Friday, April 29, 2016

Acapulcoco (Tiki Version)

 This is not the Acapulcoco from the New York Bartender's Guide. It is something that came up on an ingredients search I was doing when trying to come up with a flavor combination I was more in the mood for. 

I was just at Archipelago, the tiki bar on U Street, where I had one tiki that combined tequila and dark rum. I wanted to do more of the same and came across this recipe for an "up" drink that would have looked terrible in a cocktail glass.

Tikis, you know, are perfect for disguising brown liquor punch in a fierce visage topped with fruit and crushed ice. I even learned that it is no problem to take a total of three ounces of liquor and top it with ice in a tiki mug. It may seem like you are not getting much of a drink, but tikis are potent and some tiki mugs are so large that filling them to the top with liquid would be like dancing with the devil.

Here's the recipe as I modified it for tiki mode.
  • 1 oz. gold tequila
  • 3/4 oz. dark rum (Lyon Bijou Batch used)
  • 1 oz. coffee liqueur (my homemade coffee liqueur used)
  • 1 tsp. cream of coconut
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a grim-faced tiki mug. Top mug with crushed ice and assortment of fruit, stir stick, and straw.

Monday, April 25, 2016

San Francisco

What is it about San Francisco that inspires funky ingredients in cocktails. There's the S.F. Sour  (A.K.A. Frisco Sour) with Benedictine and grenadine, the Golden Gate with rum, gin and orgeat syrup, and San Franciscans' love of Frenet Branca served chilled and neat. You can really tell a west-coaster by their drink order. This cocktail implies that San Franciscans love their vermouth, and they probably do for all that. This cocktail has heaping equal parts of dry and sweet vermouth and gin. I used both Lacuesta blanco and limited edition vermouths. All the bitters really make this dry-ish and sweet-ish cocktail very herbaceous and interesting.
  • 1 1/2 oz. sloe gin
  • 1 1/2 oz. dry vermouth 
  • 1 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth
  • 3-5 dashes Angostura bitters
  • 3-5 dashes orange bitters
  • maraschino cherry
Combine all ingredients except cherry in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Moll Cocktail

Moll is, of course, a nickname for Molly. This cocktail, like Moll Flanders, is strong and stands apart, from typical Martinis that is. It's more seductive than an all-spirits drink like the Martini. Sweeter and more interesting, it combines dry gin and vermouth with sloe gin sweetness.
  • 1 1/2 oz. dry gin (Bombay Sapphire East used)
  • 1 oz. dry vermouth (Vermouth Lacuesta used)
  • 1 oz. sloe gin
  • several dashes Angostura bitters
Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir until chilled and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Blackhawk

I've heard the name Blackhawk applied to wheat beer and raspberry syrup drinks as well as creme de cassis cocktails with Canadian whisky. This simple drink is pretty good because it is sweet with sloe gin but dry with the dominant flavor of whisky.
  • 2 oz. blended whiskey (Canadian whisky used)
  • 1 oz. sloe gin
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

McClelland

The Washington Post in 2012 said, "It's unclear who McClelland was, and why this was named for him (or her). But it should be clear that this early-20th-century cocktail is a good transition into autumn." It is also a good drink when you are feeling under the weather. When you are sick, really dry cocktails taste harsh with no flavor and all alcohol. The richness of sloe gin makes for a sweet and spicy base and curacao and bitters keep it from being too syrupy. I'm not sure it would be great if you are feeling fine, but with a cold, McClelland is almost medicinal. Think of it as chilled cough syrup.
  • 2 oz. sloe gin
  • 1 oz. curacao (triple sec used)
  • 3-5 dashes Angostura bitters.
Combine all ingredients in mixing glass with ice. Stir until chilled and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Friday, April 22, 2016

Moulin Rouge

Another Paris-themed cocktail, the Moulin Rouge is a tribute to the famed club beneath a red windmill. The color of the drink, which comes from sloe gin, is a slutty red, and sweet vermouth like Antica Formula makes the red deeper.

