I revisited this recipe recently as it looks like a huge laundry list and I figured in the years of making and mixing drinks since, I could improve or ‘fix’ what might be broken. After making it again – it’s great. It’s a slam together of Jeff Berry’s versions of the Beachcomber’s Rum Barrel and the 1950’s Zombie (which is all we had at that time). So it stands. Lo: The Zombie Colonel.

The Zombie Colonel
1 Tbs. Brown Sugar
1 oz. lime juice
1 oz. white grapefruit juice
1 oz. lemon juice
1 oz. orange juice
1/2 oz. cinnamon syrup
1/2 oz. falernum
1/4 oz. vanilla syrup
1 oz. dark Jamaica rum
1 oz. Demerara rum
1 oz. Martinique rhum
1 oz. Santa Cruz rum
dashes bitters
8 drops Herbsaint

Flash blend with 6 ounces crushed ice and dump into Zombie Colonel mug. Add crushed ice to fill. Garnish: huge bouquet of spanked mint and green glowing led light cube.

Cribbage is the main card game we play in the Monkey Hut. The math and permutations of scoring your hand in combination with the jargon and language had me hooked from childhood: It’s a family game tradition. You score “knobs” when a Jack in your hand matches the suit of the turn-up card (which everyone shares in their hand when they score).

Here, you’ll find that the hand [two Jacks, two 5s, with our Jack of Hearts matching the turn-up] scores 13. “Fifteen-two, Fifteen-four, Fifteen-six, Fifteen-eight, Pair is ten, Pair is twelve,”

(and) Knobs is Thirteen
¼ oz. vanilla syrup
¼ oz. pimento dram
½ oz. cinnamon syrup
¾ oz. lemon juice
1¼ oz. orange juice
1½ oz. Knob Creek bourbon
½ oz. Plantation OFTD
dash bitters
8 drops Herbsaint

flash blend with 6 ounces of crushed ice and dump into double rocks bucket. Garnish with orange wheel and spanked mint.

This recipe is a riff on Jason Alexander’s process of using the fibonacci sequence as a guide for ratios. My syrup is half-sweeter, so I move that around in the order, and use the units a bit differently. (Sweets) Sour Weak (Strongs). The units are in ¼ ounce, rendering the recipe list as [1:1:2]:3:5:8. Of course, the next number in that sequence? 13. One notch past 8, as this cocktail is my attempt to improve and fix the Ward Eight.

Here’s the details with more chatting after the recipe.

E. californica
½ oz. Strawberry Syrup [fresh home-made in June is choice]
¼ oz. Pimento Dram
1 oz. Lemon Juice
1½ oz. Callisto Botanical Rum

Stir well with cracked ice and double strain into chilled coupe. Express orange oil from orange swath and lay or omit as per preference.

The strong flavor of strawberry and allspice are first tempered by the ratio, and then by the inclusion of lemon as a sour. I want that umami-like furan-flavor of strawberry to pair with the botanicals of Callisto. Using a bit of allspice helps focus on the aspect in the berry I am after: The lemon lingers on that focus. While that’s going on, the Callisto is free to showcase its botanical glory.

This focus on supporting and showcasing spirit flavor is integral to understanding tropical exotics. This understanding is also central to original classics such as the improved cocktail, daisy, or other spirit-forward vehicle.

[NOTE: Rum was provided by Callisto Rum]

In the heady days of 2008 when we were all into brown, bitter, and stirred I developed this recipe looking to create a taste reminiscent of San Pellegrino’s Chinotto. I also was inspired at the time to create an anachronistic cocktail that may well have been served to you if the Polynesian Pop craze co-existed during prohibition at a Tiki Speakeasy.

Rumscullion
2 oz aged Demerara rum (El Dorado 12; 15 is better)
1 oz Punt e Mes
1/8 oz falernum
8 drops Herbsaint
2 dashes aromatic bitters

Stir with cracked ice and strain into chilled coupe glass. Garnish with orange swath, expressing the oil on the drink and rim of the glass.

