Giltron's Mixings

the mixing of exotic cocktails

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  • G&T = Gin and Tiki?

    G&T = Gin and Tiki?

    So Milk & Cheese aren’t the only gin fans out there,there’s a good number of Tiki drinks that use gin instead of rum. So in keeping with the gin roll I’m on,here’s some more to pleasure your pallet.

    Mix #60 Passion Cocktail

    2oz gin
    3/4oz passionfruit syrup
    3/4oz lime juice

    Shake with plenty of ice.

    A simple concoction from Trader Vic’s,this has a sweet taste similar to a Saturn,but only requires three ingredients. An excellent drink to whip up for snooty G&T friends you’re trying to bring over to Tiki.

    Mix #61 Bermuda Hundred

    1.5oz gin
    1.5oz pineapple juice
    1/2oz Campari
    1/2oz orgeat
    1/2oz lime juice

    Shake with ice.

    So this is interesting. I’m not generally into Campari because of its bitterness,but this drink carries it well. It’s sweet with a Campari finish. I was surprised how much I liked it.

    Mix #62 Garden Party

    2oz gin
    1oz blanc vermouth
    3/4oz lemon juice
    1/2oz agave nectar
    1/4oz lime juice

    Shake with ice and pour into double rocks glass.

    Another interesting drink in how the flavor bounces back and forth between sweet and tart. As the name suggests,it would make for a good party drink.

    Mix #63 Humuhumunukunukuapua’a

    2oz gin
    3/4oz pineapple juice
    3/4oz lemon juice
    1/2oz orgeat
    2 dashes bitters

    Shake with ice and pour into Collins glass.

    H-whatever-alphabet is the Hawaiian name for the rectangular triggerfish,the state fish of Hawaii. No,I can’t pronounce it either. I’m sure the bartenders in Hawaii will get it if you ask for ‘the gin drink named after the state fish’(they’re used to Haoles). This is a tart drink,pretty much the opposite of the Saturn. Not really my thing,but if you like sour you’ll like this.

    So go ahead and add some non rum liquors to your home bar. Just be careful;gin has a reputation for blistering hangovers if overused.

  • Let’s be careful out there.

    Let’s be careful out there.

    Unfortunately,you can’t always trust every Tiki recipe out there. If fact,many are pretty bad. But fear not,you can trust your Uncle Giltron. I’m willing to risk my sanity and rum to bring you mixes you can trust.

    I use Fee Brothers orgeat for most of my mixings. It’s pretty good. Too bad the ‘Mai-Tai’ recipe on the bottle is just plain wrong:

    2oz light rum
    1/2oz lime juice
    1/4oz orgeat
    1/4oz curacao

    Just for funnsies,I gave this a try. Yeah,it sucked. Too lime-y and tart. Fortunately,I was able to fix it by adding simple and upping the lime,orgeat,and curacao to where they should be. So I was able to make it a white rum Mai Tai and not completely waste my rum. Once fixed,it was ok,but Mai Tais really need to be made with dark rum. At least I was able to finish it.

    So listen to your Uncle Giltron,follow my mixings and you won’t have any regrets….other than a hangover.

  • Indeed,why not both?

    Indeed,why not both?

    I’ve previously posted gin drinks and apricot brandy drinks,so here’s a pair of recipes that use both.

    Mix #58 Paradise Cocktail

    1.25oz gin
    3/4oz apricot brandy
    1/2oz orange juice

    Shake with ice.

    This didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped. Very tart. If I were to make it again I would switch to tangerine juice and maybe add either some simple or passionfruit syrup.

    Mix #59 Maneater

    1.5oz gin
    1/2oz apricot brandy
    1/2oz curacao
    1.5oz mango juice
    1oz pineapple juice
    3/4oz lime juice
    1/2oz orgeat
    3 dashes bitters

    Shake with ice and pour into tiki mug.

    This was quite nice with an excellent sweet/tart flavor and an apricot finish. Would drink again.

    Don’t stay thirsty my friends,drink a tiki cocktail.

  • Cheating.

    Cheating.

    Well,it’s Labor Day weekend. This is supposed to be Summer’s last hurrah,with folks just hanging out and doing as little as possible. So I’m going to take the weekend off from mixing,and instead cheat with just putting rum in stuff. Here’s my two ‘cheats’,which by the way are actually quite good. Enjoy!

    Mix #56 The Cloudy Horizon

    2oz Kraken Dark Label rum
    12oz good vanilla soda*

    Pour soda into Tiki mug with ice. Add rum. Stir. Add a couple swizzles and an umbrella so it looks legit.

    *I used Natural Brew soda.

    Ok,it’s just rum and soda. But it tastes really good. Dark Label is more vanilla-y than the regular Kraken and really mixes well with vanilla soda. Also does well with Dr Pepper.

