The art of cocktalia. And it is truly an art, consubstantial with a fine wine or perfectly prepared meal. Some say a great work of art is never finished. Yet, at times, it may be perfect just the way it is. One would never change a note of Beethoven, or edit Shakespeare. The anomaly of art is that the ideas of being complete and being finished are mutually exclusive. With gin and vermouth one can complete a Martini, but in the wrong specifications for the drinker that particular drink in that particular moment may not be finished.
Within the pomp & circumstance of Tiki, a genre which not only allows for interpretation - but encourages it, the idea of a drink being standardized and truly finished borders on absurdity. Take the Mai Tai. There are whole social media accounts dedicated to traveling and finding the best one. Shout out to ... Sure, we know the complete list of ingredients, but with such variations in rum styles, proportions, and specialty syrups can we ever say one version of a Mai Tai is the standard finished cocktail? And if we can’t come to a consensus on the most famous drink in our genre…well?
Often in studying Tiki and Tropical drinks we come across some that share a common flavor profile, but with a minor tweak - the addition or subtraction of an ingredient, the result is just significant enough to warrant a whole new drink. Usually these share the flavors and terroir of a specific region. Certain profiles we know to be pleasing to our gustatory senses in the same way certain color palates are pleasing to the eye.
In the early 2000’s Orlando, FL was a Mecca of club music. Breakbeat, House, Techno. There I was with my purple Numark mixer and two Gemini turntables. I never could afford the Technique 1200’s which were the industry standard at the time. We were pretty good, my friends and I. Lugging our record bags and taking turns throwing down at parties. It was magical to watch people dancing and having fun to my own personal mixes. To be able to influence the articulation of a crowd like controlling a marionette. I could make them feel spiritual with a Bob Marley dub, chill them out with a slow break, or simply keep them dancing till they all fell down. One of my DJ mentors, my good friend TeeJay Henson, once told me the key to a seamless mix is picking two records that already sound alike. We do this in cocktalia all the time.
Today we’re taking a trip to Jamaica to try a few drinks that although sharing a basic profile are unique in their own respective ways. Drinks that are complete, by virtue of being recorded for posterity, but thanks to the passion and curiosity of enthusiasts may never truly be finished.
My name is Tony. Welcome to Pod Tiki.
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My journey for this episode began while reading Smuggler’s Cove by Martin & Rebecca Cate. Those of you in the genre are familiar, but I try to write these with the idea that I am speaking to someone with no knowledge of Tiki. Someone like I once was when I began. For the more I dive into the community the more I find I am on this journey right alongside you. You see, Martin Cate has given us the archetype for ascending to Tiki nirvana.
A spark in the uninitiated lit by a trip to an iconic Tiki temple - the home enthusiast the reason you’re all here goes from foray of fresh juices to a fridge full of jars of homemade syrups - the idea that comes from a Tiki party leads to a full on all out home Tiki bar - in order to be a master one must learn from a master he studies in the house of Trader - armed with a vision all his own while amassing one of the largest collections of rum and iconic Tiki ephemera in the world - Smuggler’s Cove is born in San Francisco, California - recipes cocktalian creation recipes of his own renowned reach across the lands - his empire of Polynesian Pop holding court atop a totem as one of the premier players in this modern resurgence a preponderance of pop Tiki culture.
Sorry, I got a little dramatic there. I just really respect this dude. Plus, he wrote the eponymous book Smuggler’s Cove, a veritable manual to the genre. Of course, it wouldn’t be an episode of Pod Tiki if I didn’t point out the things I disagree with, but we’ll get there.
For now, back to our current journey. For some reason the summer to fall transition brought to my minds palate the tastes of Jamaica. Allspice, molasses, dark rich rums. It’s not like I can go down to the corner store and pick up a bottle of sorrel, so I began perusing my tomes for Jamaican based drinks when I remembered recently reading in Smuggler’s Cove about the Twenty Seventy Swizzle. For reasons I will elucidate on momentarily this sent me on an excursion through flavor, history, and commonality which has left me many a morning thankful I took notes on my, ahem, research while I was still in a manner of able countenance and dry mind.
