W
Joined: Apr 29, 2004
Posts: 56
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W
Hello, I am new to posting here but have been lurking for a while and posting alittle of the Maryland DC Tiki Forum.
I too searched for the Trader Vic's Navy Grog recipie. The drink does not appear at all in his earlier books. When it does appear in later editions, the recipie uses the mix as posted earlier. I suspect that it was one of the earlier mixes (versus syrups such as grenadine or Orgeat) in their prouct line due to more advanced prep time needed to make it for use behind the bar (hint: it is cooked).
David Chan, owner of the recently closed Honululu in Alexandria Va, makes a mean Navy Grog that is markedly different from the Trader Vic version. Now, remember, Mr Chan was a bartender at the DC Trader Vics before opening his own place. Richard Nixon was a fan of the DC TV Navy Grog, so maybe Mr Chans is a cut above. He made his own Navy Grog mix for use at his bar. He mentioned to me that he might make that mix available (along with the MaiTai mix) on their website. However, I heard from another regular that he said the MT mix would be the only one he kept for himself. Anyway, the last week they were open, I asked him to taste my homemade Navy Grog mix that I had been making based upon tasting his mixed drinks, and he allowed me to taste his NG mix stright (i.e. not diluted into a drink). His was very dark (like the MaiTai mix) and much more complex in flavor than the bottled Trader Vic stuff. He procliamed mine very good and asked for my recipie which he said was very close and told me where I was off from his. I will share as soon as I determine if he is actually going to sell his commercially. Our discussion then ventured into Trader Vic's commercial mixes. Mr. Chan made some very interesting comments regarding them. He said that the drink recipies and the mixes had changed over the years. Now we know that the mixes and syrups were originated for and are still used in the restaurants (except in the case of the MaiTai if you ask for a San Francisco style).
This leads to some question as to what really is the recipie to their drinks? It would not surprise me if the old Trader changed the recipies for publication to make the in house drinks a little better than you could make at home and to delete hard to find ingredients while promoting his own line of mixes etc. Now back to David Chan. He took over the Honululu back in 1978. Prior to that, he had another place in Canada and before that worked at the DC Trader Vic's. That location opened in 1961. It stands to reason that there were original employees there when Mr. Chan worked there in the early 70's. It is entirely possible that what we were tasting was Mr Chan's version (changed a little and made his own perhaps) of 1961 vintage drinks.
Just look at the variations and use of esoteric ingedients (Van Der Hum, Parfait de Amour etc) in some of the other drink books including Don the Beachcomber and Grog Log compared to the relative simplicity of the published versions of T.V. drinks for further support to my theory that T.V. drinks may not be what they once were.
To close, the Navy Grog recipie from the Honululu use a homemade mix plus light and amber rums (cheap stuff: Ronrico), sour lemon (bar supply house bottled reconstituted unsweetened lemon juice), quarted of a lime squeezed in and shell left in and pink grapefruit juice. In other words, it is basically a MaiTai with the addition of grapefruit juice and the substitution of a different flavored sugar syrup.
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