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 #38: Sol y Sombra

You win some, you lose some. Luckily a great majority of the previous 37 cocktails were definitely winners. For me, unfortunately, this week's drink the Sol y Sombra did not come out a winner. But who knows, you may come away with better results or a more favorable opinion.

I sourced this one from what seems to be my go-to source more and more, Jeff Berry's Potions of the Caribbean. He presents the recipe for the Sol y Sombra (translation: Sun and Shadow) as being invented by star bartender Joe Scialom from his time at the Caribe Hilton, 1957. 

The recipe was previously unpublished and was found amongst Scialom's private papers. 

1.50 oz. gold Puerto Rican rum (I used Bacardi Gold)
0.75 oz. dark Jamaican rum (I used Plantation Original Dark)
0.50 oz. apricot brandy (I used DuBouchett*)
2.00 oz. fresh pineapple juice**
0.50 oz. fresh lime juice
2 dashes Angostura bitters

* Possibly one of the causes of the downfall of this drink - I found this stuff for $11 at Binny's and I'm sure it's far from the highest quality apricot brandy out there. I have no experience with this spirit until now so I cannot really judge it one way or another. I probably should have read this first. Also I seem to remember Martin Cate recommending Rothman and Winter spirits in Smuggler's Cove but those can be pricey. Anyway, your mileage may vary.

** Meaning not canned. I didn't listen to this and used canned, so perhaps this affected the quality ... To get fresh pineapple juice, Berry recommends dicing the meat of a pineapple, then muddling it, or liquefying it in a blender, then straining.

Shake with ice cubes. Pour unstrained into a hollowed out baby pineapple. Secure pineapple in specialty bowl full of crushed ice. Garnish with a "large hanging parasol."

I did not serve this one in a pineapple, but as you can see used a tiki mug instead.

Hula girl figure by Jen LiMarzi (www.jenlimarzi.com)

It's hard for me to put into words what I didn't like about this drink. I just felt like it was too heavy on pineapple juice, for one, and that the apricot brandy didn't really play nice with the two rums.

So it goes! I'll just have to keep trying ...

In other news, this past week we lost one of the greats of music, period. He more or less invented rock and roll. Rock on, Chuck.

Cocktail #37: Zombie

Yikes! It's been over a month since my last post. The last few weeks have been hectic with travel for work, visiting family, and an uptick in my day job. I'm hoping to get back on a weekly schedule going forward!

This week, due to the kindness and generosity of a couple new friends, I was able to tackle the venerable cocktail, the Zombie.

A few weeks back fellow appreciator of all things tiki, the Meek Tiki (aka Lucas), his wife, and a friend visited Chicago for a long weekend from Minneapolis, and we met up at Three Dots and a Dash, naturally. They mentioned halfway through drinks that they had forgotten to bring a bottle they intended to give to me as a gift - a bottle of Lemon Hart 151. A while back, I had commented on a photo of his with that rum in it and mentioned that I had never seen this available - even at my go to beverage super-store, Binny's. I must have looked crestfallen, because a few weeks after their visit, an odd-shaped package arrived at my door - packed like a champ, they had sent me that bottle of Lemon Hart (and a handmade tiki cocktail pick from artist Michael Grider)! I'd seen so many drink recipes that had called for it and never been able to find it, and hadn't gotten around to sourcing an alternative Demerara 151 proof rum (check out the Five Minutes of Rum podcast episode that covers the history of the Lemon Hart brand and other 151 rum). So Lucas and Amber - thank you! I've put it to good use this week.

Ok, onto the drink. I sourced this Zombie recipe from Jeff "Beachbum" Berry's Potions of the Caribbean. It seems to be the definitive Zombie recipe. The Zombie was created by Donn the Beachcomber, circa 1934. Donn was notoriously secretive with his cocktail recipes, and he never published this one. So up until Berry unearthed it in Donn's headwaiter Dick Santiago's notebook, and published it for the first time in 2007 in Sippin' Safari, all attempts at recreating it were just best guesses.

Berry notes that the Zombie was likely a cocktail of its time - "after the privations of Prohibition, here was a poke in the eye of the Anti-Saloon League: an instant bender, with so much booze in it that Donn would serve 'only two to a customer.'"