A fact about myself that rarely has reason to come up is that I have always been very good at pattern recognition. From something as simple as a word search puzzle to being able to anticipate situational outcomes based on experiential factors. And though I’ve only been shackled to this mortal realm for a scant 41 years it’s not only my experiences I speak of. Since I was a child my eyes and ears have sponged up every bit of humanity I can.
We pride ourselves on our individuality. On not fitting into a box. But it’s remarkable how often we are not that different. How we often fall, whether consciously or subconsciously, into a pattern of influence. The individual wave may crest at its own pace, but it will recede with the tide into the ocean alongside all the other waves.
Wow, I’m getting pretty deep on this one so before I get any more full of myself we better get to making some drinks! This episode will cover a few drinks that seem to play off each-other while paying homage to the flavors of a region. We’re featuring drinks that may not have a rich enough backstory to fit into our overall narrative, but definitely deserve a place in our repertoire. Let’s dive in.
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When the craving for Jamaican flavors hit me I started with a drink I had made a mental note of. The Twenty Seventy Swizzle. Created by Martin Cate and Ron Roumas for Smuggler’s Cove this cocktail at first glance stood out as exactly the kinda thing I was looking for for my Jamaican fall idea. The drink came about in an attempt to create the ultimate swizzle using the best parts of classic recipes. He claims several versions of the swizzle were sampled and discarded before settling on the current recipe. That must’ve been some session because let me tell you, it only takes about three sips for this drink to start making its presence known. And I thought my research was tough. They finally came to an agreement that the best rums for the job were Angostura 1919, and Lemon Hart 151. Add those numbers together and… You guessed it = 2070. Which coincidentally is the year you wake up thinking it is after a night of drinking these.
The Twenty Seventy Swizzle is:
½ oz Lime Juice
½ oz Demerara Syrup
½ oz Honey Syrup
¼ oz Allspice Dram
1 oz Column Still Aged Rum
1 oz Black Blended Overproof Rum
1 dash Herbstura
Pinch of Nutmeg
Add all the ingredients to a 10 oz Collins glass, fill ¾ way with crushed ice and swizzle using a bar spoon or bois lélé by spinning the handle back and forth between your palms while raising it slowly up and down. Yes, we’re still talking about a drink here, go take a cold shower sailor. Also, check out our Ti’ Punch episode for an in depth look at bois lélé.
Now, you may have noticed something weirdly nondescript about those rums. This seems like a good time to go over Martin Cate’s system of rum sorting. Rather than delineating by flavor or color, as in light, amber, or dark rum; or by historical style, Spanish, British, or French, Cate has created an unique and impressive way of categorizing rum by production method and age. I’m not going to attempt to do it justice, mostly because he already wrote the book, so go check it out for an in depth examination. At a cursory glance it separates distilling methods like Column Still and Pot Still and furthermore dissects them into age groups such as Lightly Aged, Aged, or Long Aged. There is also a Blended category, which is usually column and pot still, or simply various blends within a distillery's own line. That is except for Blended Black rum which is its own thing. Of course there’s a section for Rhum Agricole wherein the Coffey Still Haitian rhums are separated from the AOC Martinique Rhum under the purview of French distillation methods. And who even knows where Kohana Hawaiian Agricole Rhum fits in.
As you can see it gets quite confusing, but you do get the hang of it after a while. The rum world has gone unregulated for so long there has been need for a universal system of classification. Or, has there? Perhaps, like a great work of art, rum is destined to be left wild and free form, unfettered and unbridled. If history tells us anything it’s people that drink rum don’t like being regulated.
Martin Cate’s system makes sense on paper and allows for experimentation with one’s own favorite rums, which is really a pain in the ass for a purist who wants to know how the person who invented the drink meant it to taste. For example within the Blended Lightly Aged category we find Appleton Estate Signature, Mount Gay Eclipse, Plantation 3 Star, and Real McCoy 3 Yr. Four rums that taste pretty dissimilar from one another. In the Aged section we find rums from Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana, and Venezuela. All of those vary wildly in flavor and will most definitely change the profile of your drink depending which one you choose.
I admire anyone who finds a perceived problem, addresses it, and fixes it. For that I will always admire Martin Cate. And he does mention that the recipes he borrows from others have been adapted to fit the Smuggler’s Cove profile. But the purist in me still prefers the old school classification method that more informs flavor profile. Spanish Style, British Style, or French Style.
