April 19, 2020

Dalgona Coffee Cocktail


Yes, the name of my cocktail is pure click bait - no I am not ashamed. Any other name I could come up with involved 💩 and that would be worse.

Let it be known that I do not like instant coffee in any way, shape or form. It taste like a mix of burned car tires, soy and cigarette ash. I would rather never drink coffee again than drink a cup of instant coffee.

Still those dalgona coffee pictures I kept seeing on Instagram and articles about the abomination from reputable sources intrigued me.  How could I not stick a dollop of the 💩 on top of a cocktail?

So I spend some time trying to figure out what cocktail to mix - perhaps a martini to tie it into the quarantini trend? No, too obvious - then I came across a bunch of gorgeous pink, freshly picked rhubarb on a table in front of a garden near by. At a very reasonable price so I decided to mess with a Kiliki Cooler.

So after cooking the rhubarb with sugar, a little lime - mostly to keep the color - and a bit of star anise I strained of the cordial and turned the mushy solids into a bit of cake for my afternoon coffee.

Then I was ready to mix:
  • 6 cl golden rum - I used Plantation Xaymaca
  • 4,5 cl rhubarb cordial
  • 1,5 cl grapefruit juice
  • 1,5 cl coffee syrup
I shook everything with ice and strained the drink into a glass filled with crushed ice.

Well, actually just before I shook the cocktail I mixed two tablespoons of instant coffee with two tablespoons of sugar end two tablespoons of hot water and using a handmikser whisked it to a consistency of meringue about to be piped.

It did collapse quite quickly after being piped on the cocktail. And how did it taste? Like a pretty mix of burned car tires, soy and cigarette ash - with sugar.

The cocktail however was good and I made another without the coffee  - lovely!



 

February 25, 2020

Don's Beach Planter


The last few days I have missed several important days in the booze universe: Bartender’s Day, Margarita Day and Don the Beachcomber’s birthday.

So for Mardi Gras I mixed them all up.

I mixed Don’s Beach Planter - the recipe rescued by that amazing author and bartender Beachbum Berry - and since it took me more than two days to make the sugar for my King Cake (just a Danish smørkage) I decided I could use it for a sugar rim in honor of Margarita Day and because there is a hint of a Sidecar deeply hidden in Don’s drink.

I mixed:
  • 3 cl aged rhum agricole - I used Savanna 
  • 1,5 cl Jamaican rum - I used Plantation Xaymaca 
  • 0,75 cl Cognac - I used Pierre Ferrand 1840 
  • 3 cl pineapple juice 
  • 1,5 cl lime juice 
  • 1,5 cl passion fruit syrup - I used homemade 
  • Dash Angostura 
  • Big dash absinthe - I used La Clandestine 
I shook everything with ice and poured it unstrained into a glass with a half rim of sugar - garnished with lime and cherry on cocktail pick.

February 21, 2020

Vicious Virgin Number 2


One of the many things I love about tiki is the names af all the cool cocktails.
This one tells a heck of a story on more than one level.

I found it in the brillant Total Tiki app when looking for something new to use a tired grapefruit for. A 1960’s recipe with a surprising mix of tequila and rum and a lovely hue.

  • 2,25 cl Tequila - I used Ocho 
  • 2,25 cl Light Rum - I used Plantation 3 Stars 
  • 1,5 cl Orgeat - I used homemade
  • 0,75 cl Blue Curacao - I used homemade 
  • 2,25 cl Lime juice 
  • 4,5 cl Grapefruit juice 
Shake with ice and strain into cold cocktail glass of a tiki persuasion.

February 9, 2020

Not quite Bananas Foster


While listening to the wind and rain outside I realized it’s Tiki Month!

As luck would have it I had just started my first batch of banana oleum yesterday. It was meant for a bourbon cocktail tasting like Bananas Foster (originally created by @the_cocktailguy I think. )

But I figured that is not nearly tiki enough. Yes there are a few bourbon tikidrinks - but I was hankering for something else.

