Crane Kick (Death & Co. Recipe)

 

Another Karate Kid cocktail because of the presence of Japanese whiskey. Not very original, but this combination of flavors is--and that is all we really ask for from Death & Co. 

This is an intense Tiki recipe that mashes up smoky scotch, malty whiskey, orange and orgeat and coconut notes in an adventure that nearly tells you a story with flavors. I imagine that the story goes something like this:

You are climbing a volcanic mountain in Hawaii and can smell the burning ash in the air from a recent eruption. On the way up you pick an orange and a coconut to enjoy at the top, but on the way you skin your knee and use a Band-Aid to mend the wound. 

In short, that is what this drink experience is like. I recommend everyone try it. It's not super approachable--I think of it as a stretch drink (smoky scotch doesn't appear often in tikis and the medicinal flavor is off-putting to some, but worth the try in this case.) Some drinkers just aren't as adventurous, but I encourage this kind of thrill seeking in cocktail recipes. 

• 2 oz. Yamazaki 12-year whiskey (Catoctin Creek Colossal X used)
• 1 tsp. Laphroaig 10-year scotch
• 2 tsp. coconut liqueur (Malibu used)
• 1 oz. orange juice
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. orgeat (Fee Brothers used)
• 1 dash Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with three ice cubes. Shake and strain into a pilsner glass filled with crushed ice. 

Bahama Whammy (Original Recipe)

I'm riffing on the Bahama Mamma, that rum drink with all the tropical fruit and a few rums to boot. This time I'm leaving rum out and going with fruity whiskies. MurLarkey orange and banana whiskies are not fake flavors: they are made by soaking dried oranges and bananas in barrels of white whiskey so the flavors are all natural. 

That really helps when you are going for fresh squeezed fruit juice and coconut puree that makes you feel like you are on a beach somewhere where the fruit is growing on nearby trees. The drink is also more authentically fresh without having the fake red color of a Bahama Mamma. 

I still have a soft spot in my heart for that Jimmy Buffet-style of boat drink cocktail, but this is healthier and local and all organic when it comes to MurLarkey products. They call it "farm to flask" and I'll admit that it still tastes like unicorns and rainbows. 

• 1 oz. MurLarkey orange whiskey
• 1 oz. MurLarkey banana whiskey
• .5 oz. lime juice
• .5 oz. lemon juice
• 1 oz. pineapple juice
• 1 oz. orange juice
• .5 oz. cream of coconut
• .5 oz. falernum
• lemon and lime wheels as garnishes

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled pilsner. Garnish with the fruit wheels. 

 

Rum Runner

I feel a bit perplexed that in all these years this is the first Rum Runner I've made for this blog. Still, I've neglected the drink in this post by not using rum. Sure, there is some rum in the falernum I made, but MurLarkey banana whiskey is the core ingredient with its rum-like flavor. And it is fine that I didn't use rum in a Rum Runner. This cocktail is named after Prohibition smugglers, who mainly didn't smuggle rum and were more known for moonshine or Canadian whiskey runs instead. 

The one consistent thing in all Rum Runner recipes is blackbery brandy, which I made using real blackberries in my simple syrup and adding cognac. With falernum and the craft banana whiskey that MurLarkey is known for, this turned into a real hand-crafted drink. I added a hibiscus flower as a garnish to make it especially pretty.

• 1 1/2 oz. gold rum (2 oz. MurLarkey banana whiskey used)
• 1/2 oz. blackberry brandy
• 4 oz. orange juice
• dash falernum or grenadine (1/2 oz. homemade falernum for the rum flavor)
• orange slice garnish

Combine all liquid ingredients in a shaker or blender with cracked ice. Shake or blend briefly and pour into an oversized wine goblet. Garnish with the orange slice. 

Cafe Sandinista (Death & Co. Recipe)

 

This cocktail is by far the lightest on alcohol of all the fortified wine drinks in the Death & Co. book. That doesn't mean it is light on flavor. There's only a quarter ounce of chile and coffee-infused Campari, but that's enough for it to take over the entire drink. The East India Solera sherry and orange juice really add body to the drink and spread it out across the crushed ice. 

