Old Appleton 12

Got to try some of this 1980s vintage Appleton 12 recently. Thanks so much to local tikiphile Kyle Graham for sharing a little pour.

You know what it tastes like? It tastes like Appleton 12.

I don’t say that to sound flippant, but to say that the taste of Appleton 12 hasn’t changed a whole lot for a long, long time. This old one tasted a little richer, and had a little bit of a longer finish. But honestly it was very close to what you get today and the last three vintages that I have in stock at home. So easy to drink but still very flavorful. It’s my favorite rum.

Peynkiller by John Peterson

Yes, it is spelled correctly.

Do you like Peychaud’s Bitters and coconut and high proof rum? Then you will love this off-menu AngoColada riff by Forbidden Island’s John Peterson that is full of tropical flavors.

It’s really great to try something new and when it is so well done.

John posted the recipe in the Tiki Recipes Facebook Group.

Peynkiller
1.5 Peychaud’s bitters
1.0 pineapple juice
.75 lime juice
0.5 Rum Fire
0.5 Pierre Fernand Dry Curacao
0.5 Coco Lopez
.25 orgeat (homemade)
Flash blend with crushed ice and a couple agitator cubes. Open pour into your vessel of choice. Garnish with ground cinnamon + nutmeg, as well as a sprig of mint.

Blue Mai Tai

I did a revised version of my Blue Hawai-Tai cocktail for a Mai Tai contest at a party this weekend. I thought I’d emulate the Mai Tai Festival they do every (non-COVID) year in Kona, where the winning Mai Tai never looks like a 1944. Always something new, different, or fancy. So I did a “more of a Mai Tai” version of the Blue Hawai-Tai by adding Lime juice and only using Orgeat as the sweetener. No fancy foam topping, though.

Blue Mai Tai
½ oz Lime Juice
½ oz Lemon Juice
1 oz Latitude 29 Orgeat
½ oz Giffard Blue Curacao
1½ oz Rum Fire Overproof Jamaican Rum
½ oz Probitas light rum
Garnish with Mint

I came in second in the contest. The winning entry was quite delicious in a more traditional format with Denizen Merchant’s Reserve and Plantation Dark. So, I can’t fault the judges at all. It was great. But, I do know a few of the judges really liked this version, so that was pretty satisfying.

DIY Kon-Tiki Cocktail List Completion

Thanks to Chris Day for making me a Virgin’s Downfall at The Kon-Tiki the other night. This Missionary’s Downfall riff features Mezcal, which is why I always avoided it. But, as a matter of fact, it was delicious! Minty and fresh with some complex flavors that truly worked together.

Which means I’ve now sampled all the cocktails on Kon-Tiki’s third menu revision (first introduced in fall 2019), as tracked by the handmade checklist card I printed out over a year ago. I’m looking forward to the new menu that surely is coming soon.

The Kon-Tiki and their sister properties Palmetto and The Kon-Tiki Room announced yesterday that they are going to require patrons to be vaccinated (or have a negative test) starting in August. As of this week you have be vaxxed to sit at the bar, which is what I did and had a great time talking to Jeff Hall and some other barflies. And you can bet that this policy is going to make me more comfortable patronizing these places, as well as being safer for the staff.

It is going to need to start to get a lot more difficult for non-vaxxed folks to have access to nice things, or we’re going to have to do another round of shutdown and business closures.

Mai Tai Appears on Oakland Athletics Cap

A very curious design for this new City Sky Blue Undervisor 59FIFTY hat from New Era and available at Lids.

Firstly, this is an OAKLAND cap, but the bridge is the Golden Gate Bridge located in San Francisco. Not exactly the best way to win over the Oaktown locals.

But turn the cap around and there’s a tropical drink. Not exactly the first thing you typically connect to baseball. But, apparently, this is exactly what you think it is – it’s a tribute to Oakland by featuring the Mai Tai that was invented there in 1944.

The rainbow of colors won’t win over craft cocktail fans, but I’m willing to give New Era a break on this point, if only to make the cocktail design more interesting to look at. At least it features an actual old fashioned glass rather than a hurricane glass.

Thanks to Carlos for the tip on this curious new baseball cap.