Post #430349 by CucamongaChango on Fri, Jan 23, 2009 7:57 PM

Okay, I dunno... but... let me just relay this story... and let me preface by saying I wouldn't be angry about it at all but instead honored as hell.

One day awhile back, this past summer at the Tiki-Ti on one of my many excursions into L.A. from the wilds of Cucamonga, I told Mike Sr. about a drink I had been working on. When finished, he raised an eyebrow and said something like, "hmm... interesting".

The drink is what I call the "Garden of Eden". It has Myers's Dark, passion fruit juice, a generous pinch of cinnamon... and a secret ingredient. Not so secret, really, but not something you'd normally reach for to make yourself some liquid Tiki.

This ingredient is Berentzen Apfelkorn.

I fell in love with the apple/cinnamon/dark rum combo and drank these continuously on the Tiki balcony of my apartment in Cucamonga looking out on the Empire Lakes golf course and Mt. Baldy out beyond. Even though I am now loving NorCal... I really miss those evenings.

So, I don't know if the drink you're talking about is the 151 Swizzle. I've had my share of those, and I don't recall a particular apple flavor to them. Maybe there is a new drink at Tiki-Ti?

I am probably delusional about this whole thing though, as Mike Sr. is a master and I'm just a goofball. But... if my talking to him about my "Garden of Eden" triggered some sort of inspiration, then that's just completely friggin' amazing and I would be humbled immensely by the connection.

Garden of Eden:
Equal parts Myers's Dark Rum and Berentzen Apfelkorn
Double parts passion fruit juice
Big pinch of cinnamon
Shake that sucker big time