Okay, now that I’ve ruined that potential friendship, let’s get back to the Twenty Seventy Swizzle ingredients.
Lime juice as we all know should always be freshly squeezed and Nutmeg is pretty common. Ok, those are the easy ones. Let’s jump into rum. I stayed within Cate’s system, so to keep true to his recipes. For the column still aged rum I used Flor de Caña 7 yr. Column still is going to be mostly your Spanish style, i.e., Puerto Rico or Cuban rums. As I’ve mentioned in past episodes I find Flor de Caña 7 to be very close to aged Cuban rum which is my favorite. Bacardi 8 yr also works quite well in this recipe. As for the black blended overproof rum, I initially went with Plantation OFTD, as I generally don’t care for the pungent Lemon Hart 151. But although OFTD is a great replacement in Zombies, the rich Demerara notes of Lemon Hart truly is the best choice for this cocktail.
All of that to remind you all that I am not an overproof drinker. One of these puts me past where I need to be, like zoning out on a road trip and missing your exit. If you’re a bit on the pusillanimous side towards the untoward overproofs, as am I, I find subbing the regular Lemon Hart Demerara rum or even a dark Jamaican like Myers’s for the 151 makes a very tasty drink.
Next is Demerara Syrup. Basically a simple syrup using Demerara or Turbinado sugar in place of regular white cane. This renders a thicker, richer, more molasses-y syrup. The Smuggler’s Cove Demerara Syrup recipe used in this swizzle, and given in the book, boasts 4 parts sugar to 2 parts water and is waaaaaaaaaaay too sweet. Like beyond cloying. Like puckered at both ends sweet, if you know what I mean. (And if you do, let me know cuz I just made that shit up.) If you use the SC Demerara Syrup in this recipe I would cut the amount in half. You will still get the thick syrupy consistency that Smuggler’s Cove is looking for here, but which I think is the exact syrupy stereotype tiki drinks spent so long getting away from. But alas! We still want that Demerara flavor, it’s almost essential for a Jamaican style palate. I suggest a 1:1 sugar:water mix using Demerara or Turbinado sugar. You’ll get all that rich molasses flavor without going into a diabetic coma.
Likewise, the Honey Syrup is simply 1 part honey to part water boiled down and mixed.
Herbstura is a fun ingredient. Invented by Don the Beachcomber it was one of his most simple, yet effective mixes. And if he meant to be elusive he dropped the ball on this one, as the recipe is right in the name. Herb/stura is equal parts Herbsaint and Angostura Bitters. Herbsaint is an anise flavored liqueur much like Absinthe. I use Pernod just because I had it on hand. You can mix equal parts in a dasher bottle, which does come in handy for tiki drinks, or simply break it down to 1 dash of Angostura bitters and 6 drops of Pernod. 6 drops being ⅛ tsp. If you don’t have a dasher bottle, dropper, or ⅛ tsp well, perhaps you should go sit in the corner of the tiki bar and think about what you’ve done.
Our last ingredient is Allspice Dram. Otherwise known as pimento liqueur. That’s not the pimentos you're thinking of that come stuffed in those delicious green olives, but the berry of the Jamaican Bayberry tree. That berry is commonly known as allspice. The industry standard is a brand called St. Elizabeth. It’s kinda pricey but used in small doses. Plus, I haven’t really seen any other brand. It really adds an exotic spice and makes these drinks redolent of the scent of Jamaican air.
The flavors of this drink are impeccable. It’s got a wonderful Jamaican profile hitting all the marks of island cuisine. Using my 1:1 Demerara Syrup brings out all the nuances of rich rum, allspice, and honey while remaining light and tropical. When mixed with the right amount of ice this drink is so well balanced even the 151 isn’t overbearing. A very nice drink, indeed.
But with this drink, as good as it is, I felt my spidey-sense of pattern recognition kicking in. This recipe felt awfully familiar. What was it, what was it. Hmmm. Let me flip through Beachbum Berry’s Remixed and….oh, yep. Here it is. It would seem that if you take a Twenty Seventy Swizzle, add grapefruit juice, and blend instead of swizzle you have a Montego Bay cocktail.
