Single Origin (Death & Co. Recipe)

 

I must admit that I was seeking a drink I could do with pineapple juice I had open and I didn't have cacao nibs or the time to infuse them. That's what bitters are for, actually. Sometime I'd like to try this drink again with cacao nibs. My experience tells me that it makes the base spirit extremely bitter. And that would be fine. With the sweetness of pineapple juice and Gallaino, you should be able to get by. Without the nibs, I felt that this drink was a bit on the sweet side despite the lemon juice.

But let's celebrate what a smack in the mouth such a cocktail brings. Here is a fresh squeezed fruit and light spirits drink also having huge body and a liquor-heavy boost of Galliano and tequila at once.

• 2 oz. cacao nib-infused blanco tequila (El Jimador and a dash of Aztec bitters used)
  
• 1 tsp. Galliano
• 1/2 oz. pineapple juice
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. cane sugar syrup

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Double strain into a coup. 

The Dead Reckoning (Smuggler's Cove Recipe)

 

This Tiki cocktail is part of the Tiki revival movement--balanced but rich, classic ingredients, but made for the new Tiki bar scene. According to Martin Cate, a lot of restaurants have adopted something similar to this popular cocktail on the menu at his Smuggler's Cove.

You don't see all that many Tiki drinks with maple syrup (behind the glass). Nor did old-school Tiki drinks feature infusions like Smuggler's Cove. This drink has a vanilla infused brandy. I got around it by adding some vanilla infused vodka (that I always keep around for these occasions) to some cognac for a more than passable substitute. 

The experience is like I said above--balanced. A modern Tiki has the richness of the rum flavor as well as the lightness of soda and fresh citrus and fresh squeezed pineapple juice. There are no artificial mixers or canned juices involved, and it shows. I'm featuring George Bowman rum for the first time on my home bar as a great blended aged rum with all the Caribbean flavors of Guyana and Jamaica. It's going to be my main aged rum until I finish it off. 

One last note on preparation: the recipe includes directions for a drink mixing machine, which I don't have, but I was able to replicate a flash blend with agitator cubes in a shaker with pre-crushed ice. I'll include the recipe as written, but the photo in the book shows that this use of the mixing machine really gives you varied sizes of ice, which you can see in my photo above. Some tiny chips, some chunks, and some pretty big cubes. Just pre-crush some ice into tiny chips and lightly crush some cubes and load all of the chips and some of the cubes into the shaker tin and shake. When you strain, open the gate to allow the small and medium-sized pieces to flow into a glass that's already half-full of crushed ice and you are golden.

• 2 oz. blended aged rum (George Bowman used)
• 1/2 oz. tawny port (Porto Morgado used)
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 oz. pineapple juice
• 1/2 oz. vanilla brandy
• 1/2 oz. grade A maple syrup
  
• 1 dash Angostura bitters
• 1 oz. seltzer
• pineapple leaves and mint sprig garnishes

Add seltzer to a Collins or highball glass. Fill the drink mixer with rum, port, vanilla brandy, juices and syrup. Add 12 oz. of crushed ice and 4-6 agitator cubes and flash blend. Strain the contents over the glass and fill the glass to the top with more crushed ice before adding the garnishes

Zombo (Original Recipe)

Wait! Isn't that tequilla and whiskey in the photo? 

Why yes! Corralejo is my favorite tequila. And it just stands to reason that it would make an excellent Zombie with its caramel notes and rich body. This is my own tiki creation based on a simple zombie recipe. The spices mean a lot in this drink. Allspice and cinnamon are added in liquor form, as is anise in the form of Pernod. Luxardo maraschino makes an appearance, as does triple sec.

There isn't usually any pineapple juice in a Zombie, but that's the beauty of making your own cocktail. You can do what you want. And at the time I wanted tequila and a reason to use up a fresh pineapple. Yes I squeezed it by hand, but if you are blending, just throw the pineapple pieces into the mix and buzzzz!

Ok. Try to keep up. Here's what you need to make this.

• 1 1/2 oz. tequila
• 1 oz. light rum
• 1/4 oz. 151-proof rum
• 1 oz. lime juice
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 oz. orange juice
• 1 oz. pineapple juice
• 1/4 oz. MurLarkey cinnamon whiskey
• several dashes allspice dram
• several dashes Pernod
• pineapple spear and leaves

Combine all ingredient except pineapple spear and leaves in a shaker or blender. After shaking/blending, pour into a cool tiki mug and garnish with pineapple.

