Coral Current

 

Story

The journey to the Coral Current began with the search for a tiki-style punch that didn't overlap with the other three cocktails on the menu at a party.  The Mai Tai (rum and lime), Saturn (gin and passion fruit), and Elusive Dreams (rum and pineapple) covered a lot of territory flavor-wise, so finding something different was a challenge. I tried a Scorpion Bowl (too similar to the Mai Tai), the Ancient Mariner (too rum-forward for a punch drink) and several other tiki concoctions without success.  I didn't have a grapefruit flavor in the mix, so I thought of the classic Paloma cocktail (tequila, lime juce, and grapefruit soda).  While not really a tiki drink, it has a sufficiently sandy-beach vibe to sit alongside the other cocktails without clashing.  The Aperol Paloma is a common variant that adds some mildly bitter complexity.  And while the blanco tequila was lovely in combination with the citrus, a switch to lightly aged blended rum put the flavors firmly in the right category.  And while I could go for the classic Squirt grapefruit soda, I prefer the less sweet combination of fresh grapefruit juice, soda water, and a bit of agave nectar.  This particular combination didn't yet have a name, so I looked at the coral pink color and thought of the oceanside mindset I was shooting for.  The Coral Current was born.

Recipe
1 oz lightly aged blended rum (Planteray 3-star)
1 oz Aperol
2 oz fresh grapefruit juice
0.5 oz lime juice
0.25 tsp agave nectar or simple syrup
2 oz chilled club soda
-Shake everything but the club soda with ice. Strain over fresh ice and add the sparkling water.  Stir gently.
-To make a punch instead: scale up ingredients proportionally.  Combine everything except club soda in punch bowl with ice or ice ring.  Add club soda and stir gently.

Four-Rum Mai Tai

 

Story

The Mai Tai was one of the early tiki cocktails. There's some debate about who invented it, but cocktail archaeologist Jeff "Beachbum" Berry holds that Trader Vic invented the drink that we know today as the Mai Tai.  A classic daquiris has just three ingredients - rum, lime, and sugar.  A Mai Tai is a daquiris that uses orgeat (sweet almond syrup) as the sugar and adds orange liqueur.  Period.  End of story.  The drink has suffered some recipe drift over the decades, as well as the indignity of cheap syrups, non-fresh citrus, and gimmicky additions.  Far be it from me to discourage experimentation in cocktail creation, but I hold the same dogmatic opinion here as with the Wisconsin Old-Fashioned.  If you make a different drink, call it something else.  Fight me.

Two things of note with this recipe.  The first is the addition of the lime shell, which is a lime half after the juice has been squeezed out.  I got the idea from tiki expert and bar owner Brian Miller, who maintains that shaking with the lime shell adds additional lime notes from the citrus oils therein.  I tend to agree, and I don't get the bitter notes that some people warn of online.  The other interesting thing is the rum blend.  Tiki bartenders are continually tinkering with blends of different rums for their various cocktails, following the thinking that multiple rums can do things that single rums can't.  I don't have the specific bottles that Brian Miller uses, so my mix is a similar combination of demerara rum, unaged Martinique rhum agricole, pot still Jamaican rum, and lightly aged blended rum.    Interesting, incredibly drinkable, and highly adaptable.  I see why the Mai Tai has become a classic.  Cheers!

Recipe

0.75 oz lime juice

0.75 oz orgeat

0.5 oz curacao
0.5 oz each (El Dorado 5, Rhum JM Blanc, Smith & Cross, Appleton signature)
-Add ingredients, lime shell, 4 ice cubes.  Shake.
-Dump into double old fashioned glass, top with crushed ice.
-garnish with mint sprig.

Saturn

 

Story

While rum is the star player in a great many tiki cocktails, gin is an important supporting player.  The Saturn is a chance for gin to act as the sole spirit while surrounded by other tiki stalwarts like falernum and orgeat.  Passion fruit was a popular tiki cocktail ingredient in the early years of tiki because it was unfamiliar and tasted exotic to most Americans.  As it happens, it also pairs well with both gin and rum.  Its distinct fruity flavor can hold its own against the other strong flavors in a tiki mug to create a balanced drink.  The Saturn is an excellent example of this.  The many flavors in the glass come together to form something altogether different and amazing:  sweet and tart, familiar and novel.  A lesser person would say that the Saturn is out of this world, but there will be none of that here.

Recipe

2.5 oz London dry gin
1 oz lemon juice
1 oz passion fruit syrup
0.5 oz velvet falernum
0.5 oz orgeat
-shake with 1 cup pebble ice.  Dump into double old fashioned glass.  Top with pebble ice.
-optional: garnish with cocktail cherry speared between two citrus peel rings.

Ozymandias

 

Story

Ah, the Vieux Carre – a classic New Orleans cocktail created there in the 1930s.  Boozy, bitter, sweet, and smooth, it features a split base of rye and brandy plus sweet vermouth and Benedictine.  The Ozymandias cocktail is a thoughtful modification of the Vieux Carre.  Bartender Nickle Morris, working at the bar Expo in Louisville, Kentucky, decreased the vermouth a bit to make room for Bigallet China China (pronounced SHEE-na SHEE-na).  This complex amaro is made in France by macerating the peels of Valencia and bitter oranges in neutral spirit before distillation, followed by the addition of all the usual amaro suspects – gentian, cinchona bark, clove, and on and on.  The resulting Ozymandias takes the flavor in a subtly different direction.  It’s still boozy, bitter, and sweet, but there’s an additional citrus angle there that makes a difference.  Like its cousin, this cocktail can be served up or over a rock of ice.  I prefer the latter so the drink can open up over time.  
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! 

Recipe

0.75 oz Rittenhouse Rye
0.75 oz brandy or cognac
0.5 oz Bigallet China China
0.5 oz Benedictine
0.5 oz Carpano Antica sweet vermouth
1 dash Bittermens Elemakule Tiki Bitters

-Stir ingredients with ice.  Strain into old fashioned glass over large ice cube or into a coupe or Nick & Nora.  Express lemon twist over drink and use as a garnish.