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Semi-rich, honey heavy, spicey-tang, but very well balanced with the dark Jamaican rum coming through nicely. The Montego Bay recipe from Beachbum Berry Remixed is a specimen of a Tiki drink. Not only in flavor, feel, and presentation, but by nature of its parallels. Adding another juice and changing the prep method transmogrifies the potion such as a slight misutterance of incantation changes the outcome of a desired magic spell. A misrepresentation of recitation or alteration in alliteration can make or break a libation.
The Twenty Seventy to the Montego Bay is what gave me the idea for this episode, but I am in no way pitting these two drinks against one another. They’re both delicious, I only want to point out the correlation in flavor palates. In fact if you swap the Jamaican rum for rhum agricole vieux and add falernum the Montego Bay pretty much becomes an Island of Martinique cocktail - a force unto itself.
We’ll slide through these recipes a little quicker now that we’ve discussed the prevalent ingredients.
The Montego Bay as Berry tells it:
1 ½ oz Dark Jamaican Rum
¼ tsp Allspice Dram
½ oz Honey Mix
½ oz Grapefruit Juice
½ oz Lime Juice
6 drops Pernod
1 dash Angostura Bitters
3 oz Crushed Ice
Add all ingredients and blend on high for 5 seconds. Pour unstrained into a Sour Glass, which is kinda like a small wine glass, but I used a coupe. The dark amber liquid should settle with a nice bubbly head. Take care not to use too much ice as even a small excess will turn this from frothy to frozen. When in doubt, use less.
Berry doesn’t give too much background on the Montego Bay save that it was created by Don the Beachcomber himself. In the drink you can taste Donn’s affinity for classic flavors as well as his aptitude for rumgenuity.
I used Myers’s Original Dark for the rum. You’ll notice Berry delineates Pernod from Angostura rather than combining them into Herbsaint. Although, I think he may do that for our sake and actually use the combo in his bar. Donn’s secret mixes were not only to protect his recipes, but also to save time. Building 10 ingredient drinks from scratch every time while your customer’s zombie buzz turns to aggravation is not great for business. The ¼ tsp Allspice Dram seemed weird at first, but after experimentation I once again flog myself for doubting the Donn. It’s bland without it, and too “baking spicy” with more.
Overall, a great cocktail. Definitely added to my home repertoire. But, even in the Montego Bay I had not yet been sated in my pursuit for the perfect Jamaican cocktail to help me bring in fall. That amalgamation of citrus, baking spice and dark rum that seems to usher in the transition from tropical summer to down island holidays. Enter, the Pampanito.
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You don’t get more Jamaica than Appleton Estate rum. In fact, while I was in Montego Bay and Ocho Rios Appleton and Wray & Nephew were the only two Jamaica rums available. Besides the fact that like most Caribbean nations the majority of produced rum is exported, I got the vibe no one in Montego Bay or Ochi was bellying up to the bar ordering a Hampden neat. One could procure a trash can size bag of “high grade” from anyone you stop on the street, but nary a drop of epicurean rum. Not that I minded, for reasons twofold. A lot of upscale rums are sent to finish aging or blended off island, so hats off to Appleton and J. Wray; And to be honest I didn’t go there looking to stick my pinky out. My best friend and I meant this purely as a beach bum, relaxing, play-it-by-ear trip. I’m sure the fine dining is tucked away somewhere, maybe Negril.
Appleton Estate actually plays a large part in this next drink. Martin Cate was visiting with Appleton master blender Joy Spence when she told him they take the rich wet sugar and use it to make a rum spiked lemonade. Cate took this idea and ran, adding a few more Jamaican flavors and some of his own tricks. Here’s the recipe created by Martin Cate for Smuggler’s Cove:
1 oz Lemon Juice
1 oz Molasses Syrup
2 ½ oz Seltzer
¼ oz Allspice Dram
1 ½ oz Black Blended Rum (Dark Jamaican)
1 dash Angostura Bitter
Flash Blend with 12 oz of crushed ice and open strain into a 10 oz highball glass. Garnish with a lemon twist. I made a few adjustments to this straightaway. Since molasses is hard to come by at the regular store I tried honey syrup. I could tell this was not the flavor or consistency he was looking for. So, to fabricate the rich molasses texture I cut the 1 oz molasses syrup into ½ oz honey syrup and ½ oz SC Demerara Syrup. The SC syrup that is usually too sweet for me works perfectly when mixed with honey to bring this drink to perfect sweetness and viscosity. I also found that without the original thick molasses syrup 2 ½ oz of seltzer watered the drink down, so I decreased to 2oz. For reference, the Recipe Index tab on PodTiki.com will show my personal recipe.