Using a bitter vermouth like Antica Formula makes sure that there is a balance to the sweet syrupy sloeberry liqueur. It was interesting and a little dastardly to drink a cocktail the color of blood.
  • 2 oz. sloe gin
  • 1 oz. sweet vermouth
  • 3-5 dashes of Angostura bitters
Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir until chilled and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Johnny Cocktail

The name of this drink reminds me of cheap conveniences like Johnny On The Spot port-a-potties and Johnny Cab, the robotic cab in Schwarzenegger's Total Recall. In terms of making the drink, it was very easy and required few tools. The alcohol content of sloe gin and triple sec is slightly less potent, so it is a weaker and convenient cocktail.

Taste it, though and it is rich and fruity with a balanced amount of Pernod to keep it interesting and prevent if from becoming cough syrupy sweet. If you have sloe gin, this is an easy and rewarding drink.
  • 2 oz. sloe gin
  • 1 oz. triple sec
  • 1 tsp. Pernod
Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir until chilled and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Monday, April 18, 2016

DBGB White Martinez

The Martinez is still my favorite Martini variation. It's actually the forerunner of the Martini, so it's not precise to call it a variation. The Martinez comes from a time when nobody would drink vodka, gin was oily, and everyone loved vermouth (especially the ladies.) I had this white version made a the French/American Bistro, Daniel Boulud Good Burger, known as DBGB. 

I had a beautiful view of H Street and tourists interacting with the fountain at City Center in the background. It was a very French experience, and this cocktail was very fitting with Dolin blanc vermouth and Hayman's Old Tom gin. The big secret in the drink though was addition of Meletti, the Italian Amaro that I happen to have at home. This complimented the orange twist with lots of orange spice aroma. I'll be making these for people at work very soon.
  • 2 oz. old tom gin
  • 1 oz. dry vermouth (Dolin blanc pictured)
  • 1/4 oz. Meletti or similar wine-based amaro
  • orange twist
Combine all ingredients except twist in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass (or coup as shown). Garnish with orange twist.

Sombrero

Again, I'm finding more than one drink by the name Sombrero. The one in the New York Bartender's Guide is basically a White Russian without the vodka. I might drink that one when I'm really drunk, but I'm still trying to experiment with Spanish vermouth.

This time I'm using Lacuesta's sweet limited edition bottle. This is more mild than Italian vermouths, and far less bitter than Antica Formula. It's really a lot like a Marsala wine with a little bit of herbs to give it zing.

I used Sauza gold tequila because it has more caramel flavors and less pepper and agave taste of the blanco. It was a good move.
  • 1 1/2 oz. gold tequila
  • 3/4 oz. sweet vermouth (Lacuesta limited edition used)
  • 3/4 oz. dry vermouth (Lacuesta blanco used)
Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Matador (CocktailDB)

There is more than one cocktail named Matador. The New York Bartender's Guide has one by this name involving pineapple juice and lime juice, a sort of Margarita in a coup glass. The one I made here is a vermouth, curacao and tequila up drink. I found it on cocktaildb.com. I wanted to make a heavy blanco vermouth cocktail that had Spanish flair with the Spanish vermouth I just got.

Vermut Lacuesta is from a Spanish winemaker, Martinez Lacuesta. The blanco variety is mild and less herbaceous than French vermouth. It has a rich sauvignon blanc wine flavor and is so good for sipping by itself that it works well as a cocktail base. It's the kind of thing you can drink all afternoon on ice or in a cocktail without any ill results.

Here's how to make the Matador (CocktailDB version).

  • 1 oz. dry (blanco used) vermouth
  • 1 oz. curacao (triple sec used)
  • 1 oz. blanco tequila
Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and stain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Friday, April 15, 2016

Ramos Fizz

The Ramos Fizz, like all fizz category drinks, involves egg white to get it that amazing white foam. The recipe I looked at in the New York Bartender's Guide would make a pretty disgusting drink, adding the soda and egg white after shaking (which would make for a slimy unshaken fizz). The trick to getting egg white foamy is to shake it with the other ingredients without ice (a dry shake) before adding ice and reshaking (wet shake). Then top with cold soda.

