I originally wanted to make a New York Sour tonight but we’re out of lemons, so I was looking at other red wine cocktails. The recipe I found for this used Dubonnet Rouge instead of Punt e Mes, but we do what we can with what we have. I might try this again with a slightly less bitter vermouth. I also really like the name.
Another day, another tiki drink. Tonight we’re hosting a dinner party that is themed around citrus, so I decided to pick something that used as many citrus fruits as I could get. This is a pretty nice Mai Tai variant that I would recommend if you have a ton of juice you need to use up.
Another liquor store run, another new liqueur to try! I kept seeing macadamia nut liqueur in the Beachbum book, so obviously I needed to get some. It’s fairly inexpensive as well.
This is absolutely delicious. The macadamia liqueur gives it a warm finish that works surprisingly well with the pineapple.
I tried to order the tiki book I’ve been borrowing from my coworker but they were out of stock on Amazon, so I decided to go ahead and pick up the newest one from Beachbum Berry. It’s a lot more storytelling than recipes, but it’s super interesting and does have a fair amount of punch recipes. I saw this one while flipping through it and the record four dashes of Angostura drew me in. It’s a fairly sweet drink with a nice tart mouthfeel.
I was searching online for recipes that used falernum and found this one. The recipe actually calls for Velvet Falernum, the alcoholic version. I’ve only found the non-alcoholic so far, so this is not quite as strong as intended. I found it to be very close to a Daiquiri. It was good, but I might up the falernum and maybe even the rum if I were to make it again.
Here’s another doozy of a tiki drink. Four whole ounces of booze, and so easy to drink! Falernum is a syrup that I’ve heard of before but never used myself, and I’m pretty much in love.
When I saw this recipe in the book I was amazed to discover that I had all of the juices needed for it in the house already. SO MANY JUICES. The almond extract gives it a nice fragrance, and the assortment of juices ends up blending into a non-specific “tropical” flavor. This, like a lot of tiki drinks, is very easy to drink and will probably get you very drunk very quickly if you don’t watch out.
I also learned a bit about the drink’s namesake, Lapu Lapu. Who knew that making cocktails could also teach you about history?
I showed a colleague of mine the blog because I knew he was also a cocktail fan. The next day he lent me his tiki book. I spent most of Friday making as many cocktails as I could based on what I had in the house, just to practice a bit. The book is absolutely fantastic! I am definitely picking up a copy of my own at some point.
I got some Passion Fruit syrup when I made a liquor store run today since I noticed that so many recipes used it. The recipe calls for “gold Jamaican rum” and “light Puerto Rican rum”, so I used what I found to be close enough. (The book actually has a really good section on types of rums that I will use when I make up my next shopping list). This was pretty sweet, and easy to drink. I might try a more boozy variation at some point.
A few years ago we threw a “July in Christmas” party, which was basically a beach-themed party in the middle of winter. I decided to mix up a big punch bowl full of Mai Tai. Shortly before the party Dane came home from running some errands. “Oh, you’ve got the punch ready!” He tried a little bit, then looked me dead in the eye and said “You can’t serve this to people, you are going to kill them. We’re going to have people passed out all over the lawn.” So we added about a carton of orange juice to the bowl.
So. Mai Tais are a pretty powerful cocktail, not well suited to serving out of a punch bowl. I still have a zillion limes at home and I’ve been inclined to make drinks that remind me of summer (even though nothing is alive right now to make a proper garnish), so today you get another rum drink. I’m thinking of trying a new light rum next time I hit the store. If you have any suggestions, send them my way.
The Suffering Bastard is one of Dane’s favorite drinks. I always forget that it’s in the tiki family! Lots of variations abound for this one, and the recipe I was looking at used 1/2 oz of ginger ale and then topped with club soda. That seemed unnecessarily complicated, so I just used ginger beer for more bite. Normally I don’t like ginger beer (too spicy) but even I had a sip or two of this. It’s also got a fantastic name for a cocktail.
