Science Of Drink

Actually I posted about Hurricane Cocktail some years ago. Hurricane Cocktail (especially Dale DeGfroff’s version) is one of my favorite tiki cocktail. Now I want try the “original” version of this grink from Grog Log by Beachbum Berry. I was found this recipe with very good opinion at two great blogs – Kaiser Pinguin and Looka!

The Hurricane Cocktail was invented in 1940-s in famous New Orlean place – Pat’s O’Brien Bar.

The truth is that Hurricane is iconic tropical cocktail. There are many different version of the Hurricane Cocktail. The most described Hurricane as fruit rum punch preferable with passion fruit syrup of juice. But original recipe of Hurricane is another thing – strong, sweet and balanced. This recipe is so heavy for passion fruit syrup and role of rum is unclear.

First I try in the native Beachbum Berry’s recipe two my dark rums – Appleton Estate V/X and cheap White Diamonds Black.

Hurricane (Beachbum Berry)

120 ml dark rum
60 ml fresh lemon juice
60 ml passion fruit syrup
Shake well and strain into hurricane glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a flag – orange slice with red maraschino cherry.

Well. Seems that is not big different between this two rums. Both cocktail are very good and balanced with a thin note of rum and great kick. The Hurricane Cocktail has very sweet but acceptable, the main palate is taste of passion fruit. The drink has very smooth taste. Undoubtedly the Hurricane Cocktail is great tropical drink. But I am slightly disappoint with color of libation. Thus I add some artificial colored grenadine for ne plus ultra result.

My Hurricane

120 ml dark rum
60 ml fresh lemon juice
60 ml passion fruit syrup
2 tsp. grenadine
2 tsp. fresh lime juice
Shake well and strain into hurricane glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a flag – orange slice with red maraschino cherry.

You may also increase lemon juice instead lime juice to achieve right balance.

This Hurricane Cocktail is unbeatable! Most great fruit tropical drink (not tiki, Mai Tai is the best forever!)! Very smooth, very balanced, great cocktail! As for me – It has right smell, taste and color. Admirable!

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This cocktail I found in Michael Jackson’s Pocked Bar Book (I have Russian edition of this book). The story and origin of the Louisiana Lullaby Cocktail are unknown. In my book are remark from author – “Louisiana Lullaby is an american cocktail for Francophils”. Not so informative…

Recipe of the Louisiana Lullaby Cocktail is so rare in a cocktail books. It is noticed in Complete Bartender Guide by Bob Sennett (1984) early.

First I try the Michael Jackson’s recipe:

Louisiana Lullaby

45 ml dark rum
10 ml Dubonnet Rouge
1 dash Grand Marnier
Stir well with a lot of ice. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with lemon sliver.

My first Louisiana Lullaby Cocktail I mix with Appleton Estate V/X Jamaican Rum. The Louisiana Lullaby are truly great cocktail. It has main taste or rum with rich and complex palate. The Louisiana Lullaby is gorgeous drink.

Second version of the Louisiana Lullaby I found in Salvatore Calabrese’s book Complete Home Bartender’s Guide.

Louisiana Lullaby #2

40 ml dark rum
10 ml Dubonnet Rouge
10 ml Grand Marnier or Mandarine Napoleon
Stir well with a lot of ice. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with lemon sliver or lemon twist.

It is another cocktail. Very good and interesting cocktail but different. This version of Louisiana Lullaby Cocktail has so sweet citrus taste with great palate of aged rum. Actually is admirable cocktail too.

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As you know the most of Russian and Ukrainian are orthodox christians. The Orthodox Christmas is celebrated January 7. Actually we don’t drink cocktail on the Christmas. On the over hand Americans has very interesting Christmas drink – Tom and Jerry. This drink is hot egg nog – the winter beverage with alcohol, eggs and milk or water.