Aaaaaaand, wow. The Pampanito offers exquisite balance between heavy and light. Notice I didn’t say medium, because it’s not. You can taste both the heavy, rich molasses and a crisp tropical citrus. Light and drinkable while still boasting plenty of Jamaican flavor me thinks this libation far better than the Twenty Seventy Swizzle. Umami, spice, rum, molasses with a slight effervescence form the seltzer and crushed ice. This is exactly what I think of a true tropical Tiki drink. Which is exactly why I couldn’t end my search here. For as great as the Pampanito is, it’s kinda generic. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It is just what it’s supposed to be. A Jamaican alcoholic lemonade. I will for sure be returning to the Pampanito as mercury rises, but it doesn’t quite have the holiday spirit I’m looking for. Sally forth, mon!
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This next cocktail strays the most from our current palate with the addition of a truly tropical flavor. A fruit so highly regarded that the wealthy once rented them as centerpieces for parties. A sign of fertility to the ancient Taino and Caribs that Colombus thought were Philipinos. I speak, of course, of the mighty pineapple. We also include another flavor closely associated with Jamaica though you might not think so. Ginger.
Created by storied San Francisco bartender Marcovaldo Dionysos, a key member of the Smuggler’s Cove team, I bring you the Piñata!
If you don’t like this drink you may as well hang up your coconuts. Crisp, yet full bodied. Pineapple forward with great fluffy head and quite tropical while maintaining that sense of true tiki mystery. The sour spices of lemon and pineapple compliment ginger and allspice while rich demerara and dark rum round it out. Here’s Marcovaldo’s OG recipe. Then I’ll give you my adaptations which will again be my official Pod Tiki recipe.
3 oz Pineapple Juice
1 oz Lemon Juice
½ oz Demerara Syrup
1 oz Ginger Liqueur
½ oz Allspice Dram
1 oz Black Blended Rum (Dark Jamaican)
1 oz Blended Lightly Aged Rum (Blended Rum 3 yrs or under; light or amber; Spanish or Britsh style)
For the rums I used Myers’s Original Dark and Plantation 3 Star. A blend of Jamaican, Barbados, and Trinidad rums the Plantation works in almost any cocktail requiring this style.
Ginger liqueur is interesting. I used Stone’s Original Ginger and to be honest it’s not very gingery and I feel like it flattens the drink out. To correct that I substituted the ginger liqueur with Reed’s Jamaican Extra Ginger Beer. Not only to up the ginger but the slight carbonation adds the body I feel this drink desires.
Flash blend with 12 oz of crushed ice and open gate pour into a hollowed out pineapple or double rocks glass. I used the latter. Garnish with nutmeg.
All I can say is hats off Mr. Dionysos. You truly live up to your namesake.
But alas! There is one far greater than thee. The final tipple in our tarry of terroir. There is one paladin of potency who has yet to make an appearance on this litany of libation. One who, you might say, trades in the salacious solubrity of Tropiki.
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By the time Trader Vic was publishing recipe books, fully capitalizing on the genre he helped create, a lot of his prescriptions called for a specialty mix, mai tai mix or grog mix, which he dutifully supplied under the Trader Vic trade mark. Lest we forget before it was our hobby it was his business. But this made it very hard for Jeff “Beachbum” Berry to discern his recipes. Such was the case as he assiduously endeavored to reverse engineer Vic’s Navy Grog. After many sits and sips Berry eventually figured it out, but one of his early attempts garnered a drink so delicious it’s earned its rightful place among tikidom and the top spot on our current list. The Beachbum named his concoction after how old he felt after imbibing in a few, The Ancient Mariner.
