Category: Recipe

Posted on

Pusser’s Rum Happy Hour

Had a great time yesterday watching Suzanne Long deliver a fabulous Instagram Live rum presentation for Pusser’s Rum.

Suzanne is such a pro at these things, and always know how to welcome an audience. Several times she stopped the presentation to welcome those who had just joined and level set in her presentation about rum basics, the tradition of British Navy Rum, and then more about Pusser’s Rum. Their new 15 year expression contains no sugar and is wonderful.

The cocktail uses the Pusser’s Gunpowder Proof rum, which I find to be fabulous. Pretty affordable for what you get, it is delicious in cocktails such as Suzanne’s Gunpowder Swizzle. If you don’t have this rum, you can fake it by using 1.5 oz of Pusser’s Rum (Blue Label) and .5 oz of a 151 Demerara rum.

Posted on

Halekulani Mai Tai

The Mai Tai served at House without a Key, Halekulani Hotel in Waikiki
⅓ oz Orgeat
⅓ oz Orange Curacao (Cointreau)
⅓ oz Rock Candy Syrup
1 ¼ oz Lime Juice
¾ oz Bacardi Select/Black Rum
¾ oz Bacardi Gold Rum
Float ½ oz Lemon Hart 151 Rum

This looks like a typical Island Mai Tai but is closer to an original 1944 Mai Tai, and was easily our favorite in Waikiki. (Halekulani website)

Posted on

I Ran Out of Gin!

This was a development I never saw coming. While I’ve always been a rum guy I would never guessed that I’d drain my one long bottle of Gin long before I’d drain the lone Vodka and Tequila bottles. But I have been enjoying a lot of Gin drinks lately, including the Saturn.

This was posted a couple weeks ago but I did another run and I’m still digging it. Something a little different but still tiki if you ask me.

Innovation Cocktail by Kevin Crossman
1 ounce Passionfruit Syrup
½ ounce Orgeat
½ ounce Blue Curacao Liqueur
2 ounces London Dry Gin (I used Beefeater)

Shake with ice cubes and strain into a coupe glass or wine glass.

Innovation Cocktail
Posted on

Lemon Juice in a Mai Tai?

It isn’t a state secret that Trader Vic’s often uses lemon juice in Mai Tais made with the Mai Tai Concentrate. The taste test is comparing a Mai Tai made only with Lime Juice and one made with Lemon and Lime.

¾ oz Lemon Juice (or Lime)
¾ oz Mai Tai Concentrate Mix
2 oz Royal Amber Rum
Shake with crushed ice and pour into glass
Squeeze juice of ¼ Lime Wedge
Garnish with wedge and mint.

Overall this was pretty close but the one with Lemon Juice indeed had a brighter overall taste and just a tad more balanced.

This tasted just like the “Trader Vic’s Mai Tai” from the restaurants.

Posted on

Innovation Cocktail

We’re having Spirit Week at my company, Juniper Networks. So I submitted this for a Happy Hour event on Friday.

For those looking for something to prepare for Happy Hour on Friday, here’s an original cocktail with a uniquely Juniper theme. The yellow passion fruit syrup and the blue curacao liqueur should give you something close to Juniper Green, without the use of food coloring. The name is a play on words for a famous Gin-based cocktail, the Aviation.

This uses ingredients you can find in many mainstream liquor warehouse stores (e.g. BevMo). Of course the spirit (for Spirit Week!) has to be a juniper-forward Gin.

Innovation Cocktail by Kevin Crossman
1 ounce Passion fruit Syrup (or, passion fruit puree, such as Finest Call)
½ ounce Orgeat (or Almond Syrup, such as Toriani)
½ ounce Blue Curacao Liqueur
2 ounces London Dry Gin (I used Beefeater)

Shake with ice cubes and strain into a coupe glass or wine glass.

Cheers!

Innovation Cocktail
Posted on

Tweaked Mai Tai Concentrate Recipe

I took another run at a Mai Tai made with the newly available (once-in-a-lifetime) Trader Vic’s Mai Tai Concentrate. This “industrial strength” syrup is used in place of the Orgeat and Curacao and is used in the Trader Vic’s restaurants for certain cocktails.

The bottle calls for ¾ oz of the Concentrate, but I thought it needed more. This time, I used a full ounce and it’s much better. There are more bright orange notes in this version.

Making Mai Tais from scratch will always be the best option, but this mix is pretty good and saves you one step when preparing the cocktail and potentially substantial cost vs. buying the Orgeat and Curacao separately.

Purchase: Trader Vic’s Mai Tai Concentrate

Posted on

New Cocktail Recipe: A Clown Got Us into This

Delicious new cocktail for lockdown weekend

This recipe comes from Bay Area Tikiphile Rodney Stanton, who shared it during Thursday’s “South SF Bay Ohana” online meetup (hit me up on Facebook to get access to the group). The hero ingredient is the BG Reynolds Circus Peanut Syrup, and it’s delicious here when paired with the banana notes from the liqueur and the overrproof Jamaican rum.

A Clown Got Us into This
1½ oz Lime Juice
1½ oz Kuleana Rum Works Nanea
½ oz Overproof Jamaican Rum
½ oz Creme de Banana
¾ oz BG Reynolds Circus Peanut Syrup
⅛ oz Grenadine
2 Dashes Orange Bitters

The Nanea is from the Hawaiian brand Kuleana, but is actually a blend of lightly aged rums from the Caribbean. I don’t have the Nanea, or any rums from Central America, so I used Plantation 3 Star as a substitute. For the Overproof Jamaican I used Rum-Bar Overproof. I used Tempus Fugit for the banana liqueur.

It’s delicious! Glassware by B-Rex.