The Tiki Drink Discussion Topic

[FrogPrincesse]

13 pages of tiki cocktails, and not a single one with tequila. Let's remedy that asap.

 

These two cocktails rely on a mix of tequila with rum. For the first one, aged tequila and dark rum, and for the second one, you guessed it, tequila blanco with white rum.

 

Jim's Special from Tiki-Ti in LA with 7 Leguas anejo tequila, Coruba dark rum, lime juice, passion fruit syrup, Grand Marnier, homemade orgeat. Deep, strong, mysterious, and delicious. The tequila adds a spiciness that's very interesting.

 

 

 

And then the one with a fun name, but as we know, these usually don't live up to the hype - Vicious Virgin #2, from the Pago Pago in Tucson. El Dorado 3 Demerara rum, Siete Leguas tequila blanco, Grand Marnier, grapefruit & lime juice, homemade orgeat.

 

It's actually my favorite of the two. It's almost like a (white) Mai Tai on paper, with more juice, and the tequila of course. The grapefruit is genius with the tequila, they just play off each other so well. Lovely drink.

 

 

Edited September 5, 2014 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Interesting.  For this try it with Cointreau rather than Grand Marnier...as much as I love Grand Marnier.  The white grapefruit is rotting here or I would try it and report back.

[Hassouni]

About to make a Jasper's Rum Punch because I fucking need one.

[Hassouni]

Aaaand let's make that two

[JoNorvelleWalker]

About to make a Jasper's Rum Punch because I fucking need one.

 

I'd join you but I just finished my white mai tai and I have work in a few hours.  Oh wait... 1 1/2 ounces of rum...

 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

 

Don't worry, I scaled it up -- except for the syrup:

 

2 oz W&N

1 oz fresh key lime juice (because I could)

1/2 oz syrup

3 dashes Angostura

 

 

Very nice.  No faults at all.  The key lime makes it tart.  But why would one drink this when one could have a white mai tai?

 

 

 

Edit:  no cherry but a good nose of fresh grated nutmeg.

Edited September 5, 2014 by JoNorvelleWalker (log)

[Hassouni]

Very nice.  No faults at all.  The key lime makes it tart.  But why would one drink this when one could have a white mai tai?

 

Because as you said, "very nice. No faults at all." Man does not live and die by mai tai alone.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

This is true.  I like the Jasper's punch.  Very much.  I will probably make it again (with or without key limes).  Maybe I can even find a cherry!

 

Still, the white mai tai calls to me.

 

And if one had only so much W&N...

[JoNorvelleWalker]

And then the one with a fun name, but as we know, these usually don't live up to the hype - Vicious Virgin #2, from the Pago Pago in Tucson. El Dorado 3 Demerara rum, Siete Leguas tequila blanco, Grand Marnier, grapefruit & lime juice, homemade orgeat.

 

It's actually my favorite of the two. It's almost like a (white) Mai Tai on paper, with more juice, and the tequila of course. The grapefruit is genius with the tequila, they just play off each other so well. Lovely drink.

 

 

 

Last night's grapefruit was quite generous, considering the time of year.  And that it had been sitting in my living room all summer.

 

I chose Plantation 3 for the rum and los Frenos for the tequila.  I put my spirits where my mouth was and used Cointreau.

 

Thank you, FP, this is delightful!

 

 

Now, I have grapefruit juice left over, but not quite enough for another.  What to do?  Hmm.

[FrogPrincesse]

Jo - it's great to read that you enjoyed it!

 

 

Is this really tiki? Ok, let's say that it is heavily tiki-influenced, although the flavor is unusual for a tiki drink. After making a coconut orgeat, I finally had a chance to duplicate a drink I had at Son of a Gun some time ago (snow cone in the back in the photo). Lost Cause (Daniel Warrilow) with aquavit (Krogstad), white rum (Banks was specified, so I used Plantation 3 stars with a touch of batavia arrack), coconut syrup (homemade coconut orgeat), lemon, lime, acid phosphate. Shake with ice, strain onto fresh shave ice (crushed), like a snow cone. Some versions of the recipe published online don't include the phosphate, but I was really eager to use mine.

