Greta Garbo (Difford's Guide Recipe)

There's a few cocktails out there dedicated to actress Greta Garbo. This one is the first I've seen that doesn't use Swedish punsch. It is based on the Daiquiri, with hints of almond and anise, so it has a very classical profile. The lack of Swedish punsch makes me think that this Greta Garbo is something the actress might have enjoyed, rather than just being a gimic to sell Swedish punsch.

Difford's Guide does not supply any origin story or apocryphal anecdote about the creation of this cocktail other than to link it with Garbo and mention that it is one of many. 

I like what anise and the suggestive anise star garnish does to a classic Daiquiri's flavor. There is something Parisian or continental about this cocktail that has the feel of 1920s films. The presentation is beautiful and the flavors perfectly balanced. You will want to have more than one of these.

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Mt. Defiance used)
• 1/4 oz. maraschino liqueur
• 1/2 oz. sugar syrup
• 1 oz. lime juice
• 1/6 oz. Pernod (Ricard used)
• anise star garnish

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the anise star. 

 

J.P.'s Punch

 

J.P. must have been a bartender who worked at a beach bar. Anyway, he was good with a blender. I can imagine bar guests watching him slice a banana and tossing the pieces into the pitcher with all the spirits and juices that he hardly takes time to measure before blending up several of these cocktails at once. 

This might actually be my first single serving blended punch featured on this blog. I'm not a huge fan of beach hut cocktails and blenders in general. They water down the flavor and make a lot of the measurements of liquor imprecise as you struggle to fit all of the drink into a single glass. But for a punch, this isn't bad. Double or triple the recipe for friends and you'll be a hit just like J.P.

• 1 oz. light rum (Rhum Barbancourt used)
• 1 oz. dark rum (Pusser's navy rum used)
• 2 oz. orange juice
• 1 oz. pineapple juice
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 sliced banana
• maraschino cherry garnish
  

Combine all liquid ingredients in a blender with ice. Blend until smooth and pour into a chilled double Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with the cherry.

Marie Galante

 

Marie Galante is not a person, its a place. A small Island in the French Caribbean that cultivates sugar and is famous for a chateau and windmills that used to operate on the estate. 

While this is a rum and grapefruit cocktail, it is  La Grande Passion that sets it apart from other drinks of similar design. It is at once exotic and very French. I like how elegant this cocktail is; it has a way of being unexpectedly bright and otherworldly in its look and flavor, as quality French spirits have a tendency to be. 

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Plantation 3-Stars used)
• 1/2 oz. triple sec
• 1 oz. grapefruit juice
• 1/2 oz. La Grande Passion
• 1/8 grapefruit slice optional

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with grapefruit slice if using fresh grapefruit.

Cannes-Cannes

This cocktail has a fun name, a pun on Cannes, France and the famous bawdy cabaret dance of Paris. I liked that it was a balanced and strong cocktail (the two seldom go hand in hand) with a double punch of rum and gin. Because the recipe specified light rum, meaning that there should be little barrel taste in the drink, I opted for Plantation's 3-Stars blend, though that is a pretty flavorful light rum. Then I was struggling with which gin to use for the second measure.

Old Tom sounded appropriate, but it would have been lost in all that grapefruit. So would a simple London dry style gin (although this is perfectly acceptable if that is what you have on hand.) Doing the smell test on several bottles, I arrived at my homemade dry gin. This steeped gin had the right piney and tannin notes to stand out past all of that juice. The combination was lovely and made this the best cocktail I had that day.

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Plantation 3-Star used)
  1 1'/2 oz. dry gin (homemade bathtub gin used)
• 3 oz. grapefruit juice
• 1/2 oz. Cointreau (triple sec used)
• orange slice

Combine all ingredients except orange slice in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a double Old Fashioned glass full of fresh ice and garnish with orange slice. 

Rum and Sherry

 

I expected this to be a somewhat dry cocktail. It calls for light rum and amontillado  sherry, which is sort of medium dry, or at least that is what this blend of Dona Luisa amontillado says. I'm glad that I used the more rich Plantation 3-Stars blend of Caribbean rums rather than a super dry rum. The effect of the drink, and not all amontillados are this sweet, was like a Manhattan. 

This cocktail is more for a whiskey drinker than a rum drinker. Particularly, I think, scotch lovers will find this one attractive. I'm interested now in doing a bourbon barreled rum and sherry or sweet vermouth to see if I like this very classy way to enjoy nice rum.

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Plantation 3-Stars used)
• 3/4 oz. amontillado sherry (or medium dry sherry. Dona Luisa used)
• maraschino cherry

Combine rum and sherry in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Drop the cherry into the glass.

Blue Mountain Cooler

 

This drink has a great look! It's not exactly blue, on account of my making natural blueberry syrup, but it looks appetizing as hell! It is sweet, like most coolers, and fresh. I figure that you could use just about any white spirit in this cocktail, but rum and the Blue Mountains of Jamaica are part of this drink's gimmick. I'm glad that there's Jamaican rum in the Plantation 3 Stars blend.