Ingredients:

4 medium to large white grapefruit
2 Cups granulated Sugar (plus a few cups for coating)
1 Cup Water

This recipe is all about technique and steps. There are three large steps: The preparation, the candying, and then the drying. I’ve found a consistent method to get exactly the peel I’m looking for to use in cocktails or straight out of hand. The key aspects are in the hot to cold boil-washing to get most of the water soluble bitter flavors out while making the peels tender, Getting most of the water out before candying, and the hot-cold and soak method of candying. It’s not a bunch of work though a bit tedious and time consuming in the wait. OH YES IT IS WORTH IT.

Preparation:

Cut each clean, rinsed grapefruit longitudinally into four equal quarters.

With a paring knife, gently cut into the middle of the spongy pith, separating the fruit from the peel. Do this for each quarter, no more than an inch or so around the entirety of the piece.

Using your fingers, complete separating each quarter into peel and fruit. Place the fruit aside for later juicing or other use.

Cut each quarter peel into ¾” (2cm) strips diagonally on the bias, following the initial curve of the quarter.

This should yield between 7 and 8 dozen individual peel strips.

Using the paring knife again, holding the knife parallel to your work surface and using a gentle sawing mothing, trim each strip to 3/16” (½cm) thick. The yellow peel and the white pith should be roughly equal thickness.

In a non-reactive pot with plenty of water at a rolling boil, add the peels and stir occasionally.

After five minutes, remove the peels to an ice water bath to cool completely.

Discard the boil water. Strain the peels and repeat this process two more times for a total of three boils, using new water each time. The aroma in this step is heavenly.

On the final strain, gently press each peel to remove excess water still in the pith.

Lay the strips onto layered paper and kitchen towels. Then cover with a reversed layer of kitchen and paper towels. Use a rolling pin to roll and press any remaining water into the towels.

You can roll this up and store in the refrigerator for up to 48 hours for the next step. You can also immediately proceed.

Candying:

Heat two cups of granulated sugar and one cup of water in a deep saucepan until just boiling. Remove from heat and turn off the burner. Carefully stir in the prepared peels into the syrup and bring back to boil at medium-high heat.

Reduce heat to gentle but continuing light simmer. Process for 5 minutes, stirring often. Cover, remove from heat, and let cool to room temperature, which could be a few hours.

Heat peels and syrup again over medium high heat just to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes again stirring occasionally. Cover and remove from heat and leave to set for at least 8 hours. I like to save final candying simmer until bedtime so it can rest overnight. The next day can be the drying day.

Drying:

Remove each strip with tongs or chopsticks, tapping it against the side of the pan to remove excess syrup and lay on wire racks resting on paper towels.

Occasionally turn the strips while letting them air-dry to a matte, extremely sticky yet dry texture. This can be accelerated by using an electric fan to increase air current.

Finally, pour sugar into a wide shallow container and individually drop in the sticky dry peels.

Cover each peel entirely in granulated sugar and place back on drying rack.

Leave these peels to completely air-dry until they reach your desired stiffness.

When completely dried, the candied peel may last indefinitely if packed in a dry and airtight container.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I! Cheers!

Falernum, vanilla, and passionfruit really support the baked good spice feeling. Paired with the molasses notes from the Coruba they really shine. Pineapple upside-down cake in a Tiki Drink? Oh yes.

Pineapple Right-Side Up
¾ oz lime juice
1 oz pineapple juice
½ oz passion fruit syrup
¼ oz falernum
¼ oz vanilla syrup
1 oz Coruba Jamaica rum
1 oz Planteray Stiggins’ Fancy Pineapple rum
dashes bitters

Flash blend with 6oz crushed ice and pour into double rocks (ceramic tiki bucket preferred). Garnish with pineapple ring, maraschino cherry, and a dusting of fresh ground nutmeg.

In 2006, I visited The Hukilau in Florida and attended a seminar put on by Jeff ‘Beachbum’ Berry named “Our Father Donn,” which further inspired me on my own cocktail studies. I had been making drinks from Jeff’s “Grog Log,” “Intoxica,” and “Taboo Table” books since I got my grubby hands on them. I also had been poring over classic cocktail instructional manuals as well as more modern books put out by Chronicle. It didn’t really click in an abstract as it did during this seminar.

