Planter's punch

Picture this if you will, a Southern gentleman in his white plantation suit and hat sitting on the veranda of an old Antebellum home somewhere in Kentucky fanning himself and sipping on a refreshing drink such as planters punch.
This drink was very typical of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in large plantations in the south and in the Caribbean where rum, sugar and tobacco were the best crops and it was hot and humid and drinks like this were a necessity. The punch was a simple mixture of local rums, often with cane syrup and citrus juices which was sometimes produced on the same plantation. I've had this drink and can't say enough about it being so refreshing especially during the long hot summer days. Try it and let me know what you think.

Cheers,

John Apodaca
john@daddyosmartinis.com

Planters Punch

3/4 oz Myer's dark Rum
3/4 oz light rum
3/4 oz orange curacao
1/2 oz John K. Taylor's Velvet Falernum
1 oz simple syrup
3/4 oz fresh squeezed orange juice
3/4 oz unsweetened pineapple juice
1/2 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
Dash of grenadine
Dash of Angostura bitters
Orange slice and Marasca cherry for garnish

Will the Real Mai Tai please Stand up!

The Mai Tai has a Polynesian name but was invented by Victor Bergeron (Trader Vic) in Emeryville, California in 1944.  According to documented accounts Vic was manning the bar at his restaurant (Hinky Dink's when two of his Tahitian friends asked him to make them something unusual. Vic did so and after tasting the drink they raised their glasses shouted "Mai tai Roa ae" which loosely translated, means the best damn thing we've ever drunk.

The cocktail has some complex flavors that are both sweet and sharp, I've tried the recipe and have made it for friends and they love it. Unfortunately over the years like a lot of cocktails, lazy bartenders have used shortcuts to make the drink and it has been degraded to nothing more than spiked fruit punch. If your serious about quality bartending using ingredients that were intended for this cocktail use the following recipe and let me know how it comes out.

Cheers,

John Apodaca

john@daddyosmartinis.com

Mai Tai


1 oz light Rum
1 oz dark Rum
Juice of one lime
1/2 oz orange Curacao
1 1/2 oz simple syrup
1 1/2 tsp orgeat (almond syrup)
Lime peel
Mint sprig

Place rums, curacao and syrups in a cocktail shaker with cracked ice. Shake and strain into a chilled old fashioned glass with ice and garnish with lime and mint. Serve with a straw.