Born in the 1930s, the tiki movement contributed amazing creations to the craft of mixology. The challenge we face today is in recognizing that tiki’s positive contributions are often overshadowed by the misuse of religious symbolism, ignorance of indigenous people, and a generally colonialist view of the entire Pacific Rim. Recent movements like “Doom Tiki” that replace exploitative imagery with death-metal, rockabilly or even just sci-fi themes are early steps toward fixing what’s broken. Enjoy the drinks, but know your history. Read on for a great Tropical Cocktail, The Captain’s Grog.
The Celine Fizz is another riff from bartender Phil Ward of Death & Company fame, updating the classic Ramos Gin Fizz,. St-Germain (an elderflower liqueur) brings a lovely floral note to the velvety texture and tart- sweet effervescence of this elegant riff on a standard Fizz. The New Orleans’s Ramos, notorious for taking an inordinately long time to dry shake the egg white to create a foam column rising above the rim of your collins glass, and is no joke. I got my upper body workout for the day when I made this one. Tip: have your ingredients as cold as possible, and put the coil from your strainer in the tin when shaking. Here we use Plymouth Gin, St-Germain elderflower liqueur along with the sour and sweet elements of lemon, simple syrup, and finally, that all-important egg white.
In a cocktail shaker, combine the gin, St-Germain, Fresh Squeezed Grapefruit Juice, simple syrup, Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice, orange bitters, shaker coil, and egg white and shake well.
Add ice to the shaker and shake again.
Strain the cocktail into a chilled fizz glass or flute.
Place glass in freezer for ten minutes.
Poke a hole in the middle with your straw, then gently pour club soda down the hole.
A column of foam should rise above the top of the glass.
Pinch the grapefruit twist over the drink and rub it around the rim of the glass, drop in or discard.
This classic takes the Sidecar and turns it on its head, replacing dry curaçao’s citrus notes with the herbaceous flavor bomb of green Chartreuse. However, the drink remains balanced between the Chartreuse partnering and not competing with the other ingredients when compared with the Last Word I first discovered this during a socially distanced get-together with Joel & Rachel Silverman, dear family friends who helped keep our family sane (and vice versa) during the depths of the lockdown. Joel has a comprehensive collection of cocktail books and spirits. Tasked with picking a predinner cocktail, I turned to his books and found the late Sasha Petraske’s book Regarding Cocktails. That recipe for this delightful drink was the perfect cocktail for an al fresco dinner on the Silverman’s porch.
Here is another gin sour I keep in frequent rotation for my evening drink that comes from the PDT Cocktail Book I keep in frequent rotation for my evening drink. You must use a good quality cherry for this to work! I’ve tried this with many different gins, and it plays well with your classic London Dry as well as softer Plymouth. The cherry taste definitely reaches the stratosphere between the Luxardo liqueur and the muddled fruit.
