Turkey Grog Revisited

Had a grapefruit to kill so I made this cocktail that I developed a few years back and it remains a popular favorite. The use of flavorful Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon is the key component and where the cocktail gets its name.

Turkey Grog by Kevin Crossman
¾ oz Lime Juice
½ oz Ruby Grapefruit Juice
½ oz Honey Syrup (1:1)
½ oz Velvet Falernum
½ oz Don’s Spices #2
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
¾ oz Smith & Cross Jamaican Rum
1½ oz Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon
Shake with ice, garnish with mint. Serve in glass of choice.

Don’s Spices #2: Equal parts Vanilla Syrup and Pimento Dram/Allspice Liqueur.
If you have non-alcoholic Falernum syrup then drop the amount to ¼ oz.

Nuclear Daiquiri

There were some discussions of this cocktail online this week and so I took at run at it. I tweaked the original recipe by lowering the Green Chartreuse a little and definitely going for a heavy pour of John D. Taylor Falernnum that is not as bold as the Falernum syrup used in the original version of the cocktail.

¾ oz Lime Juice
¾ oz John D. Taylor Falernum (heavy pour)
½ oz Green Chartreuse
1 oz Wray & Nephew Overproof Jamaica Rum
Shake with ice cubes and strain

This was just right for me. Enough of the Chartreuse to taste, but not enough to overwhelm. But it works very nicely with the bold Wray & Nephew rum.

Three Dots and a Dash

This cocktail was recently featured on the Cocktail College podcast and so I thought I’d make one at home. An interesting aspect of this cocktail is that it called for an Aged Martinique Rhum, and I’ve heard specifically that this should be a sugar cane juice-based Agricole Rhum, not a Grand Arôme from Molasses. But the guest on Cocktail College seemed to not dial this in and even suggested an unaged Agricole might be better.

Having made the cocktail I can say that an aged Agricole for sure works better to compliment the spicy notes from the Falernum and Allspice Dram. The cocktail I made turned out really great and only served to remind me that I ought to order this more when out at bars.

Three Dots and a Dash by Don the Beachcomber
½ oz Lime Juice
½ oz Orange Juice
½ oz Honey Mix
¼ oz Falernum
¼ oz Allspice Dram / Pimento Liqueur
½ oz Demerara Rum
1½ oz Aged Martinique Rhum
1 dash Angostura Bitters
Flash blend with 6 oz crushed ice. Garnish with three cherries (dots) and a pineapple front (dash).

Spirts:
Falernum: John D. Taylor (heavy pour)
Allspice Dram: Hamilton
Demerara Rum: Skipper Rum
Aged Martinique Rhum: Clement VSOP

We like these kind of cherries. Sue us.

Don’t Switch the Rum

Regular readers will know we have Mai Tais all the time and love to play with using different rums. Some are better than others, of course, but you rarely get a dud when doing a Mai Tai that’s been formulated to support the rum in the cocktail.

With more complex cocktail recipes you’d think switching out a little bit of rum for another wouldn’t make a difference. Well, for this one I did find that the swap was definitely noticeable and for sure not an improvement.

I didn’t have any limes the other night so I made this cocktail by Laura Miller that uses lemon juice. I’ve made it before and it is a delicious blend of flavors.

Monkey Business by Laura Miller
¾ oz Lemon Juice
½ oz Pearl’s Hideaway Falernum
¼ oz Dry Curacao
1 oz Giffard Banane du Brésil Liqueur
½ oz Hamilton Pot Still Black Rum
1 oz Plantation 5 yr Rum
2 dashes Forbidden Bitters
Ideally, garnish with banana wedge, dehydrated lemon wheel, and plastic monkey.

I subbed the Plantation rum with Real McCoy. I don’t have Forbidden Bitters myself but used 1 dash each of Angostura and Peychaud’s.

Regarding the aforementioned rum swap, when I made a second round I used Doctor Bird Jamaican Rum in place of the Hamilton Pot Still Black from Jamaica. Both rums use Worthy Park distillate and are known to be flavorful and funky. I thought that maybe the higher ABV Doctor Bird would be a possible improvement. It turns out that it really left the entire cocktail a little flat.

I don’t know if this is a credit to the flavorful Hamilton rum or something about Doctor Bird’s Moscatel cask finish, but for sure it was a noticeably poorer experience. Who would have guessed that half ounce would make a difference?

Chartreuse Swizzle

I’m not normally a big fan of cocktails with pineapple juice but this one is pretty damn good. Tart but still refreshing, and easy to drink.

Chartreuse Swizzle by Marcovaldo Dionysos
1 oz Pineapple juice
¾ oz Lime juice
½ oz Falernum
1½ oz Green Chartreuse

Add all ingredients to a Collins glass and fill with crushed ice. Swizzle the mixture with a barspoon until frost appears on the outside of the glass. Top with more crushed ice and garnish with mint sprig and nutmeg.

I gave this a heavy pour of the John D. Taylor Velvet Falernum but if I was going to make it over I’d either use a full ounce or use a non-alcoholic Falernum syrup.

Chartreuse Swizzle

First time having this cocktail originally created by Marco Dionysos, but if Dr. Funk‘s version is any indication this is a cocktail I need to put into the rotation. Quite refreshing with Green Chartreuse, Falernum, Lime, and Pineapple.

¾ oz Lime Juice
1 oz Pineapple Juice
½ oz Falernum
1¼ oz Green Chartreuse
Shake with nice or swizzle in a tall glass

I just picked up a bootle of Green Chartreuse. Any cocktail recommendations using it are welcome, please leave a comment.

Choose the Right Ingredients

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Choose the Right Ingredients Two examples from the Ultimate Mai Tai cocktail lab on Friday night. First is a Royal Bermuda Yacht Club Cocktail, a Daiquiri variant featuring rum from Barbados along with that rum’s best friend, Falernum. I made this a few months ago with the John D. Taylor Falernum and my fasting note was that it needed to be a little sweeter and a little less on the ginger/spice notes from the Falernum. Which would have meant going from 1/2 oz Falernum to 1/4 oz Falernum and 1/4 oz Simple Syrup. Or I could just use a different, sweeter Falernum. Thanks to fellow Bay Area Tikiphile @laurasmurphy I had a little bit of her delicious homemade Falernum. This is sweeter and doesn’t hit the spice notes quite as hard and boy did it make this cocktail sing. The recipe called for Mount Gay Eclipse but I only have the longer aged Mount Gay XO and it was a really nice cocktail. Royal Bermuda Yacht Club Cocktail 2 oz Barbados Rum 1 oz Lime Juice .5 oz Cointreau .5 oz Falernum Shake with ice and strain into a coupe glass. Second, I tried the Small Hand Foods' Orgeat again. I had obtained this as a backup Orgeat for a game night we hosted and then didn’t need to use it. So, here it goes again into testing against my standard Fremont Mai Tai recipe. And once again I felt the almond flavor was lost in the cocktail compared to other Orgeats, and it has more of a floral flavor than what I prefer. It also requires constant shaking to keep the contents mixed properly. That’s too much work for me; if I’m going to buy a commercial orgeat it’s because I want things to be simple and easy. #tiki #tikibar #tikidrinks #tikiculture #cocktails #craftcocktails #rum #rhum #maitai #1944maitai #falernum @mountgayrum @cointreau

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