The Tom and Jerry is very old drink. The recipe we may found in the first cocktail book – How to Mix Drinks, or Bon-Vivants Companion by Jerry “Professor” Thomas (1862). Some people say that Tom and Jerry was invented by Thomas. He specified in his book that this concoction has another name – Jerry Thomas. In one interview Thomas says that he named the drink in honor of two his mouses – Tom and, of course, Jerry. But we have and alternate story. It is currently reported that Tom and Jerry drink was invented by London sport writer Pierce Egan in the 1820s. The name is a reference to two character from his book Life in London – Jerry Hawthorn and Corinthian Tom.

The famous Harry Craddock wrote that “… The Tom and Jerry and the Blue Blazer … were the greatest cold weather beverages of that era”. And I completely agree with this opinion.

The recipes of Tom and Jerry drink is so simple. This hot egg nog contain brandy as main alcohol, rum, eggs and sugar. Optional ingredients are spice and milk. The authentic recipe from Jerry Thomases book is:

5 LBS. SUGAR.
12 EGGS.
1/2 SMALL GLASS OF JAMAICAN RUM.
1 1/2 TEASPOONFUL OF GROUND CINNAMON
1/2 DO. DO. CLOVES.
1/2 DO. DO. ALLSPICES.

Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and the yolks until they are as thin as water, them mix together and add the spice and rum, thicken with sugar until the mixture attains the consistence of a light batter.

Take a small bar glass, and to one table-spoonful of the above mixture, add one wine-glass of brandy, and fill the glass with boiling water, grate a little nutmeg on top.

The some points of this recipe is very interesting. First – the sugar. Five pounds of sugar or 190 grams per one eggs. It seems very, very, very sweet. Second point is spice. I hate ground spice, thus I try to use spiced rum instead.

My recipe of famous Tom and Jerry drink is (approx 5-6 drinks):

Tom and Jerry

the base (“batter”):
2 eggs
10 ml rich Jamaican rum (5 ml per one egg)
140 g sugar (70 g per one egg)
Separate the eggs. Mix yolks with rum and beat until it are thin as liquid. Beat the whites until stiff froth. Then mix all together and add sugar. Mix well.

drink (one servings):
20 ml brandy
40 ml spiced rum
2 tablesponsful “batter”
add boiling water or steamed milk
Stir well. Serve in the ceramic cup or London dock glass. Garnish by grating a little nutmeg on top.

I use kitchen handheld electric mixer for execution. I whip the white of the eggs in stiff froth and add beaten yolks with rum, then add sugar. I use mix of the refined sugar and demerara brown sugar.

Actually Tom and Jerry drink with water is no good as with milk. The Tom and Jerry drink is very delicious sweet holiday drink. Marry Christmas!

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The theme of this MxMo LI (fifty one – if you find difficulty in understanding Roman numerals as your humble narrator) is extremely gentle and large. And I must to thank our dear hoster – Doug Winship from one of the great cocktails blog in my opinion – The Pegu Blog. The lime is one of the key bar-fruit. Limes keep company numerous stuffs – Rum, Tequila, Gin, Vodka… Lime is a garnish; lime is a juice (sour-agent). We use lime in wide range of cocktails – from girlish pink Cosmos to geek’s Pegu. Thus we have a lot of alternative.

But for me, actually, this MxMo is rare chance to use one of the most useless bottle in my liquor cabinet – the lime liqueur. This pastel green liqueur has smooth aroma of lime and lemon peel. The palate is sweet and citrus. This stuff was produced by Marie Brizard, as I understand, this liqueur no longer manufactured.

I decide to explore two simple cocktails with this lime liqueur for this MxMo. Both of these contains double of lime – lime liqueur and fresh lime juice.

First cocktail – the Limey – was founded in the Russian issue of M. Jackson’s Pocked Bar Book. The recipe sounds a little disappoint but cocktail is not:

Limey

30 ml light rum
20 ml lime liqueur
10 ml triple sec
10 ml fresh lime juice
Blend all ingredients with a 3 oz crushed ice until smooth. Serve in the champagne saucer and garnish with a lime wheel.

