new book! home bar guide to tropical cocktails - Tiki Drinks and Food

H heylownine Grand Member (1 year) Agoura Hills, CA Joined: Oct 05, 2008 Posts: 978	H heylownine Posted posted on Wed, May 29, 2019 9:04 PM On 2019-05-29 11:12, therumtrader wrote: Has anyone who bought the book mixed any of the cocktails? Are they any good? After listening to the "5 Minutes of Rum" interview, the authors SEEM to have a "NO BIG DEAL" attitude toward the ingredients they recommend. That leads me to believe they have not mixed and quality tested each of the 150 recipes they included. I'll start with outlining my biases, so you know where I'm coming from. :) The conversation was on my podcast, I consider both Kelly and Tom to be my friends, and the Rumpus Room specifically was very formative to my development as a home bartender (and very occasional paid bartender). All that said, I've both mixed and been served many of the cocktails in the book. Quite a few have been on the menu at the Tonga Hut and other bars over the years. Start with a Shaka Hula Bossa Nova or Trader Tom's Wayward Rum Barrel and I don't think you'll be disappointed. The spirt of the cocktails (pun kinda intended) is directly influenced by underground home tiki bars and the community that springs up around them. For those that regularly host sizable groups of friends in their home bar, they depend on contributions from the community in most cases. Sure, have a one-off party and pay the tab, but if you're not independently wealthy, a weekly/bi-weekly event means everyone is coming with something to contribute: ice, juice, snacks, and rum. And when someone shows up with a bottle of something, be it a black pepper syrup or an unexpected spirit they found and wanted to bring over, part of the fun is trying out new formulations to incorporate those contributions. That's the context for the "parts lists" for some of the cocktails. As Kelly will say, you can always "go up" - drop in the Koloa Coconut for the Cruzan Coconut if you desire. These formulations came from experimentation in home bars using ingredients on hand but careful considered to develop a flavor profile. I'm confident in saying that the recipes have been mixed and tested in the manner they're presented but Kelly and Tom encourage readers to experiment based on what they can do. Everyone's home bar starts with just a few bottles. Hope that helps provide more background on the conversation and the recipes, at least from my perspective. kevin

On 2019-05-29 11:12, therumtrader wrote:
Has anyone who bought the book mixed any of the cocktails? Are they any good? After listening to the "5 Minutes of Rum" interview, the authors SEEM to have a "NO BIG DEAL" attitude toward the ingredients they recommend. That leads me to believe they have not mixed and quality tested each of the 150 recipes they included.

I'll start with outlining my biases, so you know where I'm coming from. :) The conversation was on my podcast, I consider both Kelly and Tom to be my friends, and the Rumpus Room specifically was very formative to my development as a home bartender (and very occasional paid bartender).

All that said, I've both mixed and been served many of the cocktails in the book. Quite a few have been on the menu at the Tonga Hut and other bars over the years. Start with a Shaka Hula Bossa Nova or Trader Tom's Wayward Rum Barrel and I don't think you'll be disappointed.

The spirt of the cocktails (pun kinda intended) is directly influenced by underground home tiki bars and the community that springs up around them. For those that regularly host sizable groups of friends in their home bar, they depend on contributions from the community in most cases. Sure, have a one-off party and pay the tab, but if you're not independently wealthy, a weekly/bi-weekly event means everyone is coming with something to contribute: ice, juice, snacks, and rum. And when someone shows up with a bottle of something, be it a black pepper syrup or an unexpected spirit they found and wanted to bring over, part of the fun is trying out new formulations to incorporate those contributions.

That's the context for the "parts lists" for some of the cocktails. As Kelly will say, you can always "go up" - drop in the Koloa Coconut for the Cruzan Coconut if you desire. These formulations came from experimentation in home bars using ingredients on hand but careful considered to develop a flavor profile. I'm confident in saying that the recipes have been mixed and tested in the manner they're presented but Kelly and Tom encourage readers to experiment based on what they can do. Everyone's home bar starts with just a few bottles.

Hope that helps provide more background on the conversation and the recipes, at least from my perspective.

kevin

Post #795422 by heylownine on Wed, May 29, 2019 9:04 PM