Perfecting Monkey Blood

Hi Everyone,
As a fan of rum based cocktails for over twenty years I have only recently been converted to the delights of all things Tiki, but am enthusiastically building my mug collection and finding things to fill them with!!

I recently had an idea for a Tiki drink which is good, but not great...I'm hoping some of you might be able to help me perfect this:

I had an orange juice and raspberry smoothie, which seemed like a good base for a drink. I've switched ordinary OJ for blood orange juice to maintain a dark colour and the addition of a banana for a bit of creamy sweetness prompted the name 'Monkey Blood'. So far I have:

1oz dark rum (I'm using Appleton Estate V/X)
2oz blood orange juice
8-10 raspberries
1/2 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz creme de banane
1/2 a banana

All ingedients blended together with ice. It's nice, but missing the wow factor. I've experimented with adding 1/4 - 1/2 oz passion fruit syrup but it was too over powering. I've substituted the creme de banane for peach schnapps, which wasn't bad, but wasn't outstanding.

I'm sure with just a little alteration this could be a great drink, but I'm stuck. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Chris.

Hi Chris,

I know this is a long time from your post, but I just saw it. I hope you're still out there. Maybe you can give me feedback on the recipes below. The reason I found your post is that I just got a copy of "sippin safari" and the great drinks it has made me want to recreate a drink I had at a hotel a long time ago, got the recipe for and then lost the recipe for. Looking for the recipe on the internet I found your post. Then I tried a few adjusting a little and came up with the following nice tasting drinks. I don't know what to call them, so I made up names. The base recipe I call the "Funky Monkey". The key difference from yours is that is has creme of coconut, which I remember from the lost drink recipe. It is as follows:

1/2 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz creme de banana
1/2 a banana
1/2 oz creme of coconut (I used Coco Lopez)
1 oz golden Jamaican rum (I used Appleton V/X)
4 oz ice

Blend all ingredients in a blender. This give a nice yellow drink great by itself, but also good for variation 1, the "Tropical Volcano"

To make the "Tropical Volcano" Puree frozen strawberries (maybe 2 ounces or so) in a blender and pour into the bottom of a glass. Pour the "Funky Monkey" on top of it. You get a beautiful two tone drink of red and yellow with the red on the bottom.

If you want more bite, try variation 2, "The Shyster"

1/2 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz creme de banana
1/2 a banana
1/2 oz creme of coconut (I used Coco Lopez)
1 oz dark Jamaican rum (I used Myers Rum "Original Dark")
1 tsp of blackberry brandy (should be a dark brandy, not a clear one, I used Leroux)
4 oz ice

The blackberry brandy and the stronger tasting rum give it a stronger flavor and maybe more of the "wow" factor you were looking for.

Finally, I tried variation 3, which my wife liked a lot, but is very smoothie-like and, to my mind more of a lady's drink, so I will call it the "Surfer Girl". To make it take 6 to 8 frozen dark sweet pitted cherries and blend them into a "Shyster". It ends up with pale red color of a banana strawberry smoothie but you don't taste the alcohol much and there is a lot of fruit flavor.

Let me know what you think.

Mark

On 2008-10-15 13:01, tallcmp wrote:
Hi Everyone,
As a fan of rum based cocktails for over twenty years I have only recently been converted to the delights of all things Tiki, but am enthusiastically building my mug collection and finding things to fill them with!!

I recently had an idea for a Tiki drink which is good, but not great...I'm hoping some of you might be able to help me perfect this:

I had an orange juice and raspberry smoothie, which seemed like a good base for a drink. I've switched ordinary OJ for blood orange juice to maintain a dark colour and the addition of a banana for a bit of creamy sweetness prompted the name 'Monkey Blood'. So far I have:

1oz dark rum (I'm using Appleton Estate V/X)
2oz blood orange juice
8-10 raspberries
1/2 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz creme de banane
1/2 a banana

All ingredients blended together with ice. It's nice, but missing the wow factor. I've experimented with adding 1/4 - 1/2 oz passion fruit syrup but it was too over powering. I've substituted the creme de banane for peach schnapps, which wasn't bad, but wasn't outstanding.

I'm sure with just a little alteration this could be a great drink, but I'm stuck. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Chris.

[ Edited by: TikiTaster 2009-02-08 05:39 ]

More rum!!!