Of course you can buy blueberry puree or syrup. Actually, I'm a fan of blueberry jelly in cocktails. But in case you want to cook a syrup, here's how to do it:

Add a half cup of fresh blueberries to 1/4 cup water and 1/2 cup fine white sugar to a small saucepan. (Save some berries for the drink itself.) Heat on medium heat while stirring and breaking up the berries. Once the mixture liquefies, turn the temperature down to low and stir occasionally for ten minutes. Remove from heat and strain (still hot) through fine mesh to remove the peels and store in an airtight container for one week. 

Here's the recipe for the cooler:

• 2 oz. light rum
• 1/2 oz. triple sec
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp blueberry syrup
• club soda
• fresh blueberries
• lemon slice

Combine liquors, syrup and juice in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled Collins glass full of fresh ice. Top with club soda and stir gently. Garnish with fresh blueberries and the lemon slice.

Xango

Sometimes an exotic tasting cocktail is really a simple balance of rum, citrus and triple sec. This is one of those kinds of drinks. I'm showing off Blackbeard's Point rum from Blue Sky Distillery. The lemon twist is a nice touch. You could just as well use a grapefruit twist, but you lose the aromatics of lemon that are so much brighter than its pink cousin.

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Blackbeard's Point used)
• 1 oz. grapefruit juice
• 1/2 oz. triple sec
• lemon twist

Combine all liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist lemon peel over the glass and drop it in.

Mexicano

This cocktail comes across as bright and tropical with spicy notes from Angostura bitters and sweetened by herbaceous kummel.

It's not the a common combination; and a drink with kummel is not the first thing that comes to mind with a name like Mexicano. Wouldn't tequila be more fitting? But that belies the dominance of rum throughout the Caribbean. That's where Blackbeard's Point rum comes in. It's made in Virginia, but like Blackbeard himself, it is at home along all of the Americas' coast of the Atlantic.

This Blue Sky Distillery product is a dry and balanced blend of rum that can easily accommodate flavors of fruity drinks as well as spicy or pickled drinks like rum Martinis. The Mexicano is a little bit of both with pickling herbs like caraway, fennel, and corriander of kummel (which is sweetened by honey) and the clove and allspice of aromatic bitters.

• 2 oz. light rum (Blackbeard's Point used)
• 1/2 oz. kummel (homemade used)
• 1 oz. orange juice
• several dashes Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Windward Passage

On first look, this cocktail seems a little like a variation on the Tradewinds that includes Slivovitz. It really is its own thing, however; especially when you consider it being served up with pineapple juice, kirsch, and creme de cassis.  The Windward Passage, nevertheless, is a well balanced tropical drink that deserves more attention.

First, it's balance: there's not a lot of sugar here, and grapefruit juice takes it in a tart direction. Yet you can count on the small proportion of creme de cassis and the outsized gob of pineapple juice to soften the acidity and alcohol presence. That again is helped by the kirsch, which really makes it easier to taste the alcohol through the large juice components.

Then, there's the look--foamy pink without using an egg white or grenadine. You can get away with using that pale canned grapefruit juice here if you like and it will still look nice. (I almost always use fresh squeezed so I can garnish with a slice of grapefruit.)

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Vitae platinum used)
• 2 oz. grapefruit juice
• 3 oz. pineapple juice
• 1 tsp. kirsch (Kammer Kirsch used)
• 1 tsp. creme de cassis (G.E, Massenez used)

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Strawberry Daiquiri

A Strawberry Daiquiri made with real strawberries is pretty amazing. Look at that almost creamy texture of the blend of fruit and ice! This drink is purely 80s vintage, those tropical drinks that made their way up from Miami and rum hot spots along with Caribbean music that really fueled a craze for the exotic at places like TGI Friday's all over the country.

The problem was that the cocktail was bastardized with strawberry sour mix to make them easier to pump out. A real Strawberry Daiquiri is sour with strawberry seeds! Too much sweetness be overkill.

• 2 oz. light rum
• 1 oz. lime juice
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 7 large strawberries cored and chopped

Blend all ingredients with cracked ice (about 2 cups) except one strawberry saved for garnishing. Pour in a chilled cocktail glass or wine goblet. Garnish with the strawberry.

Honey Bee

This is the rum answer to the Bee's Knees. Do it the same way as the more popular gin cocktail, with honey syrup, so that the honey dissolves when you shake it. Use equal parts hot water and honey to make this syrup and use a little more of it than the recipe calls for because its diluted. This drink is tart and sweet and very rewarding.

• 2 oz. light rum 
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. honey (1 oz. honey syrup)

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Jolly Roger

On paper, I love this drink. It has the promise of greatness, and like so many citrus-forward Drambuie drinks, it fails a little at that promise.

The Jolly Roger refers to the scull and crossbones (or swards) pirate flag, which is no coincidence since rum is piratical and scotch the native spirit of many pirates, or so I've heard. The trouble is that Drambuie is sweet but not sweet enough to offset the tartness of the lime juice (also a pirate necessity to combat scurvy.) I feel that a flavored soda or tonic would up the game a little and make the drink less like a spicy Rum Rickey.

