Post #315634 by dianalily on Thu, Jun 28, 2007 11:38 PM

This evening's recipe:

1oz Cruzan Black Cherry Rum*
1oz Cruzan Dark Rum
1/2oz Rose's Triple Sec
1/2oz Orgeat (almond syrup)
1oz pineapple juice
1oz orange juice
dash Giroux's Grenadine to color
dash lime juice

Shake and strain. Serve in highball (hawaiian tiki-motif ceramic, preferably) over ice. Garnish with skewer of orange, lime and cherry. And an umbrella!

My patrons loved it, but remarked that the drink didn't taste as strong as the typical Chinese Restaurant beverage. Floating a layer of dark rum changed that. 1&1/2 oz of each rum in the second round making also alleviated the "I can't taste the alcohol in this" syndrome (that comment heard when I was bartending meant you'd just ordered your last martini from me. But I made the Mai-tais in my home, not to mention that it was a new recipe so we adjusted the amounts of rum).

Disclosure: after a post-drinking-age-in-the-Bahamas-is-18 incident in college, I generally don't drink rum - not so's I can smell it in the drink, that is. But party before country** prevails.

• Most recipies I perused called for 1oz Light Rum and 1/2oz cherry Syrup. The Cruzan Black Cherry Rum takes care of both with a sweet, smooth flavor and fragrance, and makes for one fewer ingredient to buy.

** Apologies to the Hon. H.G. Blake, of Ohio.