Category: Recipe

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Planter’s Punch with Rum-Bar Gold

Mrs. Mai Tai wanted to get Malaysian and Thai cuisine from Banana Leaf in Milpitas, so we ordered take-out and it was quite fab. We love the Roti and my Satay Chicken and Beef was amazing.

I paired it with the the Smuggler’s Cove version of a Planter’s Punch. The recipe was a suggestion by Trader Jay who recommended using Rum-Bar Gold as the featured spirit. It’s a great recipe and a good use for this rum.

Planter’s Punch (Smuggler’s Cove)
1 oz Lime Juice
¾ oz Demerara Syrup
¼ oz Allspice Dram
3 oz Jamaican Rum (Rum-Bar Gold)
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
Flash blend or shake with ice.
 
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Birthday Cocktail Delivery

Happy Birthday to our friend Kristi. I made two double-sized cocktails for her to share with family.

The Mello Pomelo is a Hemingway Daiquiri riff that I came up with and features Pomelo juice. The single-serving recipe is:

Mello Pomelo
1 oz Pomello Juice
¼ oz Grenadine
½ tsp Don’s Spices no.2 (Pimento Dram + Vanilla Syrup)
½ oz Cointreau
¼ oz Maraschino Liqueur
2 oz Aged White Rum (Denizen 3)
Shake with ice and serve in a coupe

The Jungle Jetsetter is a tangy cocktail developed by Tikiyaki Orchestra and features Maraschino Cherry Juice.

Jungle Jetsetter
1½ oz Lime Juice
½ oz Pineapple Juice
½ oz Orgeat
¾ oz Maraschino Cherry Juice
2 oz Coconut Rum (I used Plantation 20th Anniversary as a sub)
Shake with ice and serve over crushed ice

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Blood of the Irish

You were expecting a green cocktail today? We decided to go in a different direction with this Eastern Sour riff featuring Blood Orange juice and Irish Whiskey. It is so easy to drink, you’ll forget all about looking for leprechauns and clovers.

Blood of the Irish
2½ oz Blood Orange Juice
1 oz Lemon Juice
½ oz Orgeat
¼ oz Demerara Syrup
2 oz Jameson Irish Whiskey
Shake with crushed ice

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Jungle Bird (Modified)

No “Ultimate” prefix for this recipe, but since I’ve been enjoying bitter liqueurs more lately I thought I’d revisit this classic that’s heavy on the bitter liqueur, Campari. I’m modifying the recipe to cut back a little on the Campari and quite a bit on the Pineapple Juice. This suits me more than the standard recipe.

Jungle Bird
½ oz Lime Juice (heavy pour)
2 oz Pineapple Juice
½ oz Simple Syrup (heavy pour)
½ oz Campari
1½ oz Jamaican Rum Blend
Shake with ice.

The rum blend here is a Frankenstein blend with Appleton 12, Smith & Cross, and Hamilton Pot Still Black.

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Painkiller Experiment

I’m always in the mood for a good recipe shootout/taste test, and Friday night seems like a great time for Painkillers.

I like a Painkiller from time to time, and Mrs. Mai Tai enjoys them frequently along with other coconut-forward cocktails. We both love the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Rum at Trader Sam’s which is basically a Painkiller.

Most recipes I’ve seen call for 4 oz of Pineapple Juice, but neither of us thought it should be that much forward with the Pineapple Juice, so we didn’t attempt that one. Instead, I made three variants with different ratios of Pineapple and Orange Juice.

All Painkillers feature the following:
1½ oz Hamilton 86 Demerara Rum
1 oz Lemon Hart 1804 Demerara Rum
1 oz Coconut Creme (Coco Real)

Version 1: left
3 oz Pineapple Juice
1 oz Orange Juice
Notice the froth on top

Version 2: center
1½ oz Pineapple Juice
1½ oz Orange Juice

Version 3: right
1 oz Pineapple Juice
2 oz Orange Juice



Verdict:
I was quite sure I wouldn’t like the first version with the most Pineapple Juice but it actually was my favorite. Meanwhile, Mrs. Mai Tai preferred the version with a higher amount of Orange Juice. So, I guess I’ll have both recipes on hand.

Ultimate Painkiller
1½ oz Hamilton 86 Demerara Rum
1 oz Lemon Hart 1804 Demerara Rum
1 oz Coconut Creme (Coco Real)
3 oz Pineapple Juice
1 oz Orange Juice

Mrs Mai Tai’s Painkiller
1½ oz Hamilton 86 Demerara Rum
1 oz Lemon Hart 1804 Demerara Rum
1 oz Coconut Creme (Coco Real)
1 oz Pineapple Juice
2 oz Orange Juice

Glassware by The Kon-Tiki in Oakland

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Grapefruit Mai Tai

Had some extra Grapefruit juice so I decided to see if replacing the Lime juice in a Mai Tai would make a difference.

1 oz Grapefruit Juice
½ oz Orgeat (Latitude 29)
¼ oz Demerara Syrup (BG Reynolds)
½ oz Orange Curacao (Clement Creole Shrubb)
½ oz Wray & Nephew Overproof
¼ oz White Martinique Rhum
2 oz Spanish-style rum blend

The crazy mix of rums is because I’ve been pouring a lot of rums from Spanish-speaking countries into an “infinity bottle” after sampling them for the Forbidden Island rum list. You know the types of rum – solera aged, added sugar, column still mostly. Not really my favorite style of rum, so I’ve been putting them in a bottle and using them as generic lightly-aged column still rum (which means, my friends, that I’m still actually drink all 100 of those rums). Additionally, I did also recently add a bit of very grassy Martinique rhum to the infinity bottle. It actually gave this rum a bit of needed kick. The Wray Overproof was added specifically for this cocktail to just amp things up a bit.

Overall, this isn’t bad at all. You can definitely taste a lack of the brightness that Lime juice normally provides, and I’m sure I’d pick correctly in a blind taste test. But it doesn’t taste bad.

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Mia Cravatta

This is a very tasty Mai Tai riff from Nathan Robinson (@maitaioneon) who is constantly posting interesting recipes. This one uses Blood Orange Juice, timely since they are in season. Give it a try if you have the ingredients.

MIA CRAVATTA
1 oz Light rum
1 oz Rhum agricole blanc
.5 oz Campari
.5 oz Orgeat
1 oz Blood orange juice
.5 oz Lime juice
Shake with ice.
Recipe by Nathan Robinson, based on Alex Sansone

I didn’t have Campari so I used Aperol instead (which is fine since I like it sweeter anyway). For the rums I used Denizen 3 and Clement Premiere Canne.