The recipe was a good starting point. So I mixed:
  • 6 cl golden rum - I used Plantation Xaymaca 1,5 cl Fernet - I used Stork 
  • 3 cl banana oleum - 3 peels with a tenth of their weight worth of sugar left for 24 hours in bag and agitated once in awhile then strained 
  • 1,5 cl lime juice 
  • 1,5 cl cream 
Shake everything with ice and pour unstrained into tiki mug and add pineapple soda.

Garnish with a dolphin and a silver flamingo cocktail pick.

September 22, 2019

Banana Passion Grove Swizzle


Swizzles are fun to both make and drink so my third cocktail to try from Matt Pietrek's book Minimalist Tiki was his own creation Passion Grove Swizzle. Only - I don't really like Falernum so I changed that out for banana liqueur instead.

That however was not the only change I made I noticed after mixing the drink and taking the first satisfying sip - I had also misread the recipe. CocktailWonks original recipe calls for a lightly aged/filtered rum like Plantation 3 Star - but I had grabbed Plantation Xaymaca when gathering the ingredients for the drink.

It did however turn out great so I this is going to be my future recipe:

  • 2 cl white over proof rum - I used Wray and Nephew
  • 4 cl aged/golden rum - I used Plantation Xaymaca
  • 2 cl lemon juice
  • 3 cl pinapple juice
  • 1,5 cl creme de banana - I used Giffard Banane du Bresil
  • 1,5 cl passion fruit syrup - I used homemade

Build the drink in a tall glass add crushed ice and swizzle with a swizzle stick or a long bar spoon - I cut my own swizzle stick from local pine back when I made my first swizzle - they are fun to work with. Top the glass with more crushed ice once the drink is mixed and very cold. Garnish with a fun piece of banana candy - mine was banana and liquorice.

September 17, 2019

Mai Tai Digestif


I am not a Mai Tai puritan even though Trader Vic's 1944 Mai Tai just happens to be my favorite cocktail. And yes, yes I know the original rum used has been lost but the gist of his creation stands.

I'm always up for a clever twist or riff on the drink - one that respects the original but dares to play with the ingredients or the measurements.

I have made a few twist myself over time and think I have gotten away with it.

So when I saw a recipe for a Mai Tai with Jägermeister I was intrigued. It was posted in a Tiki recipe group on Facebook and all the poster wrote of the origins was "at a new Cuban place in Atlanta".

I can google the information that a place called 1 Kept  in Atlanta once served a Mai Tai with Jägermeister but that's all I know.

I wanted to try out a recent birthday gift of a Hario Filter-in Coffee Bottle so I put a handful of fresh lavender and some espresso roast coffee beans in the filter and poured in a mix of Jägermeister, Fernet Branca and Branca Menta - just basically emptying some bottles.

After 24 hours I mixed the drink:

  • 3 cl light rum - I used Havana Club 3 yo
  • 3 cl Jägermeister - I used my infused mix
  • 2 cl lime juice
  • 1,5 cl orgeat - I used home made
  • 1,5 cl curacao - I used Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao
Shake everything with ice and pour unstrained into double old fashioned glass or Mai Tai glass. Garnish with a lime wheel and a sprig of lavender.

I have to admit that the lavender and coffee was hard to find in the mix - so I will let it infuse for another week and try the drink again then.










August 28, 2019

Angostura Colada



Upon my first quick browse through Cocktailwonk's - or Matt Pietrek’s - amazing book Minimalist Tiki I noticed three cocktails straight away to try out first. On closer inspection it turned out I could only make one of them as the cocktail hour came around in my household: The Angostura Colada.

The cocktail is developed by Zac Overman in New York who now co-owns a restaurant/bar in Seattle. 

As anyone who has tasted a Trinidad Sour knows a cocktail with Angostura Bitter as it’s base can work. So I was not apprehensive about the 4,5 cl the recipe called for. I was however a little concerned about the marriage of coconut and Angostura.

