Your Best Drink Creation (So Far...) - Tiki Drinks and Food

TT Trader Tom Tiki Socialite West Hills, CA Joined: Jan 26, 2006 Posts: 980	TT Trader Tom Posted posted on Mon, Aug 17, 2009 2:04 AM Tiki Oasis 9 has come to an end. This was my third year as one of the room crawl hosts. What a blast!!! My good friend Dibroc and I enjoyed serving Hibiscus Hula Cocktails to everyone that came to The Morbid Room Friday and Saturday night. I printed out several copies of the recipe for those of you that attended, but if you missed it, lost it, or wanted to send the recipe to a friend, here's the recipe once more (with some clarifications): HIBISCUS HULA COCKTAIL Makes 12 ounces. 1 oz Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice ¾ oz Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice ¼ oz Orgeat Syrup ( I used Torani) ¼ oz Crème de Banana Schnapps (I used 99 Bananas) 1 oz Home Made Hibiscus Syrup 1 oz Cruzan Estate Light Rum ¾ oz Cruzan Estate Dark Rum 5 oz Crushed Ice 1 oz Club Soda Garnish with hibiscus flower and paper umbrella (if available). HIBISCUS SYRUP Makes 3 Big Bottles. 4 packages of Jamaica (Ha-my-ka) Brand dried Hibiscus flowers from Spanish Market that are normally used for tea 10 cups sugar 10 cups water 1 juiced lemon 3 shots of Wray and Nephew’s Overproof Rum Dissolve water and sugar over medium heat, add flowers and lemon juice, then bring to boil. Let steep for 4 minutes. Sift flowers and pour hot syrup into 3 big bottles that have been pre-warmed in hot water to avoid cracking from sudden temperature increase. Top with rum and let bottles cool in medium cool water bath till cool to touch. * Clarifications * During the crawl you sometimes have to make concessions because of the number of people that come through. A few times during the evening I ran short on limes and lemons and resorted to Santa Cruz Organic bottled juice from Whole Foods. It's not as good as fresh squeezed, but okay in a pinch. Also, my ice crusher was pretty slow, so rather than all crushed ice, I used regular bagged ice and then threw a little crushed ice in. At home you can take your time and do it right. In the syrup recipe, I neglected to mention what size the bags of hibiscus were. They contain 8-10 oz each. Depending on the size of your pot, you may want to do a half batch to avoid a boil over mess. Also, my friend SparkleMark (a whiz at syrup making) suggested not using the lemon juice because it tends to cause syrup to spoil faster in his experience. He suggested lemon zest from a lemon rind as an alternate because it has the essential oils in it. My grater got lost, so I tried making some without the lemon and it tasted the same to me. You can probably omit it if you don't plan on using all the syrup right away. Also, the Hibiscus Hula Cocktail has fresh lemon juice in it already, so it's kind of redundant to have more in the syrup if you're using it for this cocktail. Typically, SparkleMark says that these home made syrups last about 2 weeks tops if unrefrigerated but as long as a month if kept in the refrigerator. I run through the syrup pretty fast and haven't tested this yet! Someone asked me why I poured the hot syrup into bottles instead of waiting for it to cool. I have no answer, other than I read somewhere to do it that way. If nothing else, it adds a fun element of danger as you try to avoid scalding yourself with hot syrup. :wink: For those of you wondering about my giant 4-glass-at-a-time shaker, it made it through the end of Saturday night, but due to the crack at the top, I'm going to retire it. Let me know if you spot any for sale somewhere. I'm looking to replace it. It's so handy for the crawls! I'm still experimenting with the hibiscus syrup and using it in place of grenadine in different recipes. Let me know if you find other great uses for it.

Tiki Oasis 9 has come to an end. This was my third year as one of the room crawl hosts. What a blast!!! My good friend Dibroc and I enjoyed serving Hibiscus Hula Cocktails to everyone that came to The Morbid Room Friday and Saturday night. I printed out several copies of the recipe for those of you that attended, but if you missed it, lost it, or wanted to send the recipe to a friend, here's the recipe once more (with some clarifications):

HIBISCUS HULA COCKTAIL

*Makes 12 ounces.

1 oz Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice
¾ oz Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice
¼ oz Orgeat Syrup ( I used Torani)
¼ oz Crème de Banana Schnapps (I used 99 Bananas)
1 oz Home Made Hibiscus Syrup
1 oz Cruzan Estate Light Rum
¾ oz Cruzan Estate Dark Rum
5 oz Crushed Ice
1 oz Club Soda

Garnish with hibiscus flower and paper umbrella (if available).

HIBISCUS SYRUP

*Makes 3 Big Bottles.

4 packages of Jamaica (Ha-my-ka) Brand dried Hibiscus flowers from Spanish Market that are normally used for tea
10 cups sugar
10 cups water
1 juiced lemon
3 shots of Wray and Nephew’s Overproof Rum

Dissolve water and sugar over medium heat, add flowers and lemon juice, then bring to boil. Let steep for 4 minutes. Sift flowers and pour hot syrup into 3 big bottles that have been pre-warmed in hot water to avoid cracking from sudden temperature increase. Top with rum and let bottles cool in medium cool water bath till cool to touch.

*** Clarifications ***

During the crawl you sometimes have to make concessions because of the number of people that come through. A few times during the evening I ran short on limes and lemons and resorted to Santa Cruz Organic bottled juice from Whole Foods. It's not as good as fresh squeezed, but okay in a pinch. Also, my ice crusher was pretty slow, so rather than all crushed ice, I used regular bagged ice and then threw a little crushed ice in. At home you can take your time and do it right.

In the syrup recipe, I neglected to mention what size the bags of hibiscus were. They contain 8-10 oz each. Depending on the size of your pot, you may want to do a half batch to avoid a boil over mess. Also, my friend SparkleMark (a whiz at syrup making) suggested not using the lemon juice because it tends to cause syrup to spoil faster in his experience. He suggested lemon zest from a lemon rind as an alternate because it has the essential oils in it. My grater got lost, so I tried making some without the lemon and it tasted the same to me. You can probably omit it if you don't plan on using all the syrup right away. Also, the Hibiscus Hula Cocktail has fresh lemon juice in it already, so it's kind of redundant to have more in the syrup if you're using it for this cocktail. Typically, SparkleMark says that these home made syrups last about 2 weeks tops if unrefrigerated but as long as a month if kept in the refrigerator. I run through the syrup pretty fast and haven't tested this yet!

Someone asked me why I poured the hot syrup into bottles instead of waiting for it to cool. I have no answer, other than I read somewhere to do it that way. If nothing else, it adds a fun element of danger as you try to avoid scalding yourself with hot syrup. :wink:

For those of you wondering about my giant 4-glass-at-a-time shaker, it made it through the end of Saturday night, but due to the crack at the top, I'm going to retire it. Let me know if you spot any for sale somewhere. I'm looking to replace it. It's so handy for the crawls!

I'm still experimenting with the hibiscus syrup and using it in place of grenadine in different recipes. Let me know if you find other great uses for it.

Post #477452 by Trader Tom on Mon, Aug 17, 2009 2:04 AM