rum on hand, instead I used regular old Bacardi Gold, and added a teaspoon of Coco Lopez cream of coconut, as well as about a half ounce of the coconut water that came out of the coconut. 

Now that I've used a real coconut, I won't be doing that again any time soon. These things are really hard to get into - unless you have a coco jack tool, which I recently read about in Martin Cate's Smuggler's Cove book. Not keen to purchase another single-purpose tool for the kitchen, I decided to try it myself, using what ended up being an assortment of tools:

Note: If you decide to try using a real coconut, be extremely careful, and don't try to use knives! Seriously - you could injure yourself badly. Don't be stupid!

It was the hammer that finally did it, showering me with a coconut water spray as I pierced it. I emptied out the water, which was about two cups worth. I wish I could say it was lovely looking and smelled fresh and wonderful, but it was sort of dark and smelled almost overwhelmingly strong. I used a half ounce of the stuff in the cocktail, and I wish I didn't because even though it adds a little coconut flavor, it also leaves behind a slightly unpleasant aftertaste.

Because I was only able to produce a nickel sized hole (and didn't want to risk a trip to Urgent Care trying to make a larger hole with a different, more dangerous implement of destruction), I had to shove, almost piece by piece, ice into the coconut to make sure the cocktail stayed cold. I also had to use a funnel to get the drink inside the thing! So, no, I do not recommend using a real coconut if you've been thinking about it.

Anyway, aftertaste aside, this is really a pleasant drink.

I've never had guava nectar before, and it added a nice note to this drink. I was worried that the relatively large amount of guava and pineapple would overwhelm the rum, and to an extent it is a little on the fruity side, but the rum still does come through nicely. Next time I might dial back the pineapple juice by a quarter or half of an ounce. Like many exotic cocktails, it goes down easy.

For your listening pleasure this week, I give you exotica legend Arthur Lyman's 1965 Polynesia record in full:


Cheers!

Cocktail #14: Eric's Headhunter

My family is from the Boston, Massachusetts area so even though I grew up in New Jersey, I often visited Boston. My first "tiki palace" experience was when I was about 5 years old at the venerable Kowloon's in Saugus, MA about 15 minutes from Boston, to which I would return often. Built in 1950, it is (or maybe was) something like the 3rd or 4th largest restaurant in terms of seating in the country with about 1,200 seats. The interior is amazing - there are working volcanoes, a fountain surrounded by tables (I think the volcano sat on an island in the fountain). The walls are covered with Polynesian pop art and decor. The food, which is American Chinese and "Thai" is nothing to write home about, I'm sorry to say. But you don't go to a tiki palace for the food - it's an experience.

By chance, I was checking out the sale at the Edgewater Antique Mall which is a 10 minute bike ride from my apartment, and found this tiki mug from none other than Kowloon's in Saugus, MA!

In honor of this find, I tried to find a drink menu from Kowloon's online and try my hand at replicating one of their exotic cocktails. I didn't find anything comprehensive - a page here or there, so I decided to just go completely off book this week and basically create my own drink. This cocktail is based on what I understand to be the New England version of the Headhunter. Jeff Berry has a Headhunter recipe in the Grog Log which he attributes to bartender Manny "Blackie" Andal of the Hawaii Kai restaurant, New York City, 1960s. However, that recipe is much different from the Headhunters I've drank at Chinese restaurants in New England. I did find one recipe of the "New England" Headhunter a while ago online, but details are not great. So I decided to use that as a starting point and create my version of the Headhunter:

1.00 oz. Coco Lopez coconut cream

1.00 oz. fresh lime juice

2.00 oz. pineapple juice

1.00 oz. Haitian Rhum Barbancourt

1.50 oz. white Virgin Islands rum

0.50 oz. Curacao

Fill a cocktail shaker halfway with crushed ice. Add all the ingredients to the cocktail shaker and shake for at least 10 seconds. Fill a tiki mug 1/4 of the way with crushed ice and pour the contents of the cocktail shaker unstrained into the tiki mug.

For the garnish, I used a one I learned about recently from a garnish tutorial done by the good folks at Chicago's Lost Lake. I used a green cocktail umbrella and cut parts out of it so that it resembled a palm tree. I then stuck the pick into a piece of a cinnamon stick for the palm tree trunk, and speared that to a piece of pineapple which floated on top of my drink that resembled the beach. I also skewered a lime wheel with a cocktail sword that had fresh cherry juice on it - you can't have a headhunter without some blood! Finally, I added some mint sprigs to the cocktail since our garden is overflowing with mint! It also adds a nice bouquet each time you sip.

This cocktail goes down easy. The coconut cream, lime, and pineapple juices meld really well together. The Rhum Barbancourt, which is produced from sugar cane juice rather than molasses, makes for a really smooth taste. It really is a delightful rum and this is one of my favorite exotic cocktails. 