Actually the Limey Cocktail is no bad drink with light mood. It has bright rum palate (I use my favorite light rum in this cocktail – Havana Club Anejo Blanco) with refreshing citrus notes. I think that is good choice for last summer evening.

My second cocktail with lime liqueur is Lime Daiquiri – one of the four (!!!) cocktails with this liqueur on CocktailDB.

Lime Daiquiri

45 ml white rum
15 ml lime liqueur
15 ml fresh lime juice
Shake all ingredients in a shaker with a lot of ice. Strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wedge.

Actually the Lime Daiquiri is just Daiquiri with little bit more of lime in the taste. In this cocktail works well Bacardi Cartablanca which has light and fruit taste. This cocktail has so strong and sour taste with a little lime bitterness in aftertaste.

My dear readers! My blog has birthday today :) Three years ago I registered this domain and start blogging here. And than we may drink for this! I propose to drink one rare old-school cocktail – the Three Miller Cocktail.

In my mind the name of this cocktail strongly connected to Prohibition and bootlegers. You may read some interesting facts about this cocktail (and it original name – The Three Mile Limit) at Esquire Drink Database or The Underhill Lounge Blog.

I use recipe from one of my favorite cocktail book – Cocktails and Mixed Drinks by Anthony Hogg (but in this book this cocktail has name – Three Miler):

Three Miller

40 ml brandy (cognac)
20 ml white rum
1 dash fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. grenadine
Shake all ingredients in a shaker with a lot of ice. Strain into cocktail glass.

I use both of my new bottle of cognac – HENNESSY VS and VSOP. As white rum I use Bacardi Cartablanca (particularly this rum is recommended by Harry Craddock).

First cocktail with HENNESSY VS has so sweet and strong taste with interesting cognac palate and short and pleasant aftertaste with notes of wood. It is good evening cocktail. But with HENNESSY VSOP Cognak this cocktail is awesome. It has rich and complex taste with great palate and long smooth aftertaste.

The Pina Colada is one of the most famous cocktail in the world. Actually Pina Colada is very popular cocktail on the Caribbean. It is official cocktail of the Puerto Rico.

The Pina Colada (from Spanish – pina colada – strained pineapple) is tropical, sweet mixed drink which consist of rum, pineapple (juice or blended fruit) and cream of coconut. Some barmen also add heavy cream. The King of Cocktail also add a dash of Angostura bitter.

The key ingredient of modern Pina Colada is cream of coconut. The most notable brand is Coco Lopez. The Coco Lopez Cream of Coconut and traditional Thai coconut cream is two different coconut stuffs. The Coco Lopez is very sweet with amount of fat about 17%, but traditional coconut cream is very fat (about 50-60%) a little sweet cream. You may use traditional coconut cream instead Coco Lopez with extra sugar syrup.

The official date of Pina Colada birth is August 16, 1954. This cocktail was created in Caribe Hilton’s Beachcomber Bar in San Juan, Puerto Rico by Ramon “Monchito” Marrero. He blended light puerto-rican rum with pineapple juice and Coco Lopez Cream of Coconut and crushed ice and great Pina Colada was born. Actually the story of Pina Colada is under debate. The great article about Pina Colada Cocktail written by George Sinclair aka Bourbon George aka Thinking Bartender you may read here.

For my Pina Colada I use recipe which include rum, pineapple stuffs, traditional thai coconut milk (100% natural stuffs) and cane sugar syrup. I prefer blended pinacolada than shaken.

Pina Colada

50 ml white rum
100 ml pineapple juice
50 ml coconut milk
20 ml simple syrup
dash of Angostura bitter (optional)
Blend all ingredients in a blender with scoop of crushed ice. Serve in the collins, hurricane glass, large goblet or colada-glass. Garnish with pineapple slice and red maraschino cherry.

For Virgin Pina Colada omit rum. The Virgin Pina Colada is great refreshing sweet drink.