To make the Campari infusion, I simply too three ounces of Campari and crushed one guajillo chili and a teaspoon of ground coffee and infused it for twenty-four hours. Any more than that might be too much, really. Then I strained it out using a coffee filter because it catches all the coffee particles. 

The finishing touch on the drink is grating a fresh coffee bean on top of the crushed ice. It gives the cocktail a nice aroma and prepares you for the bitterness underneath. 

• 1 oz. Lustau East India Solera sherry
• 1/4 oz. chili and coffee infused Campari
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 oz. orange juice
• 1/2 oz. demerara syrup
• small pinch of kosher salt
• coffee bean garnish

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Short shake and strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a few grates from a whole coffee bean. 

Philadelphia Scotsman

 

Just by the name, I can tell that this was a Philly dive bar special somewhere. I'm making fun of this cocktail a little, because I'd hope that a Scotsman would be more discerning, but I know that many are not. 

Anyway, it isn't that I didn't like this cocktail--I just feel like I did a disservice to this particular drink. Ingredients count, and I used a cheap port that tasted like fortified concord grape wine. That's not the ruby color this drink deserves, nor is it the right flavor. I think that the point of apple brandy and port was to give the cocktail a kind of apple cider flavor, which often can be achieved with orange juice. Instead, it tasted like grape popsicle. 

I will soon rectify this recipe, though I'm not sure I'll go for a reprisal anytime soon. Just a word to the wise, ingredients count for a lot. I was two out of three on this one with fresh squeezed orange juice and Laird's Applejack 86.

• 1 oz. apple brandy (Laird's Applejack 86 used)
• 1 oz. ruby port (Taylor port not recommended)
• 1 oz. orange juice
• club soda
• orange zest

Combine apple brandy, port and orange juice in a shake with ice. Shake and strain into a Collins glass full of fresh ice. Top with soda and stir gently. Garnish with a twist of orange zest.

Mr. Dogma (Difford's Guide Recipe)

 

Mr. Dogma is a long drink that has dispirit parts that seemingly wouldn't work well together. Orange and lemon juice with a bitter liqueur, rich dark rum and sweet vermouth. It seems that the gamble pays off when you mix up this drink and put it under a spiral slice of lemon and a flower. 

The result is a strange experience, like a tiki drink crossed with some classic cocktail from the early 1900s. The flavor swings from citrus to bitterness to sweetness and spice. Some of the flavors are almost floral because of the herbal infusion, which the flower hints at. But this bodacious drink lasts a while and is perfect for slow sipping. 

A quick note: a rich sweet vermouth like Cocchi is a good call here. You don't want to taste wine, you want herbs. Also, my Amer Picon is a special recipe involving Rammazzotti, Combier and orange bitters that I made with MurLarkey Justice white whiskey. 

• 1 2/3 oz. aged dark rum (George Bowman used)
• 1/3 oz. aged sweet vermouth (Cocchi di Torino used)
• 1/3 oz. Amer Picon (homemade used)
• 1/3 oz. grenadine
• 2/3 oz. orange juice
• 1/3 oz. lemon juice
• spiral cut lemon wheel
• flower garnish

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Pour into a Collins glass and garnish with lemon and flower.

• 
  

Flannel (Difford's Guide Recipe)

 

Difford's Guide says that the Flannel is a good fall-weather drink, and it is. I was drawn to it because it has a lot of flavors we associate with cold weather drinks and punch. There's allspice dram (also known as pimento dram), orange zest, and cognac. 

There's even an unusual ingredient--apple sugar syrup. This can be made in several ways. First, by cooking sugar in an apple cider solution to make the syrup. You can also macerate apples in sugar and use the drippings. I did a quick and dirty shortcut by adding applejack to my simple syrup. That was an easy way to get this drink to the table and into me!

• 1 1/2 oz. cognac (Martell single distillery used)
• 1/2 oz. pimento dram (homemade allspice dram used)
• 1/2 oz. apple sugar syrup
• 1/2 oz. orange juice
• orange zest twist. 

