Reverb Crash

When I have an ample supply of fresh passion fruit and fresh white grapefruit on hand, one of my favorite ways to deploy those flavors is in a Reverb Crash. The Reverb Crash is a cocktail by Ran Mosessco, co-founder of the Israeli surf group The Astroglides and founder of San Diego's surf group The Sand Devils. Oh and he's an all-around nice guy (seriously, just ask around). In 2003, Tiki Central conducted a tiki drink contest (keep in mind, this is 2003 and "craft cocktails" wasn't yet the loaded phrase it is in 2016). Ran's cocktail, the Reverb Crash, came out victorious, and for good reason.

The Reverb Crash makes full use of grapefruit and passion fruit combined with a prototypical tiki-inspired rum-blend backing. There's a touch of orgeat to compliment the sweet of the passion fruit (and orgeat lends a tiki element) and some lime to amp up the sour. That said, it's the fresh white grapefruit that makes this cocktail sing since it calls for a full 4 ounces of the stuff. The original recipe doesn't specify white or red grapefruit juice and I've made both. I happen to prefer the white grapefruit juice for the extra bit of sour. Mix one up, put some surf music on the turntable, and kick the reverb.

Reverb Crash (gently modified)

3/4 oz fresh lime juice
4 oz fresh white grapefruit juice
1 1/2 oz passion fruit syrup
1/2 oz orgeat
1 1/2 oz dark Jamaican rum (Coruba)
1 1/4 oz light Virgin Islands rum (Plantation 3 star)

Combine in a shaker tin with ice. Pour unstrained into a tiki mug and garnish with a mint sprig or two.

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 It was unpublished until Jeff "Beachbum" Berry put it in 2014s Potions of the Caribbean.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.