Post #752904 by AceExplorer on Wed, Oct 21, 2015 7:15 AM

On 2015-10-20 21:06, mikehooker wrote:
Single serving Vic Scorpion

My wife recently bought a bottle of gin to make Ramos Gin Fizz. We've never kept gin in the bar so I was excited about the prospect of adding Saturns, Suffering Bastards, Fog Cutters and of course Scorpions to the repertoire, which of course meant I had to find a Brandy as well. I don't have a clue about Brandy so asked a guy at my local liquor store for a recommendation and ended up with Romate.

I made a Luau Scorpion last week and it tasted pretty one dimensional so I added a little more orgeat and some passion fruit. Better. Still not great. Tonight I made Vic's version and it also fell flat. So I added more orgeat and some passion fruit. Better. Still not great. This time I used Plantation 3 Stars instead of Flor de Cana thinking it would add a little pizazz but alas I'm not blown away.

I've had good scorpion bowls at bars. Anyone have a recipe that knocks it out of the park? Or is this just the wrong Brandy?

Mike - bravo on the gin! Explore and have fun with it.

With regard to the brandy, they are all over the place, unique creations, and I don't have much advice because the amount of brandy is usually so small in my drinks that I emphasize exact measurements over brandy brand name. I'm sure you were meticulous, so you may just have an unimpressive recipe.

I make scorpion bowls at home once in a while, and the classic recipes in the Bum's books don't taste too much like the ones I have in bars. My impression is that scorpion bowls and volcano bowls are customized by each restaurant, similar to what they do with Mai Tais. To date I have only used the Bum's recipes from his books, so you may need to start there and tweak as you go along and hit upon something you like.