The Tiki Drink Discussion Topic

[Rafa]

If you have Tiki + could you compare it to that?

 

There are some drinks which only appear on the Tiki+ app, plus the new one's missing Berry's ingredient notes and recommended brands. It does have plenty of recipes from his newer books, including some recipes created in the last decade or so. In my opinion, though, it overlooks a lot of the more interesting recent Tiki-ish recipes, like the Trinidad Sour.

 

I'll let you play around with Tiki+ this weekend, if you don't mind dealing with my phone's shattered screen, which I stubbornly refuse to fix.

[Hassouni]

Finally ordered BG Reynolds Pasion Fruit syrup, and set out looking for a simple experiment to try it out. I ended up doing the Hart of Darkness(link)

 

1.5 Oz Lemon Hart 151

0.5 Oz Lime Juice

0.25 Oz Lemon Juice

0.5 Oz Passionfruit Syrup

0.5 Oz Honey Syrup

0.25 Oz Soda Water

Blend(I shook and strained over crushed ice)

 

Very, very tasty. Also, with the 151, very, very dangerous. Speaking of dangerous, I am off to the store to buy some grapefruit so I can make a Zombie!

 

Why have I never come across this? I have all the ingredients and it looks fantastic. Thanks for posting it!

 

There are some drinks which only appear on the Tiki+ app, plus the new one's missing Berry's ingredient notes and recommended brands. It does have plenty of recipes from his newer books, including some recipes created in the last decade or so. In my opinion, though, it overlooks a lot of the more interesting recent Tiki-ish recipes, like the Trinidad Sour.

 

I'll let you play around with Tiki+ this weekend, if you don't mind dealing with my phone's shattered screen, which I stubbornly refuse to fix.

 

Señor, I have Tiki+, and love it. I presume you mean play around with Total Tiki? Anyway, a shattered screen ain't no thang!

Edited May 8, 2014 by Hassouni (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

Why have I never come across this?

 

Because you are not paying attention :-)

 

I just received some passion syrup in the mail so it may be time to make one again.

[Hassouni]

Yeah, didn't have the passion fruit syrup 2 years ago I'm afraid!

[Rafa]

You are correct, I meant Total Tiki. And it features the recipe for the Hart of Darkness, along with many other Bum originals. 

[Czequershuus]

Started my Zombie adventure tonight with the 1934 Zombie Punch recipe (Link)

 

1.5 Oz White Rum (Angostura)

1.5 Oz Gold Rum (Appleton V/X)

1 Oz Lemonhart 151

0.75 Oz Lime Juice

0.5 Oz Don's Mix (I approximated with homemade cinnamon syrup and red grapefruit - white unavailable)

0.5 Oz Falernum (Velvet)

1 tsp Grenadine

1/8 tsp Absinthe (2 spritzes of Kubler)

1 ds Angostura Bitters

Blend with 0.75 cup ice (I shook with fresh ice and strained over crushed. I need to buy a blender)

 

Woof, I now understand the two drink limit, as this is three drinks in one. The drink is nicely complex, but I do wish I had access to white grapefruit. Unfortunately no grocery stores near me stock them. Also I fear the limes I am getting now are a bit sub par. Still, the homemade cinnamon syrup lights up this drink, as does the small amount of absinthe. Oddly balanced despite all the rum.

 

On to the other recipes. This is going to be a fun exploration.

[Hassouni]

It is fun, but 1934 is the best. the 1951 one is good, and less of a hassle to make, but it lacks something

[Czequershuus]

On to the 1950 Spievak Zombie. 

 

1 Oz White Rum (Cruzan White)

1 Oz Gold Rum (Appleton V/X)

1 Oz Lemon Hart 151

1 Oz Lime Juice

1 Oz Lemon Juice

1 Oz Passion Fruit Syrup

1 Oz Pineapple Juice

1 tsp Demerara Syrup (Turbinado)

1 ds Angostura Bitters

 

Once again I shook with fresh ice and strained over crushed. Much less complex, but still a pleasing drink. I like the greater sour element here, but I feel like the large amount of pineapple mutes the other flavors too much. The passion fruit syrup does have a fantastic affinity for each other, as I saw when I had the Hart of Darkness earlier in this thread. 

 

Of the two I have had so far, I prefer the first for its spicy complexity. However, I still have at least two other versions to try.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

If I've counted right I may have reached the two zombie limit.  Unlike a mai tai I seldom mess with a zombie, keeping with Beachbum Berry's recreation of Don's 1934.  A long fourteen years before I was born.  Though I still affirm Berry's use of the blender is an anachronism.