I thought this track would go well with this drink - "Honorable Hong Kong Rock" by the Out-Islanders! Check it out! Cheers!

Cocktail #13: Macadamia Chi-Chi

While visiting Palm Springs, Calif. in March of this year, we were lucky enough to visit the relatively new Tonga Hut location there, where we were treated to a lovely experience in their semi-private "back room" which must be accessed through a "secret" phone booth door.

Through the Tonga Hut's phone booth ...

Tonga Hut's back room booth and decor

They got everything right for a tiki bar - the ambiance, music, decor, drinks, menu, etc. were all fabulous. One of my companions' favorite drinks from that night was the "Nutty Chi-Chi" which, it seems, is Tonga Hut's version of the 1960s drink, the Macadamia Nut Chi-Chi, itself a variation of the Don the Beachcomber Chi-Chi. According to Jeff Berry's Intoxica! "chi-chi" is pidgin-English for "breast milk." The addition of the hard-to-find macadamia nut liqueur makes a regular chi-chi a macadamia nut, or nutty, chi-chi. Here's the recipe:

8.00 oz. unsweetened pineapple juice
2.00 oz. Lopez coconut cream
4.00 oz. vodka
2.50 oz. macadamia nut liqueur

Put everything in a blender and fill blender to the top* with ice. Blend until slushy. Serves two to four.

* I used about 3 cups of ice, which did not get near the top of my large blender. Your mileage may vary.

I chose to serve mine in a "rum barrel" mug I bought at the Tonga Hut, along with a cocktail cherry skewered to a slice of pineapple with a cocktail sword, with a cocktail umbrella, of course.

Jen getting into the mood with her muumuu, flower, and mini-chi-chi

If you've never had macadamia nut liqueur or a drink with it in it, you're in for a treat. It adds a wonderful, nutty (obviously) sweetness to the cocktail but doesn't knock you over the head or overpower the other ingredients, namely the pineapple juice and coconut cream (the vodka is neutral and I barely registered any booze in this cocktail at all, taste-wise). I was a little conservative with the coconut cream, so next time I might add another 1/2 oz. (I halved the recipe). Both my better half and I truly enjoyed this cocktail - another blended slushy drink that fits in well with warm July afternoons.

Finding the macadamia nut liqueur can be tough. Here in the Chicagoland area we're blessed with the superstore of booze, Binny's Beverage Depot (32 locations) - they are basically the Walmart of booze and carry really difficult to find products that your corner store would never have. Trader Vic's makes the macadamia nut liqueur that I found, and you may be able to track it down online or a retailer near you by searching here. Unfortunately, depending on where you live, local/state laws may prohibit the shipment of spirits - so good luck.

While you're blending up this delightful drink, what better music to put on than some cha-cha to go with your chi-chi? Here's the wonderful compilation from the Ultra-Lounge series, Vol, 9: Cha-Cha De Amour:


Track 13 is my favorite! Enjoy!

Cocktail #12: The Coconaut

Sticking with the space age theme from last week, this week's cocktail is a simple one - the Coconaut - an original creation from Jeff "Beachbum" Berry in his Grog Log:

The recipe is as follows:

8.00 oz. Lopez coconut cream
2.00 oz. lime juice
7.00 oz. dark Jamaican rum (I used Myers's)

Put everything into a blender and top with ice cubes. Blend until slushy. Pour into ceramic coconut shell mugs. Serves two to four.

I basically cut this recipe in half and even then I probably could have cut everything down further - the coconut cream by 1 oz., the lime by .25 oz., and the rum by 1 oz. Up until now I hadn't made a cocktail that made use of coconut cream, which I really enjoy, and this one didn't disappoint.

Garnished with a lime wheel and lemon peels that resemble the rings of saturn (which I probably should have used on last week's Saturn!) - inspired by a suggestion in the fantastic Smuggler's Cove book by Martin Cate I recently received.

Not a lot of backstory to this cocktail since it was created by Jeff Berry himself, but it's a tasty concoction that, if you like coconut, you will love. Easy to prepare and with the right garnish, your friends will be impressed. Try one today!

While you mix this sucker up, throw on the Fastastica! record by Russ Garcia from 1959, and blast off into outer space:

Cocktail #11: Saturn

I love "space age" kitsch, music, and movies. Of course, there are also space age tiki drinks! I decided to give the Saturn a try this week.

A little different than many exotic cocktails based on rum, the Saturn is instead based on gin, which was a nice change of pace this week. Many write-ups of the origin of this cocktail mention famed tiki bartender J. “Popo” Galsini. Apparently he created it at a tiki bar in California in the 60s and it was originally called the X-15, after the manned rocket plane that achieved 4,520 miles per hour. The drink was supposedly created to appeal to the Douglas Aircraft engineers who apparently blew off some steam at the bar after work. In 1967, the X-15 cocktail was renamed the Saturn after an accident with the aircraft which claimed the life of a test pilot. Also according to Jeff Berry, the cocktail went on to win first place in the California Bartenders’ Guild contest and later the International Bartender’s Association (IBA) World Cocktail Championship (WCC) that year, though apparently there is little to substantiate these facts. In any event... here's what we have, recipe via Jeff Berry:

0.50 oz fresh lemon juice
0.50 oz passion fruit syrup
0.25 oz falernum
0.25 oz orgeat syrup
1.25 oz gin
8 oz crushed ice

Put everything in a blender. Blend until smooth. Pour unstrained into a pilsner glass.

