Post #678795 by arriano on Tue, May 21, 2013 9:03 AM

The next lost Bali Hai cocktail on the agenda: Planter’s Punch.

Nearly every tiki bar worth its rum has a Planter’s Punch on its menu, and the Bali Hai is no exception. The older cocktail menus show the ingredients as “Fresh Lime, Orange, Pineapple, Cherry Juice, Jamaican rum, Puerto Rican rum.”

The current menu lists the drink’s ingredients as “Coruba Jamaican Dark, Fruit Punch & Cruzan 151.” I don’t know about you, but the earlier version sounds better to me.

So here’s my attempt at recreating the original Planter’s Punch from the Bali Hai:

PLANTER'S PUNCH
1 oz lime juice (I actually used lemon juice as I was out of limes)
1 oz orange juice
2 oz pineapple juice
½ oz cherry juice
1 oz simple syrup
1 oz Puerto Rican light rum (used Cruzan, regular not 151)
1 oz dark Jamaican rum (used Coruba)

Blend ingredients with ice, pour into a vessel and garnish with a mint sprig (and maybe a pineapple spear and cocktail cherry if you have them – I didn’t).

OK, full disclosure: when making two of these cocktails last night, I doubled each ingredient but mistakenly didn’t double the rum. One sip and I knew something wasn’t right. It was very tangy and the cherry juice surprisingly made its presence known. Once I realized my mistake, I made a second batch and the result was a cocktail that was very balanced. It’s amazing what an extra ounce of rum can do for a drink.

"I am Lono!" -- Hale Ka'a Tiki Lounge

[ Edited by: arriano 2013-06-03 11:07 ]