 

For tonight's second zombie I played with Smith & Cross.  I measured carefully but I don't recall exactly what it was I measured.

[FrogPrincesse]

Trader Vic's Eastern Sour from Beachbum Berry Remixed: bourbon (Wild Turkey 101), orgeat (walnut, homemade), orange juice, lemon juice, simple syrup. I was a little short on the orange juice so I may actually have made a St. Nick Sour, which is essentially the same thing with less juice.

 

I've been making Eastern Sours regularly in the summertime. There is orange juice in there but it works because there is a bunch of lemon juice too to give acidity. It's a good tiki drink for people who don't care for rum (I have at least one such friend).

 

 

[FrogPrincesse]

Started my Zombie adventure tonight with the 1934 Zombie Punch recipe (Link)

 

1.5 Oz White Rum (Angostura)

1.5 Oz Gold Rum (Appleton V/X)

1 Oz Lemonhart 151

0.75 Oz Lime Juice

0.5 Oz Don's Mix (I approximated with homemade cinnamon syrup and red grapefruit - white unavailable)

0.5 Oz Falernum (Velvet)

1 tsp Grenadine

1/8 tsp Absinthe (2 spritzes of Kubler)

1 ds Angostura Bitters

Blend with 0.75 cup ice (I shook with fresh ice and strained over crushed. I need to buy a blender)

Just a note that the specified rum mix for the 1934 is gold Puerto Rican, amber or dark Jamaican, and 151 Demerara. The white rum in the link is atypical.

 

Oh, and you don't really need a blender. I have one but I just do what you do - shake with fresh ice, and strain over crushed. Works great.

Edited May 30, 2014 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I've been using Brugal Anejo as my "gold Puerto Rican".  However I wanted to explore the boundaries of the zombie without violating the recipe.  In the past I had tried Atlantico Private Cask for the specified gold Puerto Rican, but Atlantico is a bit too sweet for me, even though I use tincture of cinnamon rather than Don's cinnamon syrup.

 

Tonight I went with Plantation 3 for the gold Puerto Rican.  This zombie is a tad too tart but very nice.  Plantation 3 is not quite gold, though a certain yellow hue.  Plantation 3 has some age and character.

 

As the level went down a bit I poured in some Atlantico as a sweetener.  This is nice.  Maybe half Atlantico and half Plantation 3 would be a compromise?  Unfortunately I can't find a source of the Brugal good stuff.

 

What other rums would quality as "gold Puerto Rican"?

 

I still maintain a blended 1934 zombie is an anachronism on the part of Beachbum Berry.

[Rafa]

I am available wherever a white Puerto Rican is called for. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

If only you were a girl, Rafa.  On the whole my zombies tonight were a disappointment.  Sometimes we fail so that we might learn.

 

 

After the apocalypse I went with a mai tai, tried and true:

 

3/4 oz Pusser's

3/4 oz Ruhm JM

3/4 oz Smith & Cross

3/4 oz W&N
1/2 oz Grand Marnier
3/4 oz fresh lime juice

1/2 oz orgeat

 

 

But something is not right?  I may have mismeasured, or perhaps it is because I used the same ice from the last zombie?  Life is unfair.  But at least limes are cheap again.

[FrogPrincesse]

Coco de Agua (Charles H. Baker Jr, Bartender's Choice version) for a tiki party this weekend. 

El Dorado 3 white demerara rum, coconut water, lime juice, simple syrup, soda water. The coconut and buttery notes of the rum were great in this drink.

 

 

 

 

[tanstaafl2]

What other rums would quality as "gold Puerto Rican"?

Flor de Cana 4yo gold, despite being from Nicaragua, works well for me as a sub for Brugal. As do Cuban rums if you have access to them. Theoretically a bit of a different style from the Puerto Rican rums but they seem pretty similar to me.

Ron Matusalem Gran Reserva (a "solera" aged rum) also works as do other Dominican rums like Bermudez and Barcelo although they tend to be harder to find in the US (Kirk & Sweeney rum is likely 12yo Bermudez rum. Haven't tried it in a Zombie). Some might say these are more in the Cuban style than the Puerto Rican style. Again not sure there is a ton of difference. Puerto Rican rums tend to be a bit lighter I suppose. Then again Bacardi is made in Puerto Rico but considered to be a Cuban style and is as light as they come in their basic versions.