In any quest to uncover the past, especially when that past has become the subject of enthusiasm among fans, one of the tells that you’re on the right track is when you not only enjoy your discovery, but it finds its way through the diaspora of revival. The Ancient Mariner has done such, making itself a staple in temples across the land. Sadly, the original bars to pick it up have since closed. But if you see it on a menu I suggest giving it a try. Here’s why:
¾ oz Lime Juice
½ oz Grapefruit Juice
½ oz Simple Syrup
¼ oz Allspice Dram
1 oz Demerara Rum
1oz Dark Jamaican Rum
Shake well with 1 cup of crushed ice and pour unstrained into a double old fashioned glass. Garnish with a mint sprig and scored lime wedge. That’s a lime wedge with the skin peeled in a decorative fashion so only the white rind shows through. It adds a nice touch, but it’s only a garnish so it’s fine to use a regular old lime wedge.
I made zero adjustments to this recipe. Myers’s was my Jamaican rum and I used Pusser’s as my Demerara. Okay, so I made a wee tiny adjustment. Pusser’s wouldn’t usually be considered a Demerara rum, but it’s made in Guyana where Demerara rum comes from and all the flavors of the locale are there plus Pusser’s adds more depth and flavor. If you want to be a true purist, as I usually am, use El Dorado 5 yr. With the exception of Pusser’s being the old Navy Recipe, the base spirit comes from the same region and we know that a lot of brands use the same distilleries and same ingredients. So, swapping these two rums is not that egregious of an alteration. And it definitely adds body and flavor.
The Ancient Mariner hits all of what I was looking for in an autumn leaning Jamaican inspired tropical cocktail. True it’s not as spicy as the Pampanito or as rich as the Twenty Seventy, but it ups the tropicality and leaves us imagining the holidays rolling in on a Caribbean island. When the wind picks up just so and a passing hurricane churns the tide on its way to the Florida straits.
Crisp and tart. Allspice comes through and dances with romantic overtures towards the mix of Jamaican and Guyana rums. A great balance of sour citrus and rich fruity baking spice. Like taking a bite of key lime pie and spice cake at the same time. Grapefruit is like the cold shower that calms the whole ordeal down while giving an over-the-shoulder wink that lets us know she’s just playing hard to get. Wait, we’re still talking about drinks here. Take a trip with the Ancient Mariner and see what depths you discover!
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Well, folks. I hope my long winded pontifications helped to point out the precision of Tiki drinks. How minor tweaks in flavor may go unnoticed by less discerning palates. Much the same way someone not into a certain type of music might think it all sounds the same. That doesn’t mean those of us who like to think themselves on the finer side of Tiki get to be pompous. I’m a lover of epicurean folly, but I can’t stand the overthinking snobs who take the fun out of it. Because maybe we can distinguish black blended from pot still Jamaican, the tertiary flavor grapefruit makes when added to lime, a complexity of allspice mixed with ginger nuanced under a bed thick molasses richness. Or, maybe, just maybe, we’re all full of shit and these are just different versions of the same drink. Separate pieces of art created from the same palate. And, I think that’s ok too.
Ladies and gents, this has been Pod Tiki.
Sources for this episode can be found in this article at PodTiki.com
Before we sail off into this good night I have a bit of a PSA. We all want to do our part to preserve the environment. But I for one am sick of those soggy flimsy paper straws unraveling in my drink like a cheap gas station blunt. Don’t let your next party be a flop by serving your guests drinks using limp floppy straws. Head on over to surfsidesips.com and grab yourself some premium glass straws. With various lengths, widths, and designs Surfside Sips has you covered in versatility, utility, and style that will get all your guests talking. Choose from a myriad of custom designs or keep it simple and classic. For durable, machine washable glass straws, swizzles, and garnish picks, check out surfsidesips.com and be sure to enter PODTIKI at checkout for 20% off your order. That’s all caps all one word PODTIKI at checkout to get 20% your order at surfsidesips.com
Also wanna give a heads up to all my Tiki cigar geeks out there. If you’re looking for a cool laid back cigar podcast that just puffs and shoots the shit like regular fellas, check out my buddies Bret and Mark over at the Retrohale podcast.
Last but not least if you’re in the Nashville area check out Faith Kelley Music on social media and youtube. The bluesy-rocky-folky-jazzy three piece ensemble is now booking for the end of 2021 and early 2022. Go to @faithkelleymusic on Instagram to check out the six weeks of Dead series she did earlier in the summer.
With that I will say please drink responsibly, thank you so much for listening and keepi tiki out there!