I really don’t much like traditional Christmas spices in sweet things and I feared it might be too much. It wasn’t - the lime and pineapple works it’s magic and the drink has a solid medicinal tast that I really like. I will definitely mix it again:
  • 4,5 cl Angostura Bitter
  • 1,5 cl Aged over proof Jamaican rum - I used Plantation OFTD
  • 3 cl Lime juice
  • 6 cl Pineapple juice
  • 4,5 cl creme of Coconut - I used  Coco Real Creme of Coconut
Shake everything with crushed ice and serve in a big glass topping the drink of with fresh ice. Garnish with an orange slice and the prickly bits from a pineapple if you have them. You can grate som nutmeg on top - I did not, so as to not over Christmas spice the drink.

Enjoy - oh, and if your new to Tiki or an expert, get the book - It’s solid. And no this is not an ad - I bought my own copy. It you are in Europe and the price of shipping on Matt’s homepage scares you - you might use the same solution I did and buy it from the Netherlands https://www.zeewijck.nl/en/search/Minimalist+Tiki

August 21, 2019

Raspberry Lava Flow


After my first ever dolphin banana garnish I was not about to let the banana go to waste once the cocktail was gone. So I looked for a drink with banana and came across the tropical Hawaiian drink called Lava Flow.

I liked the look of it and figured raspberry would both taste great and look equally as cool as the strawberries it is traditionally made with.

Easy peasy to make in a blender:
  • 6 cl white rum - I used Plantation 3 Star
  • 12 cl pineapple juice
  • 2 cl coconut cream
  • a small ripe banana
Put everything in a blender with ice and blend until it's smooth as a milk shake. Pour into tall glass and rinse out blender:
  • Handful of frozen raspberries 
  • juice of 1/2 lime
Blend and pour on top of drink - use a wooden skewer to force the flow of raspberries down the inside of the glass.

Serve with a straw.

August 20, 2019

Wandering Dolphin


Good friends brought me back a souvenir from their trek along the Portuguese coast to Santiago de Compostella in Spain: Shell shaped ice coolers. The shell is traditionally the sign of the pilgrim.

I wanted to show them off in a cocktail, and have had an eye on Cocktailwonk's twist on The Banana Life for a while. Not least because I am the last cocktail blogger to try my hand at a banana dolphin. I don't know it the actually invented it at Three Dots and a Dash but they certainly made it popular.

I ended up tweeking the twist, so I gave it a new name:
  • 6 cl light golden rum - I used Damoiseau Gold from Guadeloupe
  • 1,5 cl banana liqueur - I used Tempus Fugit Creme de Banane
  • 1,5 cl blue curacao - I used a homemade
  • 3 cl ruby grapefruit juice
  • 3 cl pineapple juice
  • 1,5 cl passion fruit syrup - I used a homemade
  • 1,5 cl lime juice
Add all ingredients to a shaker and shake with ice, pour unstrained into nice tiki glass and garnish with a banana dolphin. Use blue sugar pearls for eyes and a good cocktail cherry in the mouth.

I added my cocktail coolers on top og the drink mainly to show them off, but they actually kept the ice in the drink from melting and diluting the drink, so they ended up serving a purpose.




August 16, 2019

Spumoni


I have never given much thought to the alcohol content in the cocktails I mix at home. Never divided them into any kinds of weak/strong light/heavy categories. But recently I've spotted and mixed a couple of light aperitivos and been really delighted with them.

I'm sure much of their allure has been amazing photos from Punch Drink's photographer Lizzie Munro but then when I tasted them it was clear that they taste as good, as they look.

A few weeks ago I mixed a Garibaldi - they way it's mixed at Dante in New York.  So simple and so tasty. And it came in handy the other day when a visitor asked for something light.

And then the Spumoni - the way it's mixed at Bar Pisellino in New York caught my eye. I just had to try that one too.

I did not alter the recipe - just follow the link - my only personal stamp was the use of the Spiced Negroni Gin from Three Pillars - that played really well with the rose peppercorn syrup.

And so now I have a really light drink and a quite light drink in my repertorie.