    Mix #57 The Fiji Mermaid

    2oz light rum
    1.5oz Skinny Syrups Mermaid syrup
    club soda

    Pour everything into a tall glass with ice so you can see the cool color. Add mermaid swizzle and stir.

    I’ve started playing with some of the Skinny Syrups because they’re sugar free(and cheap at TJ Maxx). Their Mermaid syrup tastes very ‘tropical’ with pineapple and coconut flavor. This is a sweet,touristy drink,but it is very low cal and the low sugar helps reduce the chance of a hangover.

    Well that’s about all the effort I’m putting out this weekend. Time to sip a Mermaid and watch Hawaii Five-0. Cheers!

  • It’s Mai Tai Day!

    It’s Mai Tai Day!

    Happy Mai Tai Day everyone! And today is the correct Mai Tai Day. Proof:

    As I said in my first post,the Mai Tai was created in 1944 by Trader Vic. Here’s the story in his own words:

    “I was at the service bar in my Oakland restaurant. I took down a bottle of 17-year old Jamaican J. Wray Nephew rum, added fresh lime, some Orange Curacao from Holland, a dash of Rock Candy syrup, and a dollop of French Orgeat, for its subtle flavor. A generous amount of shaved ice and a vigorous shaking by hand produced the marriage I was after. Half the lime shell went in for color, I stuck in a branch of fresh mint and gave two of them to Ham and Carrie Guild, friends from Tahiti, who were there that night. Carrie took on sip and said, “Mai Tai – Roa Ae”. In Tahitian this means “Out of this World – The Best”. Well, that was that. I named the drink “Mai Tai”.

    The Mai Tai is probably the best known Tiki drink,and with good reason. It’s just plain delicious. Follow the original recipe,and you can’t go wrong:

    An interesting thing about Mai Tais,is that despite being created in California,most people think of Hawaii. This is because of all the tourist bars in Hawaii which made their versions of the Mai Tai. Kevin Crossman,Mai Tai enthusiast and Tiki historian,wrote an excellent article on the subject on his blog,The Ultimate Mai Tai. From his article,we get a chart of Mai Tai recipes:

    And here’s the one I tried:

    Mix #54 1972 Royal Hawaiian Surf Room Mai Tai

    1oz light rum
    1oz dark rum
    1oz Demerara rum
    1oz orange juice
    1oz pineapple juice
    1/2oz lime juice
    1/4oz lemon juice
    1/4oz orange curacao
    1/4oz orgeat
    1/4oz simple syrup

    Shake with ice and pour into double rocks glass.

    Definitely a tourist drink. Lots of rum for punch,and very ‘tropical’ tasting. Surprising they used ten ingredients though,that’s gotta be tough to mix when there’s a rush at the bar. I think I’ll just stick to the original. Or Kevin’s custom blended version:

    Mix #55 Ultimate Mai Tai

    1oz Fresh Lime Juice
    1/2oz Orgeat (Latitude 29)
    1/4oz Demerara Syrup (BG Reynolds or Liber)
    1/2oz Orange Curacao (Ferrand Dry Curacao or Clement Créole Shrubb)
    1/2oz Appleton 12 Rum
    1/2oz Smith & Cross Rum
    1/2oz Plantation OFTD Rum
    1/2oz Plantation Xaymaca Rum

    Shake with ice and pour into double rocks glass.

    This does make for a very nice Mai Tai.

    Cheers folks!

  • And now for something,completely different.

    And now for something,completely different.

    When you think things tropical,you probably don’t think apricots. But apricot brandy features in many Tiki drinks. For example,the Book of Tiki Zombie:

    Mix #21 Book of Tiki Zombie

    2oz gold rum
    1oz dark rum
    1oz white rum
    1oz lime juice
    3/4oz papaya juice
    3/4oz pineapple juice
    ½ apricot brandy
    1tsp simple syrup

    Shake with ice and pour into tall glass. Add a float of 151 Demerara rum.

    Apricots have an interesting sweet/tart flavor that usually is the finish to drinks that use it. It works quite well as a balancer between sweet syrups and sour juices. As with most brandies,the flavor can come forward if you use too much,and that will be all you taste,so use sparingly.

    Mix #49 Fruits Loops

    1oz white rum
    1oz gin
    3/4oz pineapple mango juice*
    1/2oz apricot liqueur**
    1/2oz mandarin orange juice***
    1/2oz passionfruit syrup

    *I just mixed pineapple and mango juice together and measured off the right amount.
    **I used apricot brandy.
    ***I used tangerine juice,which is close enough.

    Shake with plenty of ice and serve in a double rocks glass.

    This was created by Marie,an award winning bartender,and is featured on BG Reynold’s website. A nice,sweet,summer-y drink.

