This was the one drink on Dr. Funk‘s special February cocktail menu that I didn’t try, so decided to give it a spin in between rum tastings.
Chance Encounter includes strawberry-infused cachaça, Chinese grain spirit, vermouth, a sparkling apéritif, and lemon juice. Thanks to the bubbles this does drink a little lighter in body, with that vermouth and infused cachaça providing some atypical flavors for San Jose’s best tiki bar.
I thought it was pretty good, meaning that this themed menu is among the best that Dr. Funk has done over the past 18 months. You can catch Fortune X Romance at Dr. Funk now through February 22.
This was a pretty good pairing the other night when I went to Dr. Funk to keep working on my Rum Asylum rum list.
Clairin Communal is a really great four different clairins from small distilleries in the municipalities of Cavaillon, Baradères, Pignon, and Saint-Michel-de-l’Attalaye. Issued at a very approachable 43% ABV, the robust sugar cane juice distillate isn’t as grassy as some “agricole” style rums.
Meanwhile Angostura rum has a range of rum expressions, many of which contain added sugar. Angostura 1919 here didn’t strike me as sweet as a I remember and is perhaps dryer than some of the others from the range. I believe this particular expression may be discontinued as I don’t see it on the Ango website.
Dr. Funk has a quarterly Rum Asylum meet-up and the next one is March 22. These events aren’t ticketed (at least not yet) and feature a rum brand with samples, education, and usually a lower cost cocktail made with one of the expressions. I expect I’ll complete Level II of the Rum Asylum by the time of this next event.
We’ve been doing this deep dive into Mai Tais thing for a while now and I do feel it is important to challenge assumptions and revisit past experiences to see if products or the palate has changed over the years.
When I saw a new label on this bottle of Small Hand Foods Orgeat it gave me the opportunity to try this orgeat again. Small Hand has a great reputation for bottled cocktail syrups and I also am a strong advocate of their bottled ready to drink Mai Tai. But in the past I haven’t liked the taste of this orgeat nor the way it separates, requiring shaking.
Well, folks, for better or worse the taste of this orgeat has not changed. I personally find it to lean far too much into a marzipan direction, so much that I can most definitely taste it in a Mai Tai. It isn’t my thing but might be yours, though, and I’ll look forward to trying this again in another few years. In the meantime, I’ll continue to use Small Hand’s tangy and delicious and tangy Passion Fruit Syrup that’s wonderful.
We always enjoy visits to Wilfred’s Lounge in downtown Napa, which is still doing a great job offering a Hawaiian-leaning food menu and a variety of exotic cocktails. This time we feasted on appetizers including a pretty nice Pupu Sampler Platter along with Spam fries and Spam musubi. The standout here were the Spam fries, perfectly fried and seasoned – and the salmon rangoon in the sampler platter had a nice spicy bite to them as well.
For drinks, Mrs. Mai Tai went with the Maximum Aloha which is still made to original specs and contains so many great flavors – not as sweet as you’d think, either. It is still the best cocktail here, so if you’ve never had this cocktail it is definitely worth the trip.
I perused the Mai Tai menu and decided to try something new by ordering the San Fransokyo. It’s quite a stretch to call this a “Mai Tai” considering it doesn’t have any original Mai Tai ingredients, but it has a type of orgeat so I suppose that’s fine. This black cocktail has some components I usually don’t have, including shochu, sake, cachaca, pisco, Cherry Heering, black sesame orgeat, shiso, and lemon. This is really sesame forward, and found it to be pretty enjoyable too. Maybe not in my regular rotation but definitely glad I tried it.
Wilfred’s Lounge also features great views of the Napa River, with fire-pit lounge seating upstairs that is even better when it’s warmer.
We took a trek up to Napa to view the Lighted Art Festival, with displays across the charming downtown. We also made sure to visit our favorite cocktail joint and had a couple rounds with local friends. While we’ve patronized The Fink several times, during this visit we really got to see how they handled a contrasting set of cocktails, all of which were made with the high standards they’re known for.
Let’s get the easy stuff out of the way; yes, The Fink’s OG Mai Tai is still excellent and the best one I’ve had all year. We even suggested this to our friend who’d only ever had island Mai Tais and she was completely blown away by the nutty flavors from The Fink’s house-made orgeat. Also excellent was the tiki cult favorite Reverb Crash that features zesty white grapefruit, demonstrating once again that tropical drinks are a strength here.
We also saw that The Fink does well with other cocktail styles including an off menu Gin Daisy that was a special order from our friend. The Candy Apple Sour, New York Sour, and Mocha Milk Punch were all perfectly balanced and highlighted diverse flavors. The Fink really proved that they can do it all.
Our favorite Livermore cocktail spot has a New Orleans inspired menu to celebrate Mardi Gras, available now through February 13. Nightcaps at Rosetta is the evening persona of Rosetta Roasting and trades coffee for a cocktail focus.
The NOLA menu is pretty vast with numerous favorites such as the Sazerac, Bourbon Street Julep, and Voodoo Grog. There are also some food options including king cake that compliments Rosetta’s always stellar cake lineup. We skipped the alligator flatbread and went with the beignets that are served either with chocolate or a raspberry cream dipping sauce and these were really great.
Hurricane
On the cocktail side I went with the Hurricane which leans a little more juicy and orange-forward than on the passionfruit side, with a good amount of rum but not so much that it’ll kill you. I found it to be delightfully balanced with plenty of flavor, with a lighter and less syrupy body. Mrs. Mai Tai had the Marie Laveau which is somewhat like an Espresso Martini but with bolder coffee flavors that’ll really appeal to those who love a bold, dark roast.
Marie Laveau
Be sure to check out the Mardi Gras menu while you can, and be prepared for a Valentine’s Day menu at Nightcaps for the 14th.
Valentines meets Lunar New Year at Dr. Funk in downtown San Jose, featuring themed lighting and decor, a limited edition cocktail menu, and specialty garnishes. The red theme of Fortune X Romance works pretty well as neither holiday overshadows the other.
We tried four of the five drinks on the menu, and we didn’t try the specialty desert this time. But we did enjoy most of the drinks and overall this was a strong selection of options that worked well with the well-executed theme.
Jaded Lover Works a great companion to the jade tiles throughout the venue, but only if you’re a pandan fan since that’s the predominant ingredient. We didn’t really taste the wine float, but the 151 rum helps pack a punch.
Moonlit Blossom It’s a Painkiller with blackberry added, served with a sparkler that’s sure to impress. We couldn’t really taste the Jamaican rum but overall this cocktail was a big hit at our table. Not as sweet as you might expect.
Red Thread If cherries are your thing, this is the drink to get. That OFTD and Jamaican rum does push through and this cocktail has a great mouthfeel and a lollypop chaser if you feel it isn’t sweet enough. Recommended.
Smoke & Silk The mezcal isn’t overpowering but we all felt this drink tasted a little flat and thin. The flavor was there but it needed “more” to compete with the other great drinks we tried.
The fun garnishes really make this speciality cocktail menu and theme be cohesive. This ranks among the best pop-ups that Dr. Funk has done – check it now through February 22.