So, here it is:

1.50 oz. gold Puerto Rican rum (I used Bacardi gold)
1.50 oz. aged Jamaican rum (I used Plantation Original Dark)
1.00 oz. Lemon Hart 151-proof Demerara rum
0.75 oz. fresh lime juice
0.50 oz. Don's mix*
0.50 oz. falernum
6 drops (1/8 tsp) Pernod
1 teaspoon of grenadine
Dash Angostura bitters
6.00 oz. crushed ice

* 2 parts white grapefruit juice (I was lucky to find white grapefruit again at the market) to 1 part Don's Spices #4 (cinnamon syrup)

Put everything in a blender. Blend at high speed for no more than 5 seconds. Pour into a chimney glass (I used a tiki mug). Add ice cubes to fill. Garnish with a sprig of mint.

This drink knocked my socks off.

I'd ordered a Zombie a handful of times over the years at various bars, and I can't say any of them were all that memorable, other than being strong and probably a bit fruity. This sucker was a whole different animal. Next to the Mai Tai, this cocktail is definitely a favorite. It's both spicy and citrusy, and has the faintest note of anise from the few drops of Pernod. The Lemon Hart provides some heat for sure, but it's not unpleasantly burning like you might expect a higher proof rum to be. Dilution of the ice works in the drink's favor as it mellows it out a bit after a few minutes.

The Zombie is a wonderfully complex and enjoyable exotic cocktail - unlike any of the previous 36 that I have made in the past year. Find a bottle of Lemon Hart 151 and make one yourself! Thanks again Lucas!

Cocktail #36: Captain's Grog

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming!

As Lloyd Bridges' character in Airplane! may have said, I picked a hell of a month to temporarily quit drinking. A fake president, talking about fake news when he doesn't like it, who tried to ban a whole group of people from our country ... well, it's been stressful, and rage-inducing. I lasted until about the 25th when we went out with a couple of our best friends to one of my favorite bars in Chicago, the Orbit Room. Anyway ... on to this week's fully loaded cocktail!

Hula Girl by my talented, Sculpy-crazy wife - www.jenlimarzi.com!

Ever since my attempt at making a Navy Grog months ago, with the failure of my ice cone, I've wanted to try again. Especially since my better half bought me Jeff Berry's ice cone kit for my birthday a couple months back. Turns out the Navy Grog isn't the only grog in the log ... The Captain's Grog also traditionally used an ice cone. So, last week I made a couple ice cones, which is itself a process. Even with the ice cone kit, I was having trouble getting them to work. I couldn't get them out of the mold without crumbling, or the straw hole was too small. After a little Googling, I read that if your snow ice -- ice you've made in your blender for example -- is too "dry" or too cold, it can make it difficult. So after some adjustments (pack the cone, wait a couple of minutes for the ice to melt very slightly, and then try to extract carefully), I was able to make two usable ice cones.

The Captain's Grog, according to our good friend Berry, originates from the Captain's Inn, Long Beach, Calif., circa 1962. The Captain's Inn contained the Hukilau Polynesian Room, which I assumed served many of these fine cocktails in its heydey.

Here's the recipe:

• 0.50 oz. fresh lime juice
• 0.50 oz. fresh grapefruit juice (strangely I found white grapefruit at my market, which I NEVER see - many old school tiki cocktails call for white grapefruit, which isn't as sweet as the ruby reds we mostly see today)
• 0.50 oz. maple syrup
• 0.50 oz. Falernum
• 0.50 oz. orange Curacao
• 1.00 oz soda water
• 3 drops vanilla extract
• 3 drops almond extract
• 0.75 oz. Myers's rum
• 0.50 oz. light Puerto Rican rum
• 0.50 oz. dark Puerto Rican rum

(As you can see, I ran out of Myers's and instead substituted Mt. Gay, which was probably lighter than the original recipe intended. I'm also currently without any Puerto Rican or Virgin Islands rum, so I used a light Havana Club along with Plantation Dark. I probably should have swapped the Plantation for the Mt. Gay, but what can you do.)

Add all the ingredients* to a cocktail shaker and fill with ice cubes. Shake vigorously. Strain into a double old fashioned glass either filled with crushed ice or with an ice cone. Garnish with mint and cocktail cherry - and whatever the hell else you want!