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into an Old Fashioned glass with a large format ice cube. Garnish with the orange twist.

 

Kungsholm Cocktail

 

This is a lovely cocktail that plays up sweetness and spiciness with a nice balance and fruit. The theme for the ingredients and the flavor experience is Nordic, with Kungsholmen meaning "Kings Island" in Swedish and Swedish Punsch as the principal ingredient. This drink commemorates a small lake island in the heart of Stockholm!

For this cocktail, I made a rich raspberry syrup. I began by crushing raspberries in boiling water and adding sugar until the syrup was thick and sweet. Then it was a simple matter of straining out the solids and adding a teaspoon of vodka to act as a preservative. 

For the rest of the drink, I North Fork rye by Glacier Distillery and my homemade Swedish Punsch. By happy accident, there is a bit of smokey lapsang souchong tea mixed in with the Three Tea whiskey by MurLarkey distillery, which provided part of the liquor and flavor of this "quick" punsch recipe. 

• 1 oz. rye (North Fork used)
• 1 oz. Swedish Punsch
• 2 oz. orange juice
• 1/2 oz. raspberry syrup
• several dashes Pernod (Ricard used)

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

Pusser's Pain Killer

 

There's not much difference between the standard Pain Killer and the Pusser's variety other than it is a proprietary recipe of the British Navy rum. And when you use Guyana rum like this, it is a major feature of the drink. It tastes more like fresh cane sugar than a heavy molasses rum, for one thing. The other is that a lot of it will have you feeling no pain. 

So adjusting for the difference in rum and pineapple juice, which is higher in this recipe than standard, there's just the question of nutmeg. The recipe doesn't call for it, but I feel it is an integral part of the Pain Killer experience, like salt on a Margarita. So while it is in the picture, because that is the way I like it, you don't need to use it if you don't. 

In fact, don't go out of your way to get nutmeg for this recipe, or spend time looking for the British flag you used to get with every bottle of Pusser's. Mine didn't come with a flag. I just made sure to use red and blue straws to signify the Union Jack. 

• 4 oz. Pusser's British Navy rum
• 4 oz. pineapple juice
  
• 1 oz. orange juice
• 1 oz. coconut cream or syrup
• orange slice as garnish
• tiny British flag (optional, but go for some British symbolism in the garnsih)

Combine all ingredients except orange slice and other garnishes with cracked ice in a shaker or blender. Shake or blend briefly and pour into a chilled Collins glass. Garnish with orange slice and British Flag. (Note: nutmeg is pictured but not required for this recipe.)

 

Ginger Jones

 

This is a fun cocktail for winter sipping. I especially like how ginger and orange juice play off of each other to create a warming sensation in a cold drink, especially when served in an Old Fashioned glass where there is more spirit-to-juice ratio.

This is the first use of my ginger brandy made from Korbel and a combination of fresh and dry ginger. To make it, I soaked a quarter cup of candied ginger and a tsp. of fresh chopped ginger in a jar with about six ounces of brandy. After a week, I strained out the solids and folded an ounce of simple syrup into the liquor. 

I'm especially proud that I found an old defunct label from Paramount Distillers in Cleveland. In the prohibition era, they used to label their ginger brandy as medicinal for stomach aches. Feel free to take this cocktail for medicinal pourposes.

• 1 1/2 oz. brandy (Korbel used)
• 1/2 oz. ginger brandy (homemade used)
• 1 oz. orange juice
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 oz. simple syrup or to taste
• candied ginger garnish

Combine all liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and pour into a chilled Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with the ginger piece.

Jack Rabbit

This cocktail is a fun play on the Jack Rose, originally a sour cocktail with applejack, lime juice and grenadine. The minor changes to the recipe include swapping out the lime juice for lemon and orange and using maple syrup instead of grenadine. The result is a sweeter cocktail that doesn't have the characteristic red glow of the Rose family of cocktails. But, as the name suggests, the Jack remains and its fruitiness is accentuated by the orange juice and maple syrup. Now you really notice that you are having apple brandy and not some flavorless apple spirit.

