The Caribbean

The Caribbean is a recipe dating back to Bob Esmino's time as bar manager for the Kon Tiki in the 1960s. It was unpublished until Jeff "Beachbum" Berry put it in 2014s Potions of the Caribbean. It was a recipe I've been intrigued by but hadn't made until now because I rarely have Coca-Cola on hand. Determined to actually try this drink, I brought home a bottle of "Mexi-Coke" (Coca-Cola produced in Mexico, meaning the high fructose corn syrup is replaced with cane sugar and the whole bit is put in a glass bottle - sorta like the way Coke actually existed in the US once upon a time).

In any case, this was as described: a tiki-fied Cuba Libre. In addition to the dark rum, Coke, and lime, there was the addition of simple syrup, ginger syrup, bitters, and Pernod. A complicated rum and coke, if you will. In its original form, with dark Jamaican rum and gold Puerto Rican rum, I found it to be multi-dimensional but a bit in the sweet side. It certainly seemed like the sort of thing that could benefit from a modified rum base. So out with the Coruba and in with Hamilton Black Jamaican rum and its distinctive funk. Sure enough the sweetness was cut, though the strong profile of the Hamilton Jamaican may have swung the pendulum too far in the opposite direction as it overpowered the ginger syrup. I had cut the sweetness, but also the depth.

I don't think this is a drink that would make its way into my regular rotation, but it is something I would deploy when a guest asks for a rum and Coke.

A 4:1:1 daiquiri

Following up on this post, I'm revisiting the 4:1:1 daiquiri - in this case 2 ounces of white rum (Denizen), 0.5 ounces of fresh lime juice, and 0.5 ounces of simple syrup. I might be coming around to this line of thinking, as the rum is more clearly highlighted than with my usual 4:2:1. Depending on the quality of the rum base, 4:1:1 may be the way to go. I'll probably have to run some more experiments to be sure...

Funky Hurricane

I wasn't paying much attention as the day started, but apparently it was Mardi Gras today. I don't know a lot about Mardi Gras, other than associating it with New Orleans. Continuing my ignorance, I've never been to New Orleans. Someday I'll have a chance to go and visit Beachbum Berry's Latitude 29 and attend Tales of the Cocktail, not to mention see the rest of that legendary city. Of course New Orleans has its share of cocktails associated with it and one of the more notorious of those cocktails is the Hurricane. 

The Hurricane is reportedly a creation of Pat O'Brien. In it's original formulation, it's not exactly a nuanced cocktail. It's a lot of rum and a lot of juice. The juices themselves vary (maybe some orange or lemon juice, plus something tropical and/or something red), but it's not a particularly subtle drink. The legend is that O'Brien created it as a way to offload the rum he had to buy from his liquor distributors in order to keep the scotch and other whiskeys flowing into his bar.

A few years ago, when Smith & Cross Jamaican rum hit the market, Tiare from A Mountain of Crushed Ice started publishing various recipes featuring that lovely Jamaican rum. Her reinterpretation of a Hurricane using Smith & Cross added a lot of depth to the cocktail while still packing a punch that you'd expect from a Hurricane. I found it a recipe worth coming back to again and again. And so when I was reminded today was Mardi Gras - well that just seemed like a fine reason to reach for my hurricane glass and the bottle of Smith & Cross.

Get the recipe from A Mountain of Crushed Ice.