• 2 oz. light rum
• 1 oz. Drambuie
• 1 oz. lime juice
• club soda
• 1/4 tsp. scotch

Combine all ingredients except soda and scotch in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a highball glass full of fresh ice. Top with soda and stir gently. Float scotch on top.

Cork Screw

I get the concept of this drink. So you want a Screwdriver with all the flavor of a juice drink but plenty of alcoholic punch, make it like this. Rum, dry vermouth (you won't notice it) and peach schnapps. The peach flavor overwhelms, which is a sure sign that someone will be ok with it and even get drunk off this drink. Perish the thought.

It's not a bad drink, but it could be so much better. Try again, cocktail gods.

• 2 oz. light rum 
• 1/2 oz. dry vermouth
• 1/2 oz. peach schnapps
• lime slice

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime slice. 

Judge Junior

I'm doing a mini-series on "judge" drinks, which might be a subset of the "professions" cocktails that could include The Journalist and Fireman's Sour. I'm still not sure that this category of cocktails is even a thing as much as the Monkish drinks and Opera cocktails clearly are.

One thing that's unclear is that there is a Judge Junior and a Judgette, but no Judge cocktail. I've made this one before and knew it to be strong and great tasting. It's zippy and beautifully colored. There's nothing junior about these proportions:

• 2 oz. gin
• 2 oz. light rum
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 2 tsp. grenadine

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Havana Cocktail

This is a fairly uninspired cocktail, but an enjoyable one for all that. It's easy to throw together pineapple juice and rum in a glass, even a cocktail glass. Even so, everyone who has done this (in college) finds that it is an easy-drinking combination. Lemon juice gives the cocktail a little bite and the pineapple juice has all the sweetness that it needs to balance the sourness. Shaken, the pineapple juice turns into a nice foam on top, which makes for a fun and tropical texture that sells the cocktail as a Havana favorite.

• 2 oz. light rum (Bacardi Silver used)
• 2 oz. pineapple juice
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Borinquen

Borinquen may be the old Spanish name for Puerto Rico, but Plantation rum comes from other Caribbean isles. Passionfruit syrup makes this drink as exotic as it sounds. I used 2 oz. of passion fruit puree and 2 tablespoons of sugar to create the syrup--by bringing it to a quick boil and dissolving the sugar by stirring. This sweetened the passion fruit puree, as it was almost too tart to drink.

I don't have 151-proof rum, but I used Captain Morgan's Parrot Bay Passion Fruit to further bolster the drink and solidify the passion fruit flavor. Here's how it works out.

• 2 oz. light rum 
• 1 oz. lime juice
• 1 oz. passion fruit syrup
• 1 tsp. 151-proof rum (Parrot Bay Passion Fruit used)

Combine all ingredients with cracked ice in a blender. Blend at low for 10 seconds. Pour into a chilled Old Fashioned glass (or tiki!)

Bolero

Bolero is a kind of slower, rhythmic Latin dance music. This cocktail with the same name is a slow sipper. I was surprised how much Laird's Apple Brandy stands out as the dominant flavor. And it really did taste like apples and sweet vermouth. This drink was spicy, boozy and light.

• 2 oz. light rum
• 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth (Lacuesta special edition used)
• 1/2 oz. apple brandy or applejack (Laird's Apple Brandy used)
• dash Angostura bitters

 Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir until chilled and strain over fresh ice in an Old Fashioned glass.

Beachcomber's Gold

I'm not sure how a "perfect" rum Martini rates as a beach drink. The rum, however, makes it a more likely candidate for grass hut bar drinking. I really enjoyed this drink for its smoothness and round flavor. It really struck me as a wine cocktail despite the rum base. This, I think, is because of the softer notes of Lacuesta vermouths.

• 2 oz. light rum
• 1/2 oz. dry vermouth
• 1/2 oz. sweet sweet vermouth

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir until chilled and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Fireman's Sour

This bright red drink evokes the flashing lights and red paint of a fire engine speeding down the street, something I see a lot lately here in D.C. Rose's grenadine is responsible for sweetening and coloring the drink. Despite the fact that I'm making most of my own syrups, I still count on Roses grenadine (more than the lime cordial) when it is specifically called for in recipes. When you are trying to get a specific color for your cocktail, it's not worth leaving it to chance.

• 2 oz. light rum
• 1 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 tsp. simple syrup
• 1 tbsp. grenadine
• lemon wheel
• maraschino cherry

Combine all liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled sour glass (or small wine glass) and garnish with lemon wheel and cherry.

Gauguin

The Gauguin reminds me of many of the artist's paintings. It's a pretty two-dimensional representation of indigenous (read tropical) beauty. The flavor, though, is very colorful and bold with passion fruit syrup. For this I used real passion fruit puree, which is hard to come by, and added a little simple syrup for sweetness. Passion fruit is pretty tart, which is why there are more of the syrup in drink recipes than the juice itself.

• 2 oz. light rum
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 oz. passion fruit syrup
• maraschino cherry

Combine all liquid ingredients in a blender with ice and blend until smooth. Pour into a chilled Old Fashioned glass and garnish with cherry.