During the seminar, Jeff’s example cocktail was inspired by the Mai Kai’s “Mutiny” and “Black Magic” cocktails. Named after the co-founder of the Hukilau, Christie “Tiki Kiliki” White; it was the “Kiliki Cooler.” We then went to the Mai Kai where these drinks would blow me away. When I returned to Portland, I tried my own method and ingredients to the flavors Jeff used in the Kiliki Cooler, I came up with the “Dark Magic.” It was the closest at the time I could come to a Mai Kai Black Magic and a decent drink even now.

This drink would go on to be served at Thatch (which would become Hale Pele) where I worked as well as served at Tiki Kon, which I organized at the time. I even have an older post on this blog. Here it is now as I currently make it in my own home basement Shangri-la, The Monkey Hut.

Dark Magic
1 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz unsweetened pineapple juice
½ oz Coffee Syrup
¼ oz Passion Fruit Syrup
¼ oz Vanilla Syrup
2 oz Coruba Dark Jamaica Rum
a few dashes Aromatic Bitters
8 drops (1/8th oz) Herbsaint
Flash blend with 6oz of crushed ice and pour into small footed snifter. Fill with crushed ice and garnish with lime peel twist.

This mixture of Banana, Cherry, and Pistachio meld together into a very particular Disneyland taste memory experience. It is thematically similar to spumoni (sub chocolate for banana) and I had created a spumoni-based cocktail (Scootiki Sling for the 2012 ‘Scootiki’ event) and knew that the flavor really works (with the native spice notes of a Demerara). This time through, I also chose to make pistachio Orgeat. It was a harmonious outcome.

THE CONCERT FEATURE
¾ oz lemon juice
½ oz pistachio Orgeat
½ oz dark cherry syrup
½ oz Giffard Banane du Brésil
1½ oz Demerara rum
¾ oz Virgin Islands rum

Flash blend all ingredients with 6 ounces of crushed ice and pour into footed sling or snifter. Garnish with mint, lemon swath, and cherry on top.

If you close your eyes as you taste, you can just make out the red and white stripes of the dance pavillion at Carnation Plaza Gardens.

Púkel Punch
½ oz Zwack or other herbal/kräuter liqueur
½ oz lime juice
½ oz passion fruit syrup
½ oz aged Jamaica rum (Appleton Extra)
1½ oz aged Virgin Islands rum (Cruzan)
dash bitters / 8 drops herbsaint

Flash blend with 6oz crushed ice and garnish with lime twist. 

The Púkel-Men or Watchstones:

“At each turn of the road there were great standing stones that had been carved in the likeness of men, huge and clumsy-limbed, squatting cross-legged with their stumpy arms folded on fat bellies. Some in the wearing of the years had lost all features save the dark holes of their eyes that still stared sadly at the passers-by. The Riders hardly glanced at them. The Púkel-men they called them…”

Return of the King, J.R.R. Tolkien

which were Made by the Drúedain people:

“…they were stumpy (some four foot high) but very broad, with heavy buttocks and short thick legs; their wide faces had deep-set eyes with heavy brows, and flat noses, and grew no hair below their eyebrows, except in a few men (who were proud of the distinction) a small tail of black hair in the midst of the chin. Their features were usually impassive, the most mobile being their wide mouths; and the movement of their wary eyes could not be observed save from close at hand for they were so black that the pupils could not be distinguished, but in anger they glowed red.”

Unfinished Tales, J.R.R. Tolkien

Canon Menehune-like people who carved tiki-like stone men with wide mouths, heavy brows, flat noses (as their features were). Cross-over so lawyered.

I present you with a hair of the dog; not the Geas I thought Cu Cullen was fated with. He couldn’t eat the flesh of a dog and this short hoist is a dog in name only for that morning after the night before.  Some Irish hero out there somewhere in my memory was forbidden from being woke from slumber: woe be to those who did. And here (thanks to @tikimama for the name) we have “Don’t Wake Me While I’m Sleeping,” a medieval/tiki twist on the Irish Coffee.

Cead mile failte, MxMo. 

Don’t Wake Me While I’m Sleeping
1 oz Irish whiskey
2 tsp powder douce sugar
5 oz hot black coffee
2 oz powder douce whipped cream

Stir sugar, whiskey and hot coffee in heat proof glass. Carefully add powder dulce sweetened whipped cream, dust with nutmeg and add pineapple spear.

Slainte!