Be careful with crushed ice in the Pina Colada. For best consistency you may use a little bit less of crushed ice than for another frozen drinks.

I declared three degree of Pina Colada:

1. The Pina Colada with canned pineapple juice and white rum. It is average potation. Use quality juice and quality rum and your obtain the decent potation. Also you may use mix of white and dark rums or add dash or two of Angostura bitter for interesting results.

2. For better results I use caned pineapple (this trick I read in one of Calabrese book). In this case I use my best aged rums – like Varadero 5 y.o., Matusalem 7 y.o., Bacardi 8 or Havana Club Anejo Especial – with great results.

3. I use fresh ripe pineapple and great aged rums for my ultimate pinacoladas:

My Pina Colada

50 ml aged rum
90 g fresh pineapple
50 ml coconut milk
20 ml simple syrup
First blend all ingredients without ice until smooth. Than add scoop of crushed ice and blend again.Serve in the collins, hurricane glass, large goblet or colada-glass. Garnish with pineapple slice and red maraschino cherry.

This version of Pina Colada Cocktail is awesome drink. It has so sweet rum and fruit taste with great palate of aged rum and thin smooth consistency. It is great summer cocktail.

The Cuba Libre Cocktail is great and simple choice for hot summer day or evening. This cocktail was created by unknown american solder under Cuban-Spanish War for Independence (1890-s). The Cuba Libre Cocktail has so simple composition – cuban rum, Coca-Cola and lime. The key of this cocktail is the squeeze of lime wedge.

Cuba Libre

50 ml rum
Coca-Cola
lime wedge
Take fresh ripe lime and cut lime wedge. Fill collins glass (300 ml) with ice-cubes and pour rum. Squeeze lime vedge than put the lime wedge into glass. Add cola. Serve with a straw.

The Cuba Libre Cocktail has complex so sweet refreshing taste with great rum palate. I prefer to use in my Cuba Libre shot of spiced rum for great results.

Now we explore two so similar cocktails of Prohibition Era. The Flamingo Cocktail and the Mary Pickford Cocktail. Both of this cocktails are so rare and hard to find in popular cocktails book. Both has similar composition with rum and pineapple with hint of fresh lime (Flamingo) or maraschino liqueur (Mary Pickford). Both has beatiful foam as a garnish.

Dale DeGroff suppose that cocktail Flamingo was created by famous Constante Ribalagua – owner and barman of La Floridita, Havana. The gold age of this and another cuban bar was at Prohibition. I use recipe of Flamingo Cocktail from The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff.

Flamingo

35 ml light rum
35 ml pineapple juice
1 tsp. grenadine
1 tsp. fresh lime juice
Shake. Pour into cocktail glass.

The Flamingo Cocktail has smooth and light fruit cocktail with great rum palate. My favorite white rum – Havana Club Anejo Blanco – work extremely well in this cocktail.

The Mary Pickford Cocktail has so similar composition with maraschino liqueur instead lime juice. Dale DeGroff suppose that Mary Pickford Cocktail was invented also Constante Ribalagua but another sources report that Mary Pickford Cocktail was invented by another cuban barman – Eddie Woelke (the creator of famous El Presedente Cocktail). This cocktail created for first Hollywood superstar – Mary Pickford.

First mention of the Mary Pickford Cocktail is in Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddoc (1930) but I use version from Cocktails and Mixed Drinks by Anthony Hogg.

Mary Pickford

35 ml white rum
35 ml pineapple juice
1 tsp maraschino liqueur
1 tsp grenadine
Shake and strain in the cocktail glass.

Wow! The Mary Pickford Cocktail is awesome drink. It is one of the best cocktail that I drink!

Dale DeGroff also specify another recipe of Mary Pickford Cocktail – “the Flamingo Cocktail plus orange curacao”. It is worth to try.

Mary Pickford #2

35 ml white rum
35 ml pineapple juice
1 tsp orange curacao
1 tsp grenadine
1 tsp fresh lime juice
Shake and strain in the cocktail glass.

