u/Jon-Tiki

So after debating for a while, I recently grabbed a masticating juicer specifically to have fresh pineapple juice on hand. And for the first drink made using the juice, I figured I’d go with a Painkiller riff.

The spec is:

4oz fresh pineapple juice
1oz fresh orange juice
0.25oz fresh lime juice
1oz cream of coconut (SC recipe)
1oz Pusser’s
1oz Pusser’s Gunpowder Proof
0.5oz Planteray Mr. Fogg Sail #2
0.5oz El Dorado LBI/DHE High Ester Blend
0.25oz Hampden LROK The Younger

Garnish with an orange wheel, pineapple fronds, and a generous dusting of fresh grated nutmeg — then enjoy the last afternoon of the long weekend.

Too good not to do this 😅

The most important decision will be which one to open first…

Yes, it’s a bit of a splurge and perhaps a ridiculous use of booze — but it’s also the first cocktail I’ve had in almost a week after having non-drinking family members visit…

… and it’s freaking delicious! Rich and boozy, with a deep funk, a note not unlike cola, and a long, lingering finish with a bit of an industrial note. Am I gonna use the whole bottle of The Maverick in this fashion? No. Am I going to make more of these? Umm, hell yes!

Spec:

1 oz fresh lime
0.5 oz PF Dry Curaçao
0.5 oz Liber & Co orgeat
0.25 oz homemade Demerara syrup
1.0 oz Hampden The Maverick
1.0 oz Holmes Cat Réunion Island Rum Traditionnel
6 drops 20% saline solution

Garnished with home-grown mint, shaken with pebble ice and dirty dumped.

Took my non-drinking guests to the airport this morning, so this afternoon I’ll be breaking in to some of the recent new additions. I had held off on picking up a bottle of The Maverick for a while, but with a big gift certificate burning a hole in my proverbial pockets, I decide to take the plunge.

It may be a little while before I can fully dive into these, as I’ve got some non-drinking family members visiting from Texas for the next few days, but before I went to the airport, I picked up a few things…

Not sure if anyone else is encountering this, but even though episode 5 should be available, it seems to have disappeared completely from the app on both iOS and Apple TV. Haven’t had a chance to log in via a browser to check yet. Seems like the new app is just as broken as the old app.

EDIT: Episode 5 doesn’t appear when logging in via a browser either.

I must be doing this wrong, because I don’t think I’ve ever tasted the “funky hobo” note in any rum… 🤦‍♂️😅

Did I need a Zombie on a Monday evening? Nope.

But I wanted one.

Using the 1934 recipe, with the following blend of rums:

1.5 oz Bacardi 10
.75 oz Appleton 12
.75 oz Coruba
1 oz Hamilton Demerara 151

I had to do a slight swap, as none of the liquor stores nearby had the Tempus Fugit banana liqueur. I had the Giffard, so it got thrown in the mix. I made the banana peel oleo saccharum and a 20% saline solution.

This is delicious — and deceptively strong! To the user who originally shared the recipe (u/ericmalmquist), thank you!

This was my first time making an oleo saccharum. It was super easy and flavorful… though I find myself wondering if I might be able to add some additional banana bread spices to the resulting syrup…

So this morning I was cleaning and reorganizing my cabinet of mugs and glassware, and a puzzle has emerged…

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I don’t know when or how I acquired this mug. I could have purchased it myself, or it could have been a gift. There’s no maker’s mark on the bottom of the mug, and a quick search of both MyTiki.life and The Search for Tiki didn’t turn up any result.

Does anyone here know any details about this (I’m assuming) Cthulhu mug?

It’s been a wild week at work, and this is my first drink since last weekend’s home bar tour in Atlanta. I felt like experimenting with the SC recipe for coconut cream, as I can’t always find Coco Lopez easily and Réal often seems too thick and goopy. So I made a batch of the SC recipe and figured what better first drink than a Painkiller… and let me tell ya, I had extra pain to kill.

Rum spec was:

1 oz Pusser’s Gunpowder Proof
1oz Plantation / Planteray OFTD
0.75 oz Plantation / Planteray Stiggins’ Fancy Pineapple
0.75 oz Plantation / Planteray Cut & Dry Coconut

And a healthy dose of fresh grated nutmeg on top.

Does anyone have experience freezing the SC coconut cream? If it handles it well, I might freeze half the batch.

Another first tonight. Service left a bit to be desired, but the food, drink, and ambiance were just about perfect.

A great start to the weekend…

First time trying this recipe from the Total Tiki app. Leaving town tomorrow morning to head to Atlanta for the Inuhele home bar tour, and had no limes on hand - just a lemon, two oranges, and some pineapple juice. I wanted to try something a little different from what I’d usually reach for in this situation (Mr. Bali Hai, Port Light, or Painkiller most likely). Pretty happy with this one!

People recently mentioned how good this was in a daiquiri, so I had to give it a go this weekend. I’m honestly surprised by how clearly the rum comes through, even with addition of lime juice and my homemade spiced Demerara syrup. Powerful stuff, and it really shines in a daiquiri!

First time drinking a Mr. Bali Hai out of my recently acquired vintage mug. Both of the rums I’m using this time are new to the mix, with all other elements (including the coffee liqueur) the same.

And I fully admit that it may be all in my head — but it tastes much better than the last one that I made, which tasted pretty damn good on its own. The difference on paper isn’t vast. This time I used White Stache instead of the Breezeway Blend, and Worthy Park 109 instead of Coruba.

I was digging through a stack of items that I hadn’t really looked at since shortly after my move from Austin to Charlotte and found a couple of these bumper stickers that I got during one of my first trips to Tiki Tatsu-ya right after they opened. I had forgotten all about them!

Not sure whether these are still made and available, but thought it might be of interest.

So it will probably be a while before I have a proper tiki space in my home, but I’ve been gathering bits and bobs as I’ve come across them (Japanese fish floats, ephemera, lauhala, etc.). When I saw the article in EM #30 about the velvet art of Tracy Ruge-Folks, this painting immediately caught my eye. I really didn’t think it would still be available — but it was, and now it lives with me. Can’t speak highly enough about my experience with Tracy, but to put it in perspective, I’m already discussions about additional commissions with her.

EDIT: For those who may be interested, here is the artist’s website: https://www.tracyrugefolksart.com

Tangentially related — when I moved from Austin to Charlotte, I bought a newly built home, and I really do love it… but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t wished multiple times over the years that I had bought a house with a basement!

I had really just intended to pick up a replacement for the Coruba bottle I recently emptied, and all of the sudden this happened. Aside from the Coruba, all of these are new to me. Couldn’t pass up the new ECS, and the rum guy at the store was raving about this pineapple rum, so I figured I’d give it a shot too.