 

 

 

A few thoughts on this one. First I tried to imitate shave ice by running crushed ice through a blender. Rookie mistake. I managed to get a finer texture, however the ice was completely water-logged which was obvious as soon as I tasted the cocktail. The flavors did not pop, it tasted mostly of lemon juice and everything else got lost. Very sad.

 

But I was not going to give up, even on a lost cause, so I forged ahead and made a second one, this time strained onto fresh crushed ice. It tasted like a different cocktail altogether. The aquavit gives a savory note that is really interesting combined with the coconut. All the different acids were fun together, with the acid phosphate (I only used a couple of drops) giving an extra lift, a slight tingling sensation on the tongue. Very cool. Hoping to find more interesting things by Daniel Warrilow after this one and the Crafty & Elusive Elk.

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

I'm interested in knowing more about your coconut orgeat.

[FrogPrincesse]

I'm interested in knowing more about your coconut orgeat.

Oh Kerry - first a big thank you to you regarding the acid phosphate!!! I think I am going to play with it some more this weekend. There are very few cocktail recipes that I can find that use it, so I will have to get creative.

 

Regarding the coconut orgeat - there is nothing much to it, really. It's like an orgeat (Jeff Berry's recipe), but with a fresh coconut. It's more work than almond orgeat of course because the coconut needs to be cracked (that's the fun part), the meat needs to be separated from the shell, and then painstakingly peeled. I was going to post a little more details when life is less hectic.

[Hassouni]

Princesse, you might find this useful: http://www.amazon.com/Anjali-Coconut-Scrapper-Shredder-Grinder/dp/B009QP8MH8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411163684&sr=8-1&keywords=coconut+grater

[FrogPrincesse]

It looks like some kind of medieval torture device!

 

I did ok with a hammer, an old pairing knife, and an OXO vegetable peeler. Since my yield was close to 1 liter, I won't need to do this again any time soon.

[Kerry Beal]

Princesse, you might find this useful: http://www.amazon.com/Anjali-Coconut-Scrapper-Shredder-Grinder/dp/B009QP8MH8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411163684&sr=8-1&keywords=coconut+grater

I've accumulated a couple of those over the years.  One day I might even try to use one of them!

[Kerry Beal]

Oh Kerry - first a big thank you to you regarding the acid phosphate!!! I think I am going to play with it some more this weekend. There are very few cocktail recipes that I can find that use it, so I will have to get creative.

 

Regarding the coconut orgeat - there is nothing much to it, really. It's like an orgeat (Jeff Berry's recipe), but with a fresh coconut. It's more work than almond orgeat of course because the coconut needs to be cracked (that's the fun part), the meat needs to be separated from the shell, and then painstakingly peeled. I was going to post a little more details when life is less hectic.

Hmmm - wonder how it would work with good quality unsweetened dried coconut?

[FrogPrincesse]

Hmmm - wonder how it would work with good quality unsweetened dried coconut?

 

I know at least one person who did that, for the MxMo Coconut challenge.

For me, it made more sense to use fresh since it's available, and I did not really mind the extra work. Also I needed the coconut water for the challenge already.

Edited September 19, 2014 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Jo - it's great to read that you enjoyed it!

 

 

Is this really tiki? Ok, let's say that it is heavily tiki-influenced, although the flavor is unusual for a tiki drink. After making a coconut orgeat, I finally had a chance to duplicate a drink I had at Son of a Gun some time ago (snow cone in the back in the photo). Lost Cause (Daniel Warrilow) with aquavit (Krogstad), white rum (Banks was specified, so I used Plantation 3 stars with a touch of batavia arrack), coconut syrup (homemade coconut orgeat), lemon, lime, acid phosphate. Shake with ice, strain onto fresh shave ice (crushed), like a snow cone. Some versions of the recipe published online don't include the phosphate, but I was really eager to use mine.

 

 

 

A few thoughts on this one. First I tried to imitate shave ice by running crushed ice through a blender. Rookie mistake. I managed to get a finer texture, however the ice was completely water-logged which was obvious as soon as I tasted the cocktail. The flavors did not pop, it tasted mostly of lemon juice and everything else got lost. Very sad.

