Updates to The Mai-Kai Cocktail Guide on The Atomic Grog - Tiki Drinks and Food

M mikehooker Grand Member (3 years) Austin Joined: Jul 17, 2014 Posts: 1211	M mikehooker Posted posted on Sun, Mar 1, 2015 11:43 AM Ended up making three versions of the Moonkist Coconut last night. Will have to save Molokai Swizzle for another night (tonight?). So I previously reported on the "What are you drinking now" thread that I preferred your Moonkist tribute recipe over the published Mai Kai recipe in Esquire as the rum and coconut proportions were much more balanced and using Cayman Reef, Flor de Cana and Fee's falernum earned the drink a solid 7 on my ten point scale. (I actually keep tabs on most every drink I make, with ratings, ingredients and measurements so if it scores low, I know what I did and can tinker later to try and improve, or if it scores 8 and above, it's something I put into regular rotation). Well since then I picked up Mt Gay Eclipse, Cruzan light and Velvet falernum so I wanted to mess around a bit. I started off making two cocktails, both with Mt Gay and Cruzan, exact proportions of everything, but one with Fee Bros and one with Velvet. While I've been preferring Velvet in many of the spicier drinks I've been gravitating to lately, I had a feeling the sweetness of the Fee's would be the winner in this drink. And by a very slight margin, it was. In a blind taste test Chelsea felt the cocktail with Velvet tasted "boozier," which makes sense since it is a liqueur, but with such a small amount (1/4 oz) I don't think it adds that much actual alcohol content, but may sway the flavor in that direction. So the Fee's won out but the drink wasn't as good as we remembered when we rated it a 7. So I made another one, this time with Fees and the Cayman Reef. It was the best of the three but still not quite on par with the Flor de Cana version. I'm out of Flor de Cana or I would have made one more version to the exact spec that earned it the 7 rating just to verify my initial findings. Looking back over the past couple months, I think a lot of the drinks that I would normally use de Cana as my white aren't quite as good with Cruzan. I figured they would be mostly interchangeable and I think I remember you mentioning at some point that Cruzan is what the Mai Kai uses in their well for white. Is that so? When you make this, what are the rums and falernum you prefer? I'm thinking I need to go back to Flor de Cana as my base white. [ Edited by: mikehooker 2015-03-01 11:46 ]

Ended up making three versions of the Moonkist Coconut last night. Will have to save Molokai Swizzle for another night (tonight?).

So I previously reported on the "What are you drinking now" thread that I preferred your Moonkist tribute recipe over the published Mai Kai recipe in Esquire as the rum and coconut proportions were much more balanced and using Cayman Reef, Flor de Cana and Fee's falernum earned the drink a solid 7 on my ten point scale. (I actually keep tabs on most every drink I make, with ratings, ingredients and measurements so if it scores low, I know what I did and can tinker later to try and improve, or if it scores 8 and above, it's something I put into regular rotation). Well since then I picked up Mt Gay Eclipse, Cruzan light and Velvet falernum so I wanted to mess around a bit. I started off making two cocktails, both with Mt Gay and Cruzan, exact proportions of everything, but one with Fee Bros and one with Velvet. While I've been preferring Velvet in many of the spicier drinks I've been gravitating to lately, I had a feeling the sweetness of the Fee's would be the winner in this drink. And by a very slight margin, it was. In a blind taste test Chelsea felt the cocktail with Velvet tasted "boozier," which makes sense since it is a liqueur, but with such a small amount (1/4 oz) I don't think it adds that much actual alcohol content, but may sway the flavor in that direction. So the Fee's won out but the drink wasn't as good as we remembered when we rated it a 7. So I made another one, this time with Fees and the Cayman Reef. It was the best of the three but still not quite on par with the Flor de Cana version. I'm out of Flor de Cana or I would have made one more version to the exact spec that earned it the 7 rating just to verify my initial findings. Looking back over the past couple months, I think a lot of the drinks that I would normally use de Cana as my white aren't quite as good with Cruzan. I figured they would be mostly interchangeable and I think I remember you mentioning at some point that Cruzan is what the Mai Kai uses in their well for white. Is that so? When you make this, what are the rums and falernum you prefer? I'm thinking I need to go back to Flor de Cana as my base white.

[ Edited by: mikehooker 2015-03-01 11:46 ]

Post #738454 by mikehooker on Sun, Mar 1, 2015 11:43 AM