    Mix #50 Golden Gun

    1oz gold rum
    1oz white rum
    3/4oz lime juice
    3/4oz simple syrup
    1/2oz apricot brandy
    1/2oz grapefruit juice
    dash of bitters

    Shake and strain over fresh ice.

    Created at a Tiki Oasis event,this drink is pretty tart given the amount of simple added.

    Mix #51 Blackbeard’s Ghost

    1.5oz white rum
    1/2oz demerara rum
    1.5oz orange juice
    1oz lemon juice
    1oz falernum
    1/2oz apricot brandy
    2 dashes Angostura bitters

    Shake with plenty of ice.

    Do you like falernum? Because that’s what you’ll taste when you drink this. If I was going to make this again,I’d reduce the falernum and swap in tangerine for orange juice. But I think I’ll just stick with my drink.

    (Update: using velvet falernum instead of golden made it much better.)

    Mix #52 Karate Punch

    1.5oz light rum
    1.5oz dark rum
    1oz lime juice
    1oz pineapple juice
    1oz simple syrup
    3/4oz apricot brandy

    Shake with ice and pour into highball glass.

    To be honest,I could take or leave this. It just doesn’t stand out as a drink. If you like apricot brandy,then you might like it.

    Mix #53 Forbidden Serpent

    2.5oz white rum
    1oz dark rum
    1/2oz apricot brandy
    1/2oz peach schnapps
    2oz orange juice
    2oz pineapple juice
    1oz lime juice

    Shake with plenty of ice and pour into black mug.

    From the season three episode of Tiki Bar TV,“Snake”(featuring the lovely Lala!),this drink has enough kick on its own. But I couldn’t find any peach schnapps back in 2020,so I used Peach 99 instead. At significantly more proof than schnapps,this basically turned this drink into another Zombie. You don’t hear me complaining though.

    This week’s episode has been brought to you by…..the Larch.

  • Blended 2: Electric Boogaloo

    Blended 2: Electric Boogaloo

    The dog days of summer might be past,but it’s still plenty hot enough outside to enjoy a cold blended drink. So here are some more potions to keep your blender busy.

    Mix #41 Pusser’s Painkiller

    2oz Pusser’s Rum
    4oz pineapple juice
    1oz orange juice
    1oz cream of coconut
    ground nutmeg

    Blend everything except nutmeg. Pour into mug,top with nutmeg.

    As I said in my Black Tot Day post,I like my painkillers blended. Use Gunpowder Strength if you want to add more octane.

    Mix #46 Scorpion

    1.5oz gold rum
    3/4oz brandy(cognac)*
    2oz orange juice
    1oz lemon juice
    1/2oz orgeat

    Blend with ice.

    *Some recipes use pisco.

    A classic Tiki drink. A bit tart for my taste,next time I try it I’m going to back off the lemon juice and swap tangerine for the orange.

    Mix #47 Midori Colada

    1/2oz white rum
    1.5oz Midori
    2oz coconut cream
    1.5oz pineapple juice

    Blend with ice until smooth

    With only a half ounce of rum,this makes a nice low-wattage drink for parties and cookouts. The melon/coconut/pineapple blend isn’t too sweet and the drink comes out a nice light green that looks good in a glass.

    Mix #48 Sugar Island Rum Runner

    3/4oz Sugar Island spiced rum
    1/4oz blackberry liqueur*
    1/4oz creme de banana liqueur
    2oz orange juice
    1/2oz grenadine
    8oz ice

    Blend until smooth.

    *I used blackberry brandy.

    I found Sugar Island rum at the local liquor store and gave it a try. It’s now my go-to for spiced rum. This recipe is from their site,which seems to be down at the moment. The bright color,fruity taste,and low yield payload make it an excellent party drink.

    Yo ho ho and a blender of rum!

  • Here we go again!

    Here we go again!

    I’ve once again been published! The new issue #20 of Exotica Moderne has my Funk #44 in ‘the Cocktail Hour’,page 43.

    What’s even cooler is I own a couple versions of that mug:

    Hope you all enjoy the drink!

  • Toasting the arts.

    Toasting the arts.

    I recently went to the grocery store to pick up some more cold pressed lime juice. This stuff is awesome. It’s actually better than fresh squeezed IMHO because there’s zero effort and cleanup involved(I am a bachelor) and because it’s a mix of many limes,the PH is balanced. Unfortunately they were out,but they did have cold pressed tangerine juice. So I picked some up to experiment with substituting for orange juice. After getting home,I logged into Facebook and found I had been given a top fan badge from MeduSirena. She’s the famous fire eating mermaid,and one of these days I need to get down to the Wreck Bar to see her. Anyway,to celebrate whenever a Tiki A-Lister notices me on Facebook,I make one of their cocktails,or a cocktail that is representative of them. So I made her cocktail:

    Mix #42 Sea Hag

    2oz white rum
    2oz blue curacao
    4oz orange juice
    1oz lime juice
    1oz lemon juice

    Shake with plenty of ice and pour into double rocks glass.