Mother's Whistler

Who's whistling at Mom? I can't make sense of this drink, other than someone thought it was the expected outcome when their mother started drinking. This is an all-out pineapple and vodka drink with the help of the dry fruitiness of kirsch. 

I don't have any pineapple sticks, as is recommended in the recipe, because I only have canned pineapple juice. But a little garnish goes a long way in signaling tropical flavor in this vacation-in-a-glass.

• 1 1/2 oz. vodka (Smirnoff 57 used)
  
• 4 oz. pineapple juice
• 1/2 oz. orgeat syrup
• dash kirsch
• pineapple stick

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with crushed ice. Shake briefly and pour into a chilled Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with pineapple stick or whatever tropical flair you have around. 

Hinky Dink's Fizzy (Smuggler's Cove)

I really enjoyed this drink for its rum flavor and dry spiced gin--wholly different from the flavors associated with spiced rum. For this cocktail I chose Monkey 47 to keep the drink dry like a champagne cocktail.

This cocktail comes from Smuggler's Cove. The Hinky Dink's reference points to the 30's vintage Tiki bar in Oakland, California. The drink itself was invented in the 1980s. Better modern rums and gins are now available, so a drink like this gets a facelift with Monkey 47 dry gin and Vitae modern rum.

• 1 oz. blended lightly aged (white) rum (Vitae Platinum used)
• 1 oz. dry gin (Monkey 47 used)
• 1 1/2 oz. pineapple juice
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 oz. passionfruit syrup
• 1/2 oz. apricot liqueur
• 2 oz. sparkling wine
• mint sprig/ flower garnish

Combine all ingredients except sparkling wine and mint sprig in a blender with crushed ice. Flash blend and open pour into a large snifter or wine glass with the two ounces of sparkling wine in it. Garnish with mint or flowers.

Pancho Villa

The raider of New Mexico was deadly and so is is namesake drink. There's so much booze in this cocktail that I wondered if it was a misprint. There's 2 oz. of rum, one of gin and about another 1.5 oz. of miscellaneous spirits and almost no juice, that you know not to mess with Pancho.

I took the opportunity to try out the new Vitae spirits I bought from Charlottesville, Virginia. Vitae makes a platinum rum with great flavor that tastes much like fresh cane juice. It is an excellent tiki cocktail addition. Then they have the only molasses-based gin in the U.S. with a fun aromatic scent and the flavor of local hardy oranges. The drink is further exoticized with apricot brandy and cherry brandy. I opted for kirschwasser for the latter for color consistency and the rummy flavor of kirsch that sweet cherry brandy doesn't have.

• 2 oz. light rum (Vitae platinum used)
• 1 oz. gin (Vitae modern gin used)
• 1 oz. apricot brandy 
• 1 tbsp. cherry brandy (Kammer Kirsch used)
• 1 tbsp. pineapple juice

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

King Cole (Blood Orange variation)

Save this tiki-like Old Fashioned for the winter holidays when rhymes about Old King Cole being a merry soul are more appropriate. Or make it instead of an Old Fashioned if you happen to have pineapple pieces left over from other recipes that need using.

The recipe calls for a typical orange (like a naval orange) and blended whiskey. For more richness, I used Cleveland bourbon, which has a debatable status as bourbon anyway. It is rich compared to many blended whiskies and suited to a rocks sipping cocktail like this one. Blood orange, just because it is good, is another wonderful addition.

One last change, or enhancement, to this recipe includes the use of demerara syrup instead of sugar. A syrup is already dissolved and does not require as much stirring, but demerara still imparts a rich flavor, too. See how I made this along with D.I.Y. falernum and you'll know why I love this stuff.

• 2 oz. blended whiskey (Cleveland bourbon used)
• orange slice
• pineapple slice
• 1/2 tsp sugar (demerara syrup used)

Add fruit and sugar to an Old Fashioned glass and muddle fruit to extract juices from pulps. Add whiskey and ice and stir. 

Aloha

Does this cocktail say "Hello," or "Goodbye?" We'll never know. What I do know is that vanilla ice cream looks great on top of a hurricane glass. I also know you don't need Amarula or a rum cream liqueur to make the Aloha. I just combined aged rum and half-and-half. The other rums and coconut do the rest of the work. 

The recipe also calls for ice cream to be added to the blender, but this is unnecessary and wastes the look of a scoop of ice cream. Putting it on top makes it like a garnish, and a good one for a frozen drink.

• 1 1/2 oz. rum cream liqueur (equal parts Cruzan aged rum and half-and-half used)
• 1 oz. dark rum 
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• 2 oz. pineapple juice
• 1 oz. coconut syrup 
• small scoop vanilla ice cream
• pineapple spear.