As you can see, I opted instead for one of my new vintage tulip glasses, in part because the yield of this drink would not have come close to topping one of my pilsner glasses, and also because I just thought it looked more space age-y (and staging it with my rocket-shaped cocktail shaker and robots from my small collection also helps!).

I garnished with the hollowed out shell of half a lemon, speared with three toothpicks. I then spiked maraschino cherries to the toothpicks, resulting in a garnish that resembles the Sputnik satellite!

This is only my second cocktail using passion fruit syrup, and again, I found that it really took hold of the drink, and it was difficult to make out any other tastes. If I made this again, I might knock the passion fruit syrup down to a teaspoon or so to enable the other flavors to shine through. That being said, I love passion fruit so I didn't mind too much. As summer comes on, I'm also really enjoying blended drinks - they are like refreshing adult slurpees, which is a-ok in my book.

As for listening suggestions for while you mix and drink, consider the following, one modern, one not:

The modern:


Man or Astro Man? have got to be one of the most fun bands of all time. They take performance art to a new level, and completely embrace the space age / sci-fi / surf aesthetic.

And, for the vintage, the king of space age bachelor pad music, Juan Garcia Esquivel's 1958 master piece, Other Worlds Other Sounds:


Cheers!

Cocktail #10: Crucian Banana Squash

I was getting a little tired of the general direction of the previous nine cocktails, which, generally -- with some variation -- were a combination of a strong sour, a sweet, and rum. I was in the mood for something with a different kind of character - a strong coconut drink, or something with a banana base. Paging through Jeff Berry's tome, Potions of the Caribbean, a recipe towards the end caught my eye: the Crucian Banana Squash. It's also incredibly easy, with only three ingredients, and made with affordable, easy-to-find rum.

This drink (with, in my opinion, a somewhat unfortunate name) originated at the Sprat Hall Plantation, St. Croix, circa early 1960s. Apparently up until fairly recently this place was still operating and you could have stayed in the oldest guest house on the island, which was built in 1670!   Back in the 1960s, according to Berry, this place was really informal and the owners operated the bar as an "honor bar" where guests recorded their own drinks in a spiral notebook to be tallied up later. As Berry notes, "although it sounds like a banana daiquiri, its roots actually go all the way back to the 17th century Spanish Main: compare [this drink] to William Dampier's instructions for making the Miskito Indian drink Mishlaw. The recipe below first appeared in the 1962 book, International Cocktail Specialties.

Here's the setup:

4.00 oz. white Virgin Islands rum (I used Cruzan)
1.00 oz. fresh lime juice
2 whole bananas, very ripe with brown spots on skin
1.00 cup crushed ice

Step one:
Peel and slice bananas as thinly as you can, then place in a shallow bowl. Pour rum over banana slices. Cover bowl and let bananas soak in rum for four hours in your fridge.

Step two:
After the 4 hours have elapsed, pour contents of bowl into a blender. Add lime juice and crushed ice. Blend until smooth, around 30 seconds. Pour unstrained into Old Fashioned glasses. Serves 2.

The rum and bananas after soaking for four hours

Now, since I just recently received this wonderful tool to core pineapples, I decided to forgo the Old Fashioned glasses and instead use a whole pineapple as my vessel.

Berry says you should garnish with plantain chips, but I decided to be a little more ridiculous and go full banana dolphin:

(To make a banana dolphin follow this wonderful tutorial from the folks at Chicago's Lost Lake tiki bar, or just slice open the tip, plop in a cherry, make three slices for fins and put in pineapple leaves, and use cloves for eyes. Cut roughly in half and stick a coffee stirrer or cocktail straw in the bottom half to anchor.)

I also added an umbrella, some pineapple leaves, and a swizzle stick from the Tonga Hut. The resulting drink is a real winner in my opinion. Possibly my favorite drink so far in this little adventure. It's not too boozy - in fact, you barely taste alcohol. It basically tastes like a wonderful, freezing, banana smoothie, and the kick of the rum hits you after a few minutes to let you know it's there. The lime juice was too much for my better half, but I didn't find it overpowering in the least.

Serving this sucker in a pineapple with a banana dolphin makes it really fun and ridiculous - just as tiki should be.

Mix one of these up and share with your favorite person - you will both enjoy it!

While you're mixing, throw on a classic - Martin Denny's Forbidden Island! Cheers!