• 1 1/2 oz. applejack (Laird's Applejack 86 used)
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. orange juice
• 1 tsp. maple syrup

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

Apple Knocker

What a silly sounding name for a cocktail. I can only surmise that the knocking that goes on is in your head when the apple brandy reaches your brain--this recipe callso for three ounces of the stuff. Despite the fact that not much of the rest of this cocktail contains any apples, the name and the apple brandy (I used Laird's Applejack 86, which is an apple brandy) suggest the flavor of apples nonetheless. Perhaps it's the caramel in the sweet vermouth, but I felt like this was a candy apple of a drink.

• 3 oz. apple brandy (Applejack 86 used)
• 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth (Cocchi di Torino used)
• 4 oz. orange juice
• 1/2 oz. sugar syrup
• 1 tsp. lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and pour into a chilled Collins glass.

Jamaican Peach

 

I don't know why this Jamaican-themed drink includes peaches at all. It's not like peaches grow on the island or anything. In reality, it was probably a way to sell peach brandy, since the recipe doesn't include any actual peaches. The peach slice you see in the photo comes from my insistence on using fresh ingredients if you have them. Also, a garnish is a wonderful way to signal the flavors you are working with, even though the spirits may be artificially flavored.

In place of peach brandy, I used an equally artificial peach whiskey by Bird Dog. It's actually pretty good when used in tropical drinks and is probably my favorite cheap flavored whiskey purchase. Actually it was a gift, so it was very cheap--free.

• 1 1/2 oz. Jamaica dark rum (Pusser's navy rum used)
• 1 1/2 oz. peach brandy (Bird Dog peach whiskey used)
• 2 oz. orange juice
• 2 oz. pineapple juice
  
• 1 oz. grapefruit juice
• 1 oz. guava juice
• several dashes of falernum (homemade falernum used)
• pineapple stick
• orange slice

Combine all liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Blend until smooth and pour into a double Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with the fruit pieces.

Ju-Ju

 

Just a little bit of magic and a banana--not harmful magic, no not Hoodoo, and just a normal banana--and you have this bewitching frozen cocktail from Haiti. All the flavors blend nicely, giving off an overall tropical bouquet. Southern Comfort (replaced here with Bird Dog peach whiskey) is peach liqueur (not a whiskey). Here it reads as sweetness and something from the subtropic world. Just as Southern Comfort provides escapism in America's northern climes, so it lends exoticism to a tiki cocktail.

Banana adds richness here. You almost don't notice the flavor or the pulp of the fruit due to blending and the fact that there's no fat, as you have in smoothies with yogurt or cream. Instead, it too is an exotic texture and scent that augments the fresh pressed cane juice rum from Barbancourt. This spirit is golden in color and has a whiff of burnt molasses that finishes more like caramel.

• 1 oz. Haitian rum (Barbancourt 4-year blend used)
• 1 oz. Southern Comfort (Bird Dog peach whiskey used)
• 1 oz. orange juice
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1 tsp. falernum or orgeat syrup (homemade falernum and a tsp. brown sugar syrup used)
• 1/2 ripe banana sliced

Combine all ingredients in a blender with plenty of ice. Blend until smooth and pour into a chilled Collins glass. Garnish at will with umbrella or swizzle stick.

Mandarin Punch

 

This cocktail is pleasingly rich and fruity with vanilla and caramel notes from the barrel aged rum and the flavored cognac in Mandarine Napoleon. In case you are wondering, this Mandarine Napoleon is my homemade knock off that tastes pretty good. I appreciate how mandarin-infused cognac really can alter the flavor of the fruit juices in this drink--you think that there is some fresh mandarin in there somewhere.

As always, I used fresh squeezed juices and saved some for the garnishes.

• 1 1/2 oz. dark Jamaican rum (Pusser's used)
• 1/2 (-1 oz. mandarin liqueur, maybe you have the actual Mandarine Napoleon)
• 2 oz. orange juice
• 2 oz. pineapple juice
• orange slice
• maraschino cherry

Combine juices and liquors in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the fruit pieces. 