* Berry doesn't specify adding the soda water after shaking, but one would assume you would just top the cocktail with soda water to avoid too much fizz while shaking. I took a couple of sips before I remembered to add the soda water and it was delightful either way - obviously a little stronger all around before the soda.

That's a long list of ingredients. I admit this is not the most approachable cocktail - the sheer number of ingredients, some hard to find, along with the whole ice cone thing ... but readers, I tell you this: it's worth the trouble.

For me, the Captain's Grog rates up there near the mighty Mai-Tai, my all time favorite cocktail. I found it was a little sweeter than a Mai-Tai - perhaps the maple syrup gave it a little extra sweet kick, but it wasn't overpowering at all. Really nicely balanced drink, with all the rums settling in nicely and playing well together with the rest of the ingredients. The ice cone is a novel addition, and if you can manage to make a few for when you have people over, your guests will undoubtedly enjoy them.

For this week's entertainment, I present to you the lovely Annette Funicello, doing "Pineapple Princess" set to some clips of her Hawaiian films. Enjoy, and cheers!

Cocktail #35: Northsider Dry Ginger Spritz

Drynuary continues ...

This week we have another non-alcoholic drink that echoes many flavors of a true fully loaded exotic cocktail.

After last week's complete and utter failure, I decided that I would mostly go it alone for the rest of the month and try to come up with a few recipes of my own that had a little more nuance, and were more interesting than just a glass full of juice, seltzer, and grenadine.

After considering a few of the non-alcoholic ingredients in some of my favorite drinks that usually complement rum, I rounded up a few that seemed like they could stand on their own, no rum needed. The Northsider Dry Ginger Spritz was born:

• 3.00 oz. ginger beer (not ginger ale)
• 0.50 oz. cinnamon syrup*
• 2 drops vanilla syrup**
• 0.50 oz. grapefruit juice
• 0.50 oz. lime juice
• 0.25 oz. orgeat
• 2 dashes bitters (I used Fee Brothers "Old Fashion Aromatic" which is totally alcohol-free; be careful with bitters if you are making a non-alcoholic drink for someone who absolutely cannot have any - many bitters do contain alcohol)
• 1 tsp maraschino cherry syrup (again, be careful here - I used my homemade maraschino cherry syrup, which does technically contain alcohol; the store bought stuff is probably ok)

Add all ingredients -- except ginger beer -- to a cocktail shaker with about a cup of crushed ice. Shake vigorously. Add a half-cup or cup of crushed ice to the vessel of your choice - a double old fashioned glass would have worked here too - and open pour the contents of the shaker into the glass. Top with the ginger beer and give a quick swizzle to combine. I garnished with a cinnamon stick, maraschino cherry, and lime wheel.

* To make cinnamon syrup, boil 1 cup of water with 2 halved cinnamon sticks over high heat in a saucepan. Add 2 cups granulated sugar and stir until dissolved, about 1 minute. Immediately remove from heat. Cover and let sit at room temp for 12-24 hours. Strain through a cheesecloth and/or fine mesh strainer into a bowl and then use a funnel to bottle it. It'll keep refrigerated for a few weeks.

** If I had more time, I would have made my own vanilla syrup using a whole vanilla bean, using a similar method to cinnamon syrup, but instead I used good old Torani sugar-free vanilla syrup. Does the job.

Verdict: I loved this drink! This is definitely one of my favorite drinks of the past 34, alcohol or not. Normally I don't care for ginger beer on its own, but with the cinnamon spice and the grapefruit/lime citrus, it really mellowed out what I find to be a fairly potent and harsh ginger flavor of the ginger beer, and added a few more levels to the drink. There was nothing syrupy sweet or too tart about this cocktail, unlike a lot of other alcohol-free tiki drinks out there. This is also incredibly easy to create in a batch - just multiply the ingredients above (except for ginger beer) by the number of drinks and get ready to go in a large cocktail shaker. When you're ready to serve, add ice, shake up, pour, and add ginger beer. Your teetotaler guest will love this one and they won't miss the booze.

Speaking of teetotalers, here's an interesting clip about temperance warrior, Carry Nation, known for smashing up saloons with various implements of destruction (most infamously, a hatchet) in the early years of the last century. And let us be thankful that we can now choose temperance for ourselves, and not at the behest of a religious nut or the government!

Cheers, drinkers and abstainers alike!

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!