There's some discrepancy about the difference between a fizz and a flip. According to David Wondrich in Imbibe! Flips are egg drinks without soda--low drinks intended to be drunk as a single shot. Fizz drinks aren't supposed to have ice usually. They should also be chilled and served with cold soda after shaking and served in a long (tall) glass the way a Tom Collins should be served. The Ramos Fizz is the tallest of all with ice, cream and 3 ounces of gin. This is why the drink is favored by serious gin drinkers. You can't get it at just any bar because the need for the orange flower water to scent the foam. Be selective when you order one of these Ramos Fizzes, and make it with care if you try it at home.
  • 3 oz. gin
  • 1/2 oz. lemon juice
  • 1/2 oz. lime juice
  • 1/2 oz. half-and-half
  • 3-5 dashes orange flower water
  • 1 egg white
  • club soda
Combine all ingredients except soda in a shaker. Shake vigorously to create foam. Add ice and shake again until chilled. Pour into a chilled Collins glass. Add ice if necessary and top with soda.

B & B

This drink is a simple cognac and Benedictine mix that's intended to make your Benedictine sipped neat a little more affordable by cutting it with brandy. You can even buy B & B in the bottle, which is significantly cheaper than a bottle of Benedictine. I went for the bottle of Benedictine knowing that I could always cut it with cognac if I needed to, but that I could also mix it with gin without adding the oak flavor of cognac.
  • 1 oz. cognac
  • 1 oz. Benedictine 
Pour both ingredients into a snifter and swirl. 

Champs Elysees

The Champs Elysees is the main street through Paris between the Place de la Concorde and Place Charles de Gaulle where the Arc de Triomphe stands. Every July 14, a military parade marches down the street in memory of Bastille Day. The name evokes Elysian Fields, the mythological resting place souls of soldiers who fell in battle. The street is also a great shopping and restaurant strip, and a hot spot for tourists.

Chartreuse makes this cognac drink more herbal: lots of basil, citrus, berries, 130 secret flavors that Chartreuse lends to a cocktail. The recipe calls for the milder yellow Chartreuse, but I don't have it and I think it doesn't matter since this drink is served up and should be savored with those aromas under the nose.
  • 2 oz. cognac (Courvoisier VS used)
  • 1/2 oz. yellow Chartreuse (green used)
  • 1/2 oz. lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp. sugar
  • dash Angostura bitters
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Cognac Coupling



Cognac is France's national spirit. It is to France as Bourbon is to the U.S. and scotch is to Scotland. Unlike whiskey, it is made of grapes (the juice peels, seeds and stems) fermented and distilled and aged. It is aged in barrels that formerly held wines, ports, and sherries. That is why it combines well with tawny port, which provides a nice foam when shaken. But the nutty tasting port is less important in the flavor of this cocktail as the absinthe or Pernod and the Peychaud's bitters, which really balance this drink away from being overly sweet.

I used Remy Martin 1738 for the cognac, which makes for a very sherry-forward first sip. I also reduced the proportion of absinthe from 1/2 oz. Pernod to 1 tsp. Absente Refined (a stronger and dryer spirit with lots of wormwood botanical) so as not to overwhelm. Altogether, this was a very balanced and very French cocktail.
  • 2 oz. cognac (Remy Martin 1738 Accord Royal used)
  • 1 oz. tawny port
  • 1/2 oz. Pernod
  • several dashes Peychaud's bitters
  • 1 tsp. lemon juice
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail or coup glass. 

Montmarte

Montmarte is the steep hilly area in Paris that's home to the Sacre Coeur basilica. It was also known as the low-priced housing area where famous painters and writers like Henri Toulouse Lautrec and Vincent Van Gogh used to live. Brothels were common there and the most famous was the Moulin Rouge (red windmill). This simple drink is fitting to this environment.