Kuai Cup

Not so much a tiki cocktail as a Hawaiian drink, the Kuai Cup really scratches that fresh pineapple itch. I squeezed a real pineapple for this drink and the only sweetness it needs beyond that is La Grande Passion, which I made just for these occasions (i.e. when I can't get passion fruit juice).

La Grande Passion is a passion fruit liqueur. Passion fruit itself is hard to get on the east coast. The fruits don't make it here and not many people know what they are or what to do with them. Put them in your Vitae Platinum rum from Charlottesville!

• 3 oz. light rum (Viate platinum used)
•  4 oz. pineapple juice
• 2 oz. orange juice
• 1/2 oz. passion fruit juice (La Grande Passion used)
• pineapple slice

Combine all ingredients except pineapple slice in a shaker and shake. Strain over fresh ice in a double Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with pineapple (I like the fronds too!)

 

 

Kurant Juice Break

 

This cocktail doesn't lie. It is a juicy drink. It is actually a proprietary Absolut Kurant vodka recipe that I've adapted to using my red currant liqueur and Smirnoff vodka. I also substituted Royal Combier for Grand Marnier because you can totally switch one spiced orange cognac for another. 

The Juice Break is best if you are using fresh squeezed orange juice as shown here. You can safe an orange slice from one of the oranges to garnish with.

• 2 oz. vodka (Absolut Kurant suggested but Smirnoff used)
• 1/2 oz. currant spirit (if you don't have Absolut Kurant)
• 1/2 oz. Grand Marnier or Royal Combier
• 2 oz. Orange Juice
• orange slice
• maraschino cherry

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and pour into a Cooler glass or a highball. Garnish with cherry and orange slice.

Vina Del Mar Cooler

I love a summer cooler. You need to hydrate while drinking your booze when the temperatures go up. What better way to relax on the porch than to enjoy a fruity and strong cocktail that cools you off.

This particular cooler feels very Caribbean with ginger beer from Jamaica, orange juice and lime zest and a piratical rum like Blackbeard's Point. I followed the recipe exactly in my use of kirsch, but I feel that the cherry brandy is lost with all of the other bright flavors. One might experiment with Cherry Heering or cherry flavored brandy, or even maraschino liqueur and see if you get better results. My feeling is that if the proportion of kirschwasser in a recipe is below a half ounce, you are probably not going to notice it and a spirit with stronger cherry flavor is going to be better.

Also a note on the ginger beer. Some ginger beers like Fever Tree are really spicy. I'm looking for a sweeter ginger beer because this recipe contains no added sugar and kirsch is actually very dry. Fever Tree ginger ale is exactly what I'm looking for. A homemade ginger beer that is lower carbonation and spice will also work.

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Blackbeard's Point used)
• 1/4 oz. kirsch (Kammer kirsch used)
• 4 oz. orange juice
• ginger beer (a sweet one like Jamaica's finest or a spicier ginger ale recommended)
• lime twist

Combine juice and spirits in a shaker with ice. Shake and pour into a double Old Fashioned glass. Top with ginger beer, stir and twist lime zest 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. 

Poolabanga Sling

A tropical Sling, very much like the Singapore Sling, is a fizzy and fruity cocktail that is easy to drink on a hot day. The substitution of aged rum and falernum made me want to put it in a tiki mug--and that's a good impulse. Slings aren't especially pretty in clear glasses, the Herring and lime juice tend to make them look a little brown. The glass itself, then becomes the decoration. Just be sure to pick a large glass because a lot of tiki mugs don't have room to top with soda.

• 1 1/2 oz. aged rum (Vitae Barrel Aged used)
• 2 oz. orange juice
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 oz. falernum (homemade used)
• tsp. cherry brandy (Herring used)
• club soda
• mint sprigs

Combine all ingredients except soda and mint in a blender with ice. Flash blend and pour into a highball or tiki mug. Top with soda and garnish with mint.