Category: Recipe

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The Shingle Stain Cocktail from Trader Vic’s

Trader Vic’s Emeryville has a special retro menu for the summer, including vintage cocktails and food from decades past. One cult classic is the Shingle Stain which is named due to its red color. Also notable is the paper drink topper first employed by Trader Vic’s in the 1960s (see menu from the Beverly Hills location below). I’m not a roofer by trade but I’m really not sure what to think of the illustration featuring a man with his behind hanging out and a woman on the other side who’s lost her bikini top. Times have changed.

Nevertheless, you can order this juicy cocktail today in Emeryville including the topper that you can take home as a souvenir. This was the second version of the cocktail, first published in Trader Vic’s Bartender’s Guide Revised and significantly different from the original published in Trader Vic’s Book of Food & Drink.

From the Beverly Hills Trader Vic’s menu, 1960s

Shingle Stain (1946)
Half a Lime *
1 oz Dark Jamaica Rum (Red Heart or Myers’s)
½ oz St. James Rhum
¼ oz Pimento Dram
Dash of Pomegranate Syrup (Grenadine) *
Shake with cracked ice and pour over cracked ice in a 12 oz chimney glass
* Vic said that the juice of one lime is equivalent to one ounce and “dash” of this style of ingredient equaled a quarter ounce.

The Pimento Dram and Grenadine provide a tart taste but pleasant taste not unlike Cranberry, which likely led to the second version of the cocktail.

1946 Shingle Stain at home

Shingle Stain (1972)
Juice of one Lime
2 dash Angostura Bitters
¼ oz Grenadine
1½ oz Cranberry Juice
½ oz Pineapple Juice
2 oz Trader Vic’s Mai Tai Rum
Shake with ice cubes and pour into a ten-pin pilsner glass. Decorate with fresh mint.

Trader Vic’s Mai Tai Rum was likely was a bold and pungent rum blend. Its use in the Shingle Stain tells me that you need that boldness to compete with all the juices and notably the strong flavors of Cranberry Juice. In Emeryville they use Trader Vic’s Royal Amber Rum. While I do like this rum in the Mai Tai it does get a little lost in the Shingle Stain with all the other ingredients. I’d recommend using an aged Jamaica rum for this cocktail.

Frame print at Trader Vic’s Emeryville
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Retro Cocktails at Trader Vic’s Emeryville

Had sort of an impromptu visit to Trader Vic’s Emeryville on Thursday night to sample some of the cocktails from their special vintage food and cocktail menu that’s been on special this summer. We’ll cover the Shingle Stain in a separate post, but we enjoyed trying two other vintage items: the Potwasher and the Bamboo Punch.

The Potwasher was the signature cocktail for the short-lived 1979 spin-off restaurant Mama Gruber’s Fishhouse, and after closing was on the Señor Pico menu. The description says this contains Dark Rum and Sloe Gin, Pineapple, Spiked with Grog Mix. I thought the mouthfeel and balance of this cocktail was pretty good, and you’re getting a lot of rich flavor from the Vic’s Grog Mix. I wasn’t able to find the recipe but we do have a photo of the original signature mug.

Potwasher

The Bamboo Punch dates back to at least the 1960s and also appeared in the Trader Vic’s Bartender’s Guide Revised. This didn’t really have a ton of depth to me, and needed a little more sugar to balance the tart and bitter elements.

Bamboo Punch (1972)
Juice of one Lime *
2 dash Peychaud’s Bitters
½ oz Passion Fruit Nectar
1 dash Trader Vic’s Rock Candy Syrup *
1 oz Trader Vic’s Puerto Rican Rum
1¼ oz Trader Vic’s Mai Tai Rum
* Vic said that the juice of one lime is equivalent to one ounce. Vic later said that “dash” of this style of ingredient equalled a quarter ounce.

At the time of publication, the Trader Vic’s Mai Tai Rum was a blend of 70% Jamaica rum, 20% Martinique, and 10% Virgin Island rum. It likely was a bold and pungent rum blend, designed for the Mai Tai. In Emeryville they’re using Trader Vic’s Royal Amber Rum. I’d recommend using an aged Jamaica rum for this cocktail to better balance against the light Puerto Rican rum.

Lava Haze and Bamboo Punch

The modern cocktails recently added to the cocktail menu at Vic’s address contemporary sensibilities for more assertive flavors, such as the smoked pineapple in Mrs. Mai Tai’s Lava Haze, and serve as a counterpart to these vintage drinks when customers liked things a little lighter.

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Liquid Alchemist Falernum Syrup

New from craft cocktail syrup company Liquid Alchemist is their new Falernum syrup. This syrup is a blend of almond, ginger, lime, and cloves and most certainly is way more assertive than any other Falernum I’ve tried. This is a rich syrup and adds a lot more oomph to cocktails, perhaps just on the edge of being too spicy. Nonetheless I really liked the ginger and clove notes in the Liquid Alchemist Falernum.

Falernum is an interesting category because there are liqueurs such as market leader John D. Taylor Falernum, but also non-alcoholic syrups like this one. I remember Jeff “Beachbum” Berry saying that the syrups are twice as flavorful as the liqueurs, so you can use half as much for the same amount of flavor. I agree with this idea, and I recently purchased Maggie’s Farm Falernum Liqueur and didn’t find it nearly as flavorful as syrup-based Falernums.