 

But I was not going to give up, even on a lost cause, so I forged ahead and made a second one, this time strained onto fresh crushed ice. It tasted like a different cocktail altogether. The aquavit gives a savory note that is really interesting combined with the coconut. All the different acids were fun together, with the acid phosphate (I only used a couple of drops) giving an extra lift, a slight tingling sensation on the tongue. Very cool. Hoping to find more interesting things by Daniel Warrilow after this one and the Crafty & Elusive Elk.

 

 

 

Could one obtain a similar flavor effect from carbonation?

[mkayahara]

I know at least one person who did that, for the MxMo Coconut challenge.

For me, it made more sense to use fresh since it's available, and I did not really mind the extra work. Also I needed the coconut water for the challenge already.

I wonder if this would be a good application for the fresh-frozen pre-grated coconut you can buy in Asian markets. I've used it in the past for coconut milk for Thai dishes, and it sounds like this is a similar process.

[FrogPrincesse]

Could one obtain a similar flavor effect from carbonation?

You will get the tingle, but not the dry sourness.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I'm not so sure.  I tried hyper-carbonating a batch of maison rotuts.  The result had the tingle and a dry sourness.  Over sour, for me, actually, and I like sour.

 

Anyhow, it was just a thought, I probably ought to look into getting myself some acid phosphate.

[FrogPrincesse]

Too much citrus, so a tiki drink was in order last night. The Sidewinder's Fang also calls for passion fruit syrup (like Don the Beachcomber's Cobra's Fang). I was about to reach for my bottle of B.G. Reynolds passion fruit syrup, but then I remembered that I had a bunch of passion fruits from my CSA that were in the process of shriveling up in the fridge. So I ended up making my own passion fruit syrup. It took a while and the yield was very low, but these drinks were pretty fabulous. The flavor of fresh passion fruit takes me back immediately to Polynesia. Also the syrup had a nice thick texture.

 

I altered the ratios a bit and used Smith & Cross and El Dorado 5 for the rum mix.

 

For 2 cocktails:

1.5 oz S&C
2 oz El Dorado 5
2.5 oz lime juice
2.5 oz Valencia orange juice
2.25 oz passion fruit syrup (pulp of ~ 6 small purple passion fruits, 2 large tablespoons demerara sugar, briefly heated)
0.5 oz rich demerara syrup

(I did not use any soda water)

 

 

 

 

 

[Hassouni]

¡Quiero parcha!

 

 

 

ETA:

 

Your CSA gives you passion fruit? God. Damn!

Edited September 30, 2014 by Hassouni (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

¡Quiero parcha!

 

 

 

ETA:

 

Your CSA gives you passion fruit? God. Damn!

 

You should move to SD!

I got passion fruit in my CSA three times this summer. I also have friends who have them growing semi-wild in their backyard.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I had two white grapefruit left from my shipment of last winter (ordered from Florida).  Neither looked rotten.  I took the most wizened one and cut it open.  There was a baby grapefruit tree inside.  Sadly I did not think it would appreciate being planted in New Jersey in the fall.

 

The flesh though yielded juice.  Juice that the poor baby tree had been peeing in.  The juice smelled wonderful so I drank some.  Deep, round flavor -- not too sweet, not too bitter, not too sour.  Perhaps the most delightful juice I can recall.

 

I made up a zombie.  I used all the juice.  There was also a slight excess of lime juice, but otherwise a strictly followed recipe.  Mint plus a purple straw.  I cannot remember a better zombie.  Though, in truth, zombies are sometimes hard to remember.

Edited October 4, 2014 by JoNorvelleWalker (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

The Voyager (Robert Hess) with white Puerto Rican or light Virgin Islands rum (Plantation 3 Stars), lime juice, falernum (homemade), Benedictine, Angostura bitters. I think this one overdoes it a little bit with the spices; between the Benedictine and the falernum, it ends up being a little busy.

 

 

I got it from the Total Tiki app, but he also did a video of it a few years ago.