This version of Mary Pickford Cocktail has well-balanced smooth taste with pleasant fruit and citrus taste with great rum palate. Great drink for hot summer evening. By the way, best orange liqueur for this cocktail in my opinion is Cointreau.

As we know the Bee’s Knees Cocktail is wonderful drink. Then I explore the Bee’s Knees cocktail I found the Jeffry Morgentaller opinion that rum is good substitute of gin in this cocktail. It seems fantastic :) Of course I try it!

First I tasted the Bee’s Knees Cocktail with white rum. I use same proportions as original version.

Bee’s Knees (Rum ver.)

50 ml white rum
20 ml honey syrup
15 ml fresh lemon juice
Shake. Tumbler with ice. Garnish with lemon wedge.

I serve the Bee’s Knees Cocktail with rum on the rocks. The Bee’s Knees Cocktail need good and powerful rum as Havana Club Anejo Blanco for best results. The Rum version of Bee’s Knees Cocktail has excelent and good balanced a little sweet refreshing taste with great rum palate.

And I try the Bee’s Knees Cocktail with aged rum. I use Jeffry’s proportions and garnish for this cocktail.

Bee’s Knees (El Vaquero ver.)

50 ml aged rum
25 ml honey syrup
25 ml fresh lemon juice
Shake. Tumbler with ice. Garnish with quartered orange with clove.

The Bee’s Knees Cocktail with El Dorado 12 y.o. is great drink. It has very rich palate with aroma of rum, honey and citrus. But with Bacardi 8 I obtain very mediocre results. Anyway, the Bee’s Knees Cocktail with aged rums is great drinks.

As you know, I was realy inspired by March MxMo theme – punch. And I realy inspired by old mixed drink – pure classic like Gin Punch. Now I exploring another old and classic cocktail – The Knickerbocker Special. This cocktail has very interesting composition – rum and raspberry syrup. The classic version of this cocktail specifies five main ingredients – raspberry surup (Hogg and Jackson, but CocktailDB specified grenadine), lime or lemon juice, orange juice, curacao liqueur and rum. Thereat CocktailDB and Jackson prescribed light rum, but Hogg and DeGroff – dark. I use one of my gold (actually aged) rum – Bacardi Reserva.

Knickerbocker Special

60 ml gold rum
8 ml raspberry syrup (berry grenadine)
8 ml fresh lemon juice
8 ml orange juice
8 ml orange curacao
some peneapple chunks
Muddle the pineapple spear with juices. Add the rest of ingredients and shake. Serve in a cocktail glass.

The Knickerbocker Special Cocktail has very interesting taste. It has rich berry-fruit sweet-and-sour taste with bright rum palate. The Bacardi Reserva Rum work extremely well in this cocktail. It is amazing cocktail.

I explore one of the oldest version of Knickerbocker, which I found in Imbibe! by D. Wondrich (one of my favorite cocktail book in present time). The original recipe is:

1/2 LIME OR LEMON, SQUEEZE OUT OF THE JUICE, AND PUT RIND AND JUICE IN THE GLASS
2 TEA-SPOONFULS OF RASPBERRY SYRUP
1 WINE-GLASS [2 oz] SANTA CRUZ RUM
1/2 TEASPOONFUL OF CURACOA

Use small bar-glass.
Cool with shaved ice; shake up well and ornament with berries in season. If this is not sweet enough, put in a little more raspberry syrup.

I adopt Wondrich`s recipe to:

Knickerbocker Punch

60 ml gold rum
15 ml raspberry syrup
15 ml orange curacao
15 ml fresh lime juice
Shake. Serve in a tumbler with crushed ice. Garnish with berries, pinneaple spear and lime shell.

The Knickerbocker Punch is a magnificient drink. I was fascinated by its rich and smooth palate with a first sip. Actually it is real “mai tai!”, awesome cocktail. One of the best cocktail that I ever drink.