Orcabessa Fizz

This is another fun summer drink that is light on alcohol and body, but rich in flavor. It hits the spot at the home tiki bar and bursts with fizzy pineapple and coconut flavor. Actually, the Orcabessa Fizz is a little like what you'd expect from a Fizz version of a Pina Colada.

Some Fizzes (but not all, so it's not a defining characteristic) have egg white or yolk in them. This adds an extra layer of foam on top that is scented by the drink's ingredients. But egg is unnecessary, as this drink has pineapple juice. Anyone who has ever made a French Martini knows that when you shake pineapple juice in a cocktail, you get lots of foam. Also unlike the classic Fizz, there's ice in the glass. Of course you could strain out the ice and just top with soda. I don't know if the pineapple foam would go that far up the glass like a Ramos Fizz, but the result would be a higher proportion of soda to other ingredients when you've topped off the glass.

Either way, though, you'll find yourself going back for more of these satisfying cocktails. If serving friends, make sure you have enough ingredients on hand to make several repeats. 

• 1 oz. Jamaica rum (which I read as dark or aged rum)
• 1 oz. coconut rum (I flavored white rum with coconut cream)
• 2 oz. pineapple juice
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• club soda
• pineapple spear (or other fruit garnish)
  

Combine juice and rums in a shaker with ice. Shake and pour into a Collins glass and top with soda. Stir gently and garnish with fruit.

 

Pina Colada For Friends

I'm not sure why this cocktail gets it's own entry in the New York Bartender's Guide. The Pina Colada is a blender cocktail, so you can make a scaled up version of the single serving recipe if you like. But because it is listed in the book, I had to find an occasion to make the recipe that serves four people!

That is the reason why this is the last recipe in my quest to complete the New York Bartender's Guide 1997 edition. This has been a journey of more than four years, some of it frenetic during spurts of drinking activity and some of it drawn out as rare ingredients proved a challenge to find or make. All in all it has been an amazing journey and one that really made the mundane career as a bartender far more rewarding. It required me to go beyond the popular, the ordinary, and the safe. I had to create ingredients like Amer Picon, falernum, Forbidden Fruit and apricot brandy. I went on quests to find Lillet Blanc, Dubonnet Rouge, Pomelos, Batavia Arrack and Combier. And best of all, I learned how to make the most obscure and out of fashion cocktails just as the cocktail revival was underway, bringing these forgotten classics back to light. Now people ask for Aviations, Brookland Cocktails, and Swizzles and I can make them. So this goal, as arbitrary and costly as it was as, has enriched my bar-tending skill and my life.

Here's the final recipe of my long-awaited finale: the Pina Colada For Friends.

• 1 cup light rum (Flor de Cana Extra Seco used)
• 2 oz. dark rum (Pusser's Navy Rum used)
• 5 oz. coconut cream
• 10 oz. pineapple juice
• 2 oz. half and half
• 4 pineapple spears and leaves

Combine liquid ingredients in a blender with ice. Blend until smooth and pour into four chilled Collins glasses. Garnish with pineapple spears and leaves. 

Chamborlada

The idea behind this drink is a Pina Colada with Chambord raspberry liqueur added for color and flavor. I don't have Chambord because I make my own with fresh raspberries, rum and sugar. But this drink is indicative of a time when tropical-themed hotels and bars were trying to differentiate the most popular cocktail in the American South--The Pina Colada!

Another note: I'm not sure what actual Chambord does, but my natural raspberry liqueur just sinks to the bottom of the glass. Look at the photo. I didn't start by putting the liqueur on the bottom as the instructions said. I put it in half way and again on top. What I got was a raspberry bomb at the bottom, which was really tasty.

• 2 oz. light rum
• 1 oz. dark rum
• 2 oz. cream of coconut 
• 3 oz pineapple juice
• 2 oz. Chambord (homemade raspberry liqueur used)

Combine all ingredients except Chambord in a blender with ice. Blend until smooth on low speed. Add a little of the Chambord to the bottom of a cocktail glass or balloon wine glass. Pour the blended cocktail on top. Top with the remaining Chambord.