The bottle includes a recipe for a Saturn, a notable and popular cocktail that features Falernum. The recipe included increase the ratio of Gin and completely omits Orgeat. Compared to a Saturn made with Maggie’s Farm, I definitely preferred the one made with Liquid Alchemist.

Liquid Alchemist Saturn
2 oz Gin
½ oz Liquid Alchemist Falernum
½ oz Passion Fruit Syrup
½ oz Lime Juice

I found this Saturn to be lacking the body that the Orgeat provides in the cocktail, so while I do recommend Liquid Alchemist Falernum I would suggest sticking to the classic recipe where this Falernum plays well with the bold flavors of Passion Fruit Syrup.

I also tried this Falernum in a Planter’s Punch to good effect. When I tried Liquid Alchemist Falernum in a Corn ‘n Oil it was spicy enough that you wouldn’t need to add Angostura Bitters. A little goes a long way.

The sample was provided by Liquid Alchemist, but this is not a sponsored post.

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The Penultimate Mai Tai

Derek from the Make & Drink YouTube channel asked me to come up with a two-rum Mai Tai as simpler version of our four-rum Ultimate Mai Tai. This was actually harder than you’d think, and I decided that using Appleton 12 and Smith & Cross from the Ultimate Mai Tai blend was sort of a cop out (though those two rums are fabulous in a Mai Tai). I ended up going with some newer rum expressions that are among my favorites.

The Penultimate Mai Tai by Kevin Crossman
1 oz Lime Juice
½ oz Latitude 29 Orgeat
¼ oz Demerara Syrup
½ oz Quality Orange Curacao
1½ oz Worthy Park 109 Jamaica Rum
½ oz Kuleana Rum Works Hawaiian Rum Agricole
Shake with ice and garnish with lime and mint.

The Worthy Park is a boozy and flavorful dark rum, similar in style to the punch rums from the 1950s. There is a little bit of the “funk” common to many Jamaica rums but there’s also a charred backbone as well. This rum is becoming more widely available and there’s literally nothing like it on the market today. Subbing an 80 proof dark Jamaica rum like Coruba or Myers’s isn’t going to provide the same results.

There’s a tradition of using Rhum Agricole in Mai Tais, so I thought I’d include a cane juice-based rum. My favorite in this style are the cane rums from Hawaii, which aren’t as grassy as those from Martinique but also have more flavor than some of the delicate Cachacas from Brazil. If you can’t find Kuleana or KōHana, then Copalli from Belize is a good sub.

Thanks to Derek for having me back on the channel to talk about Mai Tais once again. Look for a super interesting collaboration coming soon.

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Kamala Mai Tai

Re-remembering the family background of presumptive Democratic nominee Vice-President Kamala Harris made me think of making a tribute recipe for this Oakland native based on the Mai Tai, Oakland’s most famous cocktail. Harris’ parents are from Jamaica and India, so the rum ratios for a Mai Tai naturally fell into place.

Kamala Mai Tai by Kevin Crossman
1 oz Lime Juice
½ oz Orgeat
¼ oz Demerara Syrup
½ oz Orange Curacao
1 oz Oakland Rum (Wright & Brown)
½ oz Indian Rum (Amrut Two Indies)
½ oz Jamaica Rum (Worthy Park 109)

This was a really good Mai Tai, with the Jamaica rum presenting itself up front and a long finish with the barrel notes from the aged Wright & Brown from Oakland. I know most folks don’t have this rum, but if you want it to be authentic it has to come from Oakland.

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Kriss’ Fresh Custom Mai Tai at Oakland’s Kon-Tiki

This was a definite highlight of my visit to Kon-Tiki this week. Bartender Kriss Cucuy made a Mai Tai with a custom and interesting rum blend that included Hamilton Jamaican Pot Still Blonde, Copalli White cane juice rum from Belize, Ak Zanj aged rum from Haiti, and Alma Finca orange liqueur from Mexico. The fresh flavors from the Copalli cane juice rum really worked with the aged rums from Haiti and Jamaica.

I asked Kriss if this blend had a name and maybe he’s got one now but if he’s behind the stick at The Kon-Tiki just ask nicely for this amazing blend and you’ll have a fab Mai Tai that’s among my top of 2024.

Edit: Kriss says this is called “Brujo’s Mai Tai”.

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Blue Mai Tai for July 4th

There were a couple parties last night that I could have attended but wasn’t feeling great. All the fireworks going off in our neighborhood were disturbing, including some that went off right over our house thanks to neighbors. I really hate the 4th of July.

The Mai Tai was the consolation prize.

Blue Mai Tai
1 oz Lime Juice
½ oz Orgeat (Latitude 29)
¼ oz Simple Syrup
½ oz Giffard Blue Curacao
½ oz Rum Fire Overproof Jamaica Rum
1 oz Leblon Cachaça
Shake with crushed ice and garnish with mint.

Normally I make this with the overproof as the featured spirit, but wanted to see if the more savory Cachaça flavors would come through in this format and they surely did. Still very flavorful and leaning sweet (omit the Simple to reduce sweetness).