Put all ingredients except pineapple spear (and ice cream if you want to use it as a garnish) in a blender with ice and blend until smooth. Pour into a hurricane glass. Garnish with pineapple spear (and ice cream scoop.) Pro tip: save pineapple leaves for the garnish as well.

Royal Matador

I'm kind of obsessed with pineapple shell drinks right now. For one thing, it is amazingly easy to core a pineapple and freeze the shell. Then just pull it out and fill it with a drink that will stay cold in an icy pineapple.

This time I was following the recipe and made a saw-toothed bowl deep enough for two drinks--perfect for sharing. The word "royal" in a drink name usually denotes the use of pineapple or Chambord or both. Anyway, I get the idea that anytime someone goes all out and makes a pineapple shell or spear cocktail. It's the royal treatment!

• 4 oz. gold tequila
• 1 1/2 oz. Framboise (homemade raspberry syrup + vodka used but Chambord is a good standard)
• 1 tbsp amaretto
• 2 oz. lime juice
• fruit of one whole ripe pineapple

Cut off the top of a pineapple and save the top. Scoop out the pineapple, being careful not to damage the shell, and liquefy the chunks in the blender. Strain the pineapple juice from the pulp and put the juice back in the blender with remaining ingredients. Blend with ice until smooth and pour into the pineapple shell. Put the top back on and serve with two straws. (Garnish with whatever floats your boat.)

Batida de Pina

In Spanish, Batida means to beat or smash. So this drink is really a pineapple smash cocktail with rum. The recipe calls for fresh pineapple, not canned, and if you have fresh pineapple, you also have a shell. I carved out the top half of this pineapple to make a single serving cup; and the nice thing is that the fruit around the edges gains a rum sweetness and alcohol from holding the drink.

• 3 oz. light rum
• 2/3 cup fresh pineapple
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• mint sprig

Blend all ingredients except mint sprig (and tiny umbrella) in a blender with ice until smooth. Pour into a highball glass (or pineapple shell). Garnish with the mint sprig.

Matador (NY Bartender's Guide version)

This is the drink I think of when someone says a Bullfighter's cocktail. Something that refreshes but tastes like gold tequila. Sauza has a rooster on all of their bottles, my picture has this awesome Mexican chicken that my wife named Zia. Shaking this cocktail results in a nice foam without having to resort to egg white.

• 2 oz. gold tequila
• 1/2 oz. triple sec
• 1 oz. lime juice
• 3 oz. pineapple juice

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

Mahukona

This is a tiki that is similar to a Mai Tai, with citrus and orgeat, but also orange bitters. The pineapple spear really adds to the look of the drink. It makes me wish I had a grim-faced tiki mug to put it in.

• 2 oz. light rum
• 1/2 oz. triple sec
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. orgeat syrup
• 5 dashes orange bitters
• pineapple spear

Combine all ingredients except pineapple spear in a shaker with ice. Shake and pour into a chilled highball glass. Garnish with the pineapple spear.

Kamehameha Rum Punch

The Kraken makes an excellent vanilla spice topper to the Kamehameha Rum Punch, a recipe very similar to a Zombie. Tiki drinks are easy to make, but difficult to prep for--juicing citrus, making orgeat, and cutting pineapple. This was well worth the effort.

• 2 oz. white rum
• 1 oz. dark rum (Kraken spiced rum used)
• 2 tbsp. blackberry brandy (homemade blackberry infused E & J brandy used)
• 2 oz. pineapple juice
• 1 oz. lime juice
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 oz. orgeat syrup
• pineapple spear

Combine white rum, orgeat, brandy and juices in a shaker or blender with ice. Shake or blend and pour into a highball glass. Top with dark rum and garnish with pineapple spear.

Japanese Fizz

I think this drink dates back to the early 20th century. Apparently there is a story about it if you ask David Wondrich, which I didn't know to do when I met him. Anyway, a very tropical whiskey drink that you can do with any whiskey except maybe bourbon. Otherwise it would be too much vanilla flavor. There's no pineapple juice in it, so the spear in the glass is really there for aroma, which works well too.

• 2 oz blended whiskey
• 1 tbsp. port
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp simple syrup
• 1 egg white
• sparkling water
• pineapple spear

Combine all ingredients except soda and pineapple in a shaker without ice. Shake vigorously until foamy. Add ice and shake to cool. Pour into a highball glass and garnish with a pineapple spear.