A note on curacao: white curacao is basically the same thing as triple sec. Both are bitter orange liqueurs. At one time curacaos bore the label "a triple sec curacao." When triple sec became a generic orange liqueur of varying quality, the label was omitted. Cointreau is the proprietary French triple sec and also bore that fact on the label. The triple sec I chose for this drink is Leroux, which is an American-made recipe.
  • 2 oz. gin
  • 1/2 oz. white curacao (Leroux triple sec used)
  • 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth
Stir all ingredients with ice in a mixing glass until chilled. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Pousse L'Amour

Pousse Cafe are a strange concept for a layered mixed drink that uses liqueurs with different specific gravities. They were very popular between 1830 and 1860, and there was even a Pousse Cafe glass that was in fashion at the time that made layering easier. Pousse Cafe made a brief comeback in the mid nineties, more as a way for bartenders to show off their mixing skills than as a good way to enjoy spirits. I just got a Pousse Cafe glass that really shows the layers of the drink.

The recipe recommends putting egg yolk after maraschino liqueur--and I whipped the yolk rather than leave it whole, because you can't sip whole egg--but it turns out that Benedictine that goes in after the egg is heavier and so they changed places. The last layer is the lightest spirit, in this case Remy Martin 1738 Accord Royal. I'll list the ingredients in the order that works best, not the way the recipe I followed worked. That should prevent the egg yolk from sliding around.
  • 1/2 oz. maraschino liqueur
  • 1/2 oz. Benedictine
  • 1/2 oz. egg yolk (whipped)
  • 1/2 oz. cognac (Remy Martin 1738 Accord Royal used)
Pour the ingredients into a narrow glass in the order given. Carefully pour over the back of a spoon to get a layered effect.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Robson Cocktail

People describe the Lyon dark rum as smokey. I find that it has a very distinctive roasted caramel brûlée flavor. This is not a spiced rum, but there's some vanilla flavor in it. The trick to using it well is to use it sparingly or in sweet drinks where it's sweet and glass-coating caramel does not stick out too much.

Ben Lyon told me that black strap rum is made (like all rum) from fermented molasses. But to get the dark color, molasses is added back to the distillate. Lyon makes his dark rum with caramel, because "most people really don't like molasses in their rum."

The Robson is a rum drink I've been looking forward to making for about as long as the Mandeville, but this is a much more palatable use of Lyon's rum. The flavor is like a rich blood orange with caramel--a real rum cordial of a drink.
  • 2 oz. dark rum (Lyon dark rum used)
  • 1/2 oz. lemon juice
  • 1/2 oz. orange juice
  • 1 tbsp. grenadine
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Huntsman Cocktail

The Huntsman Cocktail is a big departure from the cherry brandy and bourbon drinks that make up the Hunter's/ Huntress cocktail group that also includes the Forrester.  

This is one of those interesting combinations of vodka and dark rum drinks that exist, I think, because dark rum tends to dominate a cocktail if used entirely as the spirit base. So vodka is used in the Huntsman Cocktail as a matter of balance of flavor. I used Aylesbury Duck vodka because I had exactly two ounces and because (I discovered when drinking it) of the winter wheat distillate that makes this vodka softer and slightly perfumed.

The rum that dominates the Duck is Lyon Bijou Batch dark rum. I got a bottle of this rum at its local distillery at St. Michaels, Maryland, and talked with the distiller, Ben Lyon. He makes a white lightning, dark rum, 100-proof sailor's reserve rum aged in bourbon barrels, and a corn whiskey. A batch of rye is forthcoming. Lyon says that the dark rum is the most difficult to make. All Lyon spirits are very small batches of about 100 bottles. For the dark rum, Lyon said he colored and flavored the rum by cooking caramel on his stove top to add to the batch.

2 oz. vodka (Aylesbury Duck used)
1 oz. dark rum (Lyon Bijou Batch dark rum used)
1 oz. lime juice
1/2 tsp. bar sugar

Combine all ingredients in a shaker and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add ice and shake. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass (coup glass shown).

Beach Bum

I really enjoyed making and drinking the Beach Bum, a Cosmo-like rum drink with a dash of grenadine. Triple sec and light rum are really tasty together, and the dominant flavors are the bitter orange and silky sweetness of Leroux triple sec on top of dry rum. The pink color looks like grapefruit juice but is achieved with just a few drops of grenadine.
  • 2 oz. light rum
  • 3/4 oz. triple sec
  • 3/4 oz. lime juice
  • dash of grenadine
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Pyewacket's Revenge

This is a very esoteric name for a simple drink. Let me break down some of the history of it's name. Pyewacket was supposedly the name of a "familiar spirit" that an Essex, England, woman consorted with when she was tried for witchcraft in 1644. The name has been applied to black cats, experimental missiles, and witch characters in comedies ever since. It's strange to see such a singular name have no human antecedent!

