Hello and happy Friday one and all. The last few weeks I’ve been planning spring and/ or summer trips with the Sharkbait clan. Currently, somewhere in the Caribbean is the frontrunner, and being February, combined with the fact the high temperature is topping out at a balmy 18 degrees, with windchill temperatures. hitting into negative 40s, is making me long to be somewhere warm once again. With that in mind, I decided to get creative and make my own tropical/tiki(ish) drink this week. I have the relevant ingredients on hand, so why not give it a shot? I decided to go with a rum base, and add lime, pineapple and falernum. I based the proportions off of this recipe I found, called the “usual suspects“. Of which I will save for later.

3/4 oz. lime juice
3/4 oz. pineapple juice
2 oz. rum
1/2 oz. falernum
2 -4 dashes Angostura Bitters
Marashino Cherry for garnish

Add the lime, pineapple rum and falernum to a cocktail shaker. Shake with ice and strain into a rocks glass.

*For the rum, I (obviously) went with Don Q. I do have a bottle of Wray and Nephew Overproof Rum, but I erred on the side of caution for this one. Depends how it turns out, I might re-make it with the overproof rum just to see how the bigger booze kick plays with the balance and flavors.

I get some faint hints of lime on the nose, along with some pineapple aromas that manages to sneak through. Overall it smells bright and tropical, which is exactly what I was going for.

The sip starts out very well balanced, with a nice blend of the ingredients, before the bitters take over, and take over hard they do. I think the 2-4 dashes is a little bit too much, as the finish is basically bitters with a touch of lime sourness that comes through. In order to counteract, I ended up adding about half a barspoon of the maraschino cherry syrup. I figured the flavors would go nicely and would be a better solution than adding anything else. Luckily, that absolutely did the trick. The extra hit of sweetness the syrup brings to the table rescued this drink and brought it back to a much welcome state of equilibrium.

With the bitters reigned in, the rest of the flavors can shine. The pineapple has a nice tart fruity flavor that the falernum and lime complement well. The rum hides in all of this. I can barely tell it’s there. Good thing I didn’t go with the overproof rum here.

I still think it’s missing something though, but I’m not exactly sure what though. Maybe an orange liqueur like Cointreau or triple sec might add that missing piece? Or maybe some Allspice Dram. Either way, I think this is a decent first attempt at my own tropical/tiki/island drink, and it’s something I’ll workshop to get better. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go listen to my Jimmy Buffet playlist, and daydream about a Caribbean beach and put six holes in my freezer.

(Banner image courtesy Matthew Tetrault Photography)