Oddly enough the ones I don't really recommend are the Puerto Rican gold rums! Some people seem to feel Don Q is the best of the bunch (certainly a big seller on the island) but I find Ron del Barrilito pretty decent if you can find it and prefer it over Don Q or Bacardi.

I suppose Cruzan is also a Puerto Rican/Cuban style rum as well. The Single Barrel is the only one I have used with and regularity in the past although they do make a 2yo "dark aged rum" that would likely be the closest to a Puerto Rican gold rum in a pinch.

[Hassouni]

Barrilito is entirely atypical of PR rums, note. Don Q Añejo is not bad...and as much as I hate to support them, I've heard good things about Bacardi 8

Edited June 16, 2014 by Hassouni (log)

[Adam George]

Pampero Especial would work on the cheap.  Also, Santa Teresa.

You could use Trinidad or Bajan rum too.

 

Bacardi 8 is a good product, but the Bacardi yeast is pretty distracting.  

[tanstaafl2]

Barrilito is entirely atypical of PR rums, note. Don Q Añejo is not bad...and as much as I hate to support them, I've heard good things about Bacardi 8

 

Good point. I think that is what makes it so much better to me than other PR rums!

 

I have the same trouble giving Bacardi much credit but agree the Bacardi 8 is fairly decent if you avoid looking at the label...

[JoNorvelleWalker]

It seems I even have trouble assembling a zombie cold sober.  I realized that I used only one ounce Atlantico (which was tonight's stand in for gold Porto Rican) instead of one and a half ounces.  Rather than fetch the bottle of Atlantico a second time I simply put in two ounces of Appleton 12, rather than an ounce and a half.

 

This was perhaps my finest zombie yet:

 

2 oz Appleton 12

1 oz Atlantico Private Cask

1 oz Lemon Hart 151

1/2 oz Taylor's Falernum

3/4 oz lime juice

1 teaspoon grenadine

10 ml white grapefruit juice

5 ml tincture of cinnamon

1 dash Angostura

12 drops Jade 1901*

 

Garnish of fresh mint.  Typically my zombies slide down pretty quickly, but I am savoring this.  The glass is half empty and almost all the ice is gone.  (And, yes, I strained onto fresh ice!)

 

Meanwhile I am still searching for the apotheosis of golden Puerto Rican run.

 

 

*Unlike a true volume measurement, drop size has a lot to do with surface tension.  I suspect Don was not using Jade 1901 when he called for six drops.  Jade has a lot of good things, but surface tension is not among them.

[FrogPrincesse]

Regarding gold Puerto Rican rum in tiki drinks, I have tried a variety of light gold rums. Someone gave me a bottle of Cruzan aged so I used that for a while. Then I tried Flor de Cana gold but it was a little bland for my taste and I didn't feel compelled to buy another bottle (I love their white however). Lately I've been using Plantation Barbados 5 years with good results.

 

Jeff Berry's Total Tiki app recommends Bacardi 8 and Ron del Barrilito 2 or 3 stars, with Cruzan, Flor de Cana, and Santa Teresa anejo as acceptable substitutes.

[Rafa]

As unpatriotic as this is, I usually use Plantation Barbados 5 year as well, with occasional substitutions of Barrilitos 2 and 3.

[FrogPrincesse]

A Scorpion last night, following the "improved" 1958 recipe from the Luau, not the original Trader Vic version which I have yet to try.

Beefeater gin, Plantation Barbados 5 yr rum (as a sub for gold Puerto Rican rum), Pierre Ferrand 1840 cognac, orange juice, lime juice, homemade orgeat, simple syrup. It was shaken with ice cubes and strained onto fresh crushed ice (I didn't use a blender). Please imagine a gardenia flower floating in the middle of the bowl.

 

It was very tasty and dangerous, as it should be.

 

 

 

[Adam George]

I made a batch of Grenadine the other day with POM Wonderful to Morganthaler's recipe, so my Manager and I shared a Zombie

 

1.5 oz Havana 7

1.5 oz Appleton V/X

0.75 oz Skipper

0.75 oz Uncle Wray

0.75 oz Falernum

0.75 oz Grapefruit

1.00 oz Lime

0.50 oz Grenadine

0.25 oz Demerara Syrup

Some Absinthe Bitters (Employees Only, but with Vegetal Elixier, not Green Chartreuse.)

Some Angostura Bitters.

[malarkey]

Love your tiki glass collection, frog. I have the "Mr Bali Hai" mug ~ obtained it on my last visit to Shelter Island this past winter :->