Post #108111 by donhonyc on Thu, Aug 12, 2004 9:35 PM

Seems like the mixological journey of Grog Log and Intoxica is endless, in a good way that is. I guess I have been mixing from both for about a year now, and may fave drinks thus far are:

Trader Vic Grog. Why? It's easy to make and there are no limes involved which is cool because even if you stock up on limes and don't use them right away, they dry up. So the no-lime aspect is an attractive feature of this one. In fact I am drinking one right now from one of my no-longer-issued Mai Kai tiki god mugs.

The other fave is the Tonga Zombie. Same thing, this is easy to make. Yeah a fresh lime is required, but other than than it's just pinapple juice, Passion Fruit syrup and... oh I forgot, but it's easy. Don't get me wrong, I like the more complex drinks, like the Zombie on pg 89 of Grog Log. But if you aren't prepared for that one with the Apple Jack, 151, and powdered sugar your sunk. Plus if you have a friend or two over and you want to whip up a nice drink for them, the Tonga Zombie does it.

Of course the Hurricaine is great and some of the other Coconut drinks. Planet of the Apes is also very tasty. The ones I haven't done so far are the non-rum drinks. I tried the Fog Cutter, but it seemed to dry to me. I also wasn't crazy about the Rum Lift or the Planters Punch.

There are a ton more I want to try.

On my last visit to Trader Vic's Atlanta, Joel the bar manager was good enough to write don the recipe for the Zombie they serve there:

1 oz gold rum
1 oz light rum
1 oz orange curacao
squeeze lime
dash OJ
dash lemon juice
dash grenadine
('dash' =1/4oz)

I tried this at home and it wasn't like the one I had there. I think maybe because Bacardi rum kinda sucks(?). any suggestions?

Also I have put a temporary embargo on Mai Tais around here. Why? Because when I mix them they kinda suck. This is probably because when I was originally mixing them by feel, or to be clearer, BAD feel, they were way sweeter than the recipe in GL. I liked the ones I was making, but I wanted to be drinking the real deal. Not a really sweet one that I was half-assing that technically wasn't even a Mai Tai just a donhonyc "Manhattan-Tai" (I just made that up). The other reason why I thought mine blew was because the Mai Tais at Vic's are made with the Mai Tai concentrate that isn't available to consumers. When I told Joel that I can never replicate the taste at home, he was like 'you won't be able to....besides we need to draw people in somehow'. Makes sense and made me feel better because I then knew that it wasn't me F'ing them up at home. What I really want to do is mix the recipe featured in Tiki Road Trip that is preffered by "Mai Tai expert Kevin Crossman". The one on page 260 that uses TV's Mai Tai mix in addition to some of the other traditional Mai Tai ingredients. I just have to order some of the mix online.

Now if you have made it all the way to the end of this post, I'd like to offer a 'Mystery Drink' recipe that Joel at TV's Atlanta wrote down for me. I still haven't tried it so it is truly a mystery to me. If you mix it up let me know how it is. It sounds good:

1oz Absolut Vanilla
3/4oz Apple Pucker
1oz grapefruit
3/4oz passionfruit

Aloha! :drink:

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2004-08-12 21:40 ]