Post #734538 by Swanky on Wed, Jan 7, 2015 11:43 AM

On 2015-01-07 11:29, rockydog101 wrote:

On 2015-01-07 09:06, Swanky wrote:
Mr. Purist would say: DtB revolutionized mixology by making drinks with 10 or more ingredients and balancing them well. When he started business, cocktails were mostly 2 or 3 ingredients and mostly just straight booze with a little flavoring added. If we take a complex masterpiece like the Zombie and try to make it a simple drink, we defeat the purpose of the genre itself.

Make whatever cocktail you want, but don't drag the classic into the mud by calling your drink by it's name. How about some Beethoven simplified? Maybe some Picasso simplified?

What's the issue? Go to Hawaii (or your typical local bar) and ask for a Mai Tai. Or hell, ask for a Zombie.

Oh my god, some of these replies are hilarious. The original post is merely asking how you can take a simple drink formula and make it a little more simple and still have a tasty drink. No one is saying it will still be a zombie or anything, and, no offense, but the zombie isn't some mythical drink that deserves to be put up on a pedestal. It's just a nice combination of flavors. To remotely compare it to Beethoven or Picasso is just ridiculous.

Well, let me refer you to the writings of Jeff Beachbum Berry in Sippin Safari on the topic of the Zombie. I believe he has a chapter or two on how that drink started the Tiki era and was a landmark that spread across the country. Long before the Mai Tai existed, the Zombie was the touchstone, the famous cocktail of Tiki. It was ripped off and bastardized even in the 1940s. Unlike Vic's Mai Tai, Don kept that recipe a closely guarded secret and only until a few years ago no one on earth knew how to make it except the Mai-Kai head bartender. From 1989 when the last DtB's closed until 2007 when The Bum published it, it was a ghost. And until maybe the last 5 years, the only place left on the planet to get served the real Zombie was the Mai-Kai. Not sure who serves one today, but probably someone does now that it is a published recipe.

It should be put on a pedestal. It is indeed a mythical drink that Jeff Berry spent over a decade trying to find. And were it not for Jeff digging to find it and publishing it, we'd be drinking Zombies that taste like old socks as we were in the dark ages of the early 2000s.

DtB was to mixology what Beethoven was to music or Picasso to art, a great master. Don was arguable the greatest mixologist of all time, though various researchers are bringing great names to us today who can contend for the title.

Announcing Swank Pad and Crazy Al's Molokai Maiden!

[ Edited by: Swanky 2015-01-07 11:49 ]