Then there's the drink. Just 1 1/2 oz. of scotch in an Old Fashioned glass topped with cola. Here's the recipe just for consistency's sake:
  • 1 1/2 oz. scotch
  • cola (about 6 ounces)
  • lemon peel
And you just build it in a glass with ice. The lemon peel actually does a lot to change the nature of the drink, both in the nose and on the tongue. But there's a strange sensation when you drink through the sweet cola and taste the peat of scotch and sense the alcohol in there. It's kind of cheap tasting and a little gross. There are better ways to drink scotch and better ways to enjoy a Coke, for sure.

Mandeville

Despite using good ingredients--or I should say in spite of these ingredients--some drinks just don't work out. Maybe it's because I've been making all the best drinks in the New York Bartender's guide because I have to drink them, then I am left with less desirable ones going forward. If that's the case, I'm going to have to suffer through some pretty bad ones in the coming years. The thing is, I really wanted to like this drink and had been looking forward to having all the ingredients and finally doing it. It just goes to show that balance is everything when it comes to mixology.

The Mandeville is a Jamaica rum drink that is supposed to make a point of drinking a lot of rum. It's nearly an all-liquor cocktail, which is not always a bad thing, but there could be less of it. Look at how if fills this double Old Fashioned glass with just two ice balls!

Upon tasting, I decided that the point of this drink is to recreate the flavor of Jägermeister using rums, absinthe, grenadine, lemon juice and cola. It works very well for all that. There's the sweet and dark cola center that's backed by the caramel of dark rum. Lemon and fruity tartness are there to balance the heat of white rum, and there's the licorice and herbal absinthe flavor that's a hallmark of
Jägermeister. But I rarely want to drink a double of Jägermeister. If I did, I'd rather have the real thing.
  • 2 oz. light rum
  • 2 oz. dark rum
  • 1 tbsp. lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp. grenadine
  • 1 tbsp. Pernod (Absinte Refined used)
  • 1/2 oz. cola

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. (I recommend chilling the cola separately and adding after shaking. Shaking cola is a bad idea.) Pour into a double Old Fashioned glass (add cola and stir).

Bee's Knees

So there are a lot of Bee's Knees drinks out there. The New York Bartender's Guide doesn't even list this one. Instead, theirs is an "up" drink with rum and orange juice. For most people, though, the Bee's Knees is a honey and gin drink with a dash of lemon. I made it to order at a bar, so I wasn't following any recipe. This is what I did.
  • 2 oz. gin
  • 1 tsp. honey
  • several dashes lemon juice or to taste
Stir honey and gin in a highball glass with ice until honey is dissolved. Add ice and stir until chilled. Add more ice and lemon juice and stir. (This process of adding ice and stirring in the drinking glass is similar to a swizzle, which gets the drink very cold and dilutes the liquor a little to allow the honey to dissolve.)

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Flying Scot

Ever wonder what a frozen Rob Roy would taste like? Now you can find out with the Flying Scotsman. Ordinarily the term "flying" implies a strong drink like the Flying Grasshopper. This one has none of the sense of a fortified cocktail. Rather, it is a beguiling and bitter frozen slurp. I recommend using lots of bitters because really cold slush tends to dampen flavors. Antica formula vermouth also made this a paradoxically rich and bitter drink. Not all frozen drinks need to taste like Popsicles. And the cherry is optional, but like a Rob Roy, the drink needed a cherry for contrast.
  • 2 oz. scotch
  • 1 oz. sweet vermouth
  • 1/4 oz. simple syrup
  • 3-5 dashes of angostura bitters
Combine all ingredients in a blender with ice and blend until smooth. Pour into a chilled Old Fashioned glass.