    This recipe comes from the Lava Flow Inn. If you’ve never heard of this bar,that’s because it’s the personal bar of Matt Reese,one of the co-owners of Home Aloha. They had the recipe on one of their Mai Tai glasses. I tried it awhile back and found it was a bit tart for my taste. So this time around I decided to swap the lemon juice for pineapple and swapped my new tangerine for orange. These changes sweetened the drink without radically altering it,and it’s how I’ll make it from now on.

    Here’s the other toasting drinks I’ve made.

    Mix #43 Gamma Gamma Hey

    1oz Smith & Cross
    1oz Plantation Original Dark
    ½ allspice dram
    1/2oz passionfruit syrup
    1/2oz guanabana nectar*
    1/2oz lime juice
    1oz Plantation OFTD

    Shake everything except OFTD with ice and pour into mug. Float OFTD on top.

    *Guanabana is also called sour sop and can be found in the Latin section of your grocery store.

    I made this again after Ken from House of Tabu accepted my friend request. I’ve been a huge fan of his mugs and his Tiki magazine Exotica Moderne(that my Corsair Punch was published in). This was the drink card recipe from the original blue Gamma Gamma Hey mugs(one of my favs),and the Tabu recipes have all been delicious. Warning,it will mess you up.

    Mix #44 Hippopotomai-Tai

    1oz dark rum
    1oz light rum
    1oz lime juice
    1/2oz orange curacao
    1/2oz orgeat
    1/2oz agave nectar

    Shake with plenty of ice and pour into double rocks glass.

    Kevin Crossman is a Mai Tai enthusiast who runs the site Ultimate Mai Tai. I found this recipe on Etsy. It was carved into a wooden cutting board and is supposed to be one of the drinks from the Trader Sam’s Tiki bars at the Disney parks. I can’t vouch for it’s authenticity,but I can vouch for the fact that it makes a nice,slightly sweetish version of the Mai Tai. I think he would approve of it.

    Mix #45 Chimp in Orbit

    1.5oz 151 rum
    2oz orange juice
    1oz lemon juice
    1oz sweet vermouth
    1/2oz orange curacao
    1/4oz creme de cacao
    1/4oz grenadine

    Blend with ice.

    I made this for Crazy Al Evens. He’s a Tiki artist who makes ridiculously cool mugs and fronts an exotica group called APE the Band. With one and a half ounces of 151,after a couple of these,you’ll be crazier than he is!

    Mix #17 Midori Cactus Juice

    1oz coconut rum
    1oz vodka
    1oz Midori
    3oz pineapple juice
    splash of club soda

    Shake everything together except soda. Pour into glass,top with soda,and stir.

    Moki Sato is a very talented exotica artist from Japan who was featured on the cover of issue 19 of Exotica Moderne. I really like the way he blends traditional exotica with a touch of anime. I toasted him with one of the mixings from my Midori post that was good enough to make it into my regular rotation. I just need to get one of his mugs to enjoy it in.

    So now you have some delicious cocktails to enjoy while checking out some seriously cool people. Enjoy!

  • Happy Black Tot Day!

    Happy Black Tot Day!

    Today we remember the end of the daily rum ration in the British Royal Navy;Black Tot Day. On July 31st,1970,the tradition started in 1740 by Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon came to an end. Oh the sailors were given a ration of beer,but I mean….beer. That’s not rum.

    So to celebrate this holiday properly,you need to make one of two drinks:

    Mix #10 Traditional Grog

    1.5oz navy strength rum*
    1oz lime juice
    1/2oz simple syrup**

    *I recommend Pusser’s Gunpowder or Hamilton’s Navy Grog Blend.
    **Rock candy or Demerara syrup work best.

    The original grog as ‘enjoyed’ by the sailors.

    Mix #41 Pusser’s Painkiller

    2oz Pusser’s Rum*
    4oz pineapple juice
    1oz orange juice
    1oz cream of coconut
    ground nutmeg

    *For Black Tot Day,I recommend Pusser’s Gunpowder.

    Shake everything except nutmeg. Pour into mug filled with ice. Top with nutmeg.

    Pusser’s was actually issued to sailors,so it’s perfect for Black Tot. Their recipe was dictated by military standards. Must be why it tastes so good. A very smooth Demerara rum made of a blend of five rums from Guyana and Trinidad. Oh,and in keeping with summertime and blending,I prefer blending my Painkillers to shaking them. Try it!

    Oh,and since it’s a holiday and all,why not make both?