Post #5434 by woofmutt on Fri, Aug 9, 2002 11:18 AM

Vic himself wrote "Don the Beachcomber originated the drink and since then there have been as many different formulas as there are for Planter's Punch." He wrote that in 1946 so quite a few more Zombie recipes probably have flowed under the bridge since then.

I have at least 7 different Zombie recipes in various cocktail books and most of them seem to hover around the recipe in Vic's books. One recipe (from "The Gentleman's Companion" by Charles H. Baker Jr) is entirely different than all the others and, according to the author, was originally published in 1935 "...Whereas the high-proof so called Zombie known to most bar men did not raise its dizzy head until two years, or better, later." For curisoty's sake here's that recipe:

1 & a 1/2 cups coconut milk
3 jiggers cognac
2 ponies Maraschino
2 or 3 dashes Angostura

Put in shaker with lots of very finely cracked ice, shake hard and turn ice and all into small, chilled goblets.

Of the Zombie the Brittish drinks writer Michael Jackson writes "'A Joke drink,' says the bartenders of Britain, through their professional guild. No doubt their counterparts elsewhere in the world agree. The object is to get as many different rums as possible into one drink, like students in a telephone box."

Jackson's comments are mild compared to the following by David A. Embury from "The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks" (1952 edition):
"(The Zombie) is undoubtedly the most overadvertised, overemphasized, overexalted, and foolishly feared drink whose claims to glory ever assaulted the eyes and ears of the gullible American public. Actually, as a drink it is not bad at all; but the claims made for it and the advertising by which it has been touted, as well as one feature of the formula, offend my sensibilities in three respects.
First of all, I am allergic to secret formulas for mixing drinks at a bar or in the home. The Zombie formula is supposed to be the jelously guarded secret of Don the Beachcomber, of Hollywood. One of the rum distillers, however, states that they devised the original formula. Charles Baker Jr., states that he invented a quite different formula some two years ahead of Don the Beachcomber. All this mystery, of course, is calculated to inspire curiosity and thus advertise the drink.
Second, I am also allergic to any fear-inspiring slogan such as "Only two to a customer." Everyone, of course, comes back for a third just to pit his personal prowess against the allegedly devastating power of the drink.
Third, the multiplicity of various rums and other ingredients is an offense against the first principles of drink mixing and adds nothing to the flavor or other values of the drink. Two rums would do as well as four or five. The 151 Demerara adds nothing to the flavor of the drink, and the quantity used is too microscopic to add appreciably to the alcoholic strength. The mere mention of 151-proof liquor, however, is sufficient to add to the mental hazard of the unsophistcated consumer of the drink.
Twenty different bars serving this drink will probably put up eighteen to twenty different versions of it."