Walters

I expected Walters, a juicy scotch cocktail, to be watery and uninteresting. My feeling was that whoever this Walter guy was, he didn't like scotch much. But after making the drink, I noticed that there was a lot of smoke and spice sneaking through. I shouldn't have been surprised, Johnny Walker red label is one of the more robust blended scotches. It doesn't go quietly into a cocktail. Maybe Walter wasn't much of a Johnny Walker fan. Or maybe he was.
  • 3 oz. scotch
  • 1/2 oz. orange juice
  • 1/2 oz. lemon juice
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Glasgow

Glasgow is the whisky capital of Scotland. Most blend recipes are maintained by master blenders working in the city. This is a soft cocktail that makes use of almond syrup or orgeat to make a sour drink more smooth. It makes for one of the best rocks sippers. For this recipe, I chose Cutty Sark's Prohibition Edition, which already has a caramel candy flavor to go with the almond.
  • 2 oz. scotch
  • 1 oz. dry vermouth
  • 1 tbsp. lemon juice
  • 1 tsp. almond syrup
Combine all ingredients with ice in a shaker. Shake and strain into a chilled Old Fashioned glass full of fresh ice.

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Kentucky Cocktail

This is just about the simplest cocktail you can make with bourbon, and just about the biggest crowd-pleaser ever. There's something about pineapple juice and bourbon. A purist may turn up his nose, but one taste will at least get some agreement that this is a good idea, much like chocolate and peanut butter. It sounds gross and a waste of good product, but sometimes it just hits the spot.
  • 3 oz. bourbon
  • 2 oz. pineapple juice
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Bahama Mamma

This is one tropical drink that I've made for years and then suddenly stopped making it when I started this blog. I can't explain why except that, like most tropical drinks, it takes a lot of ingredients that most folks don't just have lying around. It is, however, a masterpiece. The color and garnishes are attractive in a clear glass, it tastes like unicorns and rainbows, and it is pretty forgiving. Don't have lemon juice, use sour mix. Don't have gold rum, just add more light and dark rum. None of the substitutions I can think of will ruin the drink, which gives me an idea. What if we substituted the grenadine for Peychaud's bitters or an amaro? Try it and see. I've seen plenty of cocktail bars using sherry or whole heaps of bitters to color and flavor tropical drinks in ways no one would have considered a few short years ago.
  • 1 oz. dark rum
  • 1 oz. light rum
  • 1 oz. gold rum
  • 1 oz. coconut liqueur (coconut rum)
  • 2 oz. orange juice
  • 2 oz. pineapple juice
  • 1/2 oz. lemon juice
  • 2 dashes grenadine
  • maraschino cherry
  • orange slice
Combine all liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and pour into a highball or hurricane glass and garnish with fruit. 

Warsaw Cocktail

Again with the notion that blackberries make a drink Polish, the Warsaw Cocktail uses blackberry brandy to sweeten and flavor this vodka drink. One difference with mine is that I used my blackberry infused brandy--no artificial colors or flavors here--which means that it was less sweet and I had to balance the dryness by using less lemon juice. Make the recipe as listed if you have store bought blackberry brandy. Reduce lemon juice to 1 tsp. if you infused your own.
  • 2 oz. vodka
  • 1 oz. blackberry brandy
  • 1 tbsp. lemon juice
  • 1/2 oz. dry vermouth
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Chiquita

This must be an endorsement drink for the Chiquita company. Not satisfied with the plethora of banana drinks you can make in a blender, they wanted to have the drink be their name and have bananas floating in it in a very visible way. This works out well for rum drinkers who don't necessarily want to fill up on bananas when there's rum to be had. The bananas add aroma without weighing the Chiquita down and making it a weak dessert drink. I'm not a huge fan of banana liqueur either, but the proportions are small enough not to be bothered with. If anything, I would double the quantity of orgeat syrup to keep it on the sweeter side.
  • 2 oz. light rum
  • 1/2 oz. lime juice
  • 1/2 oz. banana liqueur
  • tsp. orgeat syrup
  • 1/4 cup sliced bananas
Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir gently until chilled and pour into a chilled wine goblet.