Post #731728 by mikehooker on Tue, Nov 18, 2014 9:04 PM

Had a couple Jet Pilots tonight. I have thoroughly enjoyed the Hayward Mai Kai tribute recipe in the past and since I recently made some homemade cinnamon syrup I decided to try the Steve Crane "Luau" version from Sippin Safari/Total Tiki app. I used Kohala Bay for my dark Jamaican, Flor de Cana as my "gold Puerto Rican" and of course LH151. I felt it was a very unbalanced drink. The intensity and uniqueness of the Kohala and LH were fighting for dominance over the falernum, cinnamon and pernod. Even with 10 ingredients (one more than Crane), the Hayward tribute manages to mesh all these interesting flavors into something far more cohesive and delicious, to my palette anyway. Has anyone else felt this way about the Crane recipe or did I do something wrong? The only thing I skimped on was the grapefruit juice which was from a bottle and probably from concentrate, but still 100% juice with no additives.

Since I was dissatisfied with the first drink and wanted to continue playing with the cinnamon syrup, I tried Hayward's v.2 recipe which calls for it (the first tribute doesn't) as well as OJ, which seems unique to a Jet Pilot. I found this one to be a nice drink on par with his first version. Of course then I wanted to make a third drink to compare this to his other recipe but felt two Jet Pilots in one night was adequate so I'll have to save that taste test for another night. At any rate, both Hayward versions are supremely better than the Crane recipe in my mind. Oh yeah, I did use Coruba instead of Kohala in this last one but pretty sure I used KB in all my other Jet Pilots which seems to suit them well.

Sorry, no pretty pics this time, just jabber.

[ Edited by: mikehooker 2014-11-18 21:07 ]