Recipe: Easy Zombie - home made recipes

I developed this recipe after testing a few others I found online. It's a little lighter and the ingredients can be purchased anywhere. You can make it more exotic using the bitters and/or falernum.

1/2 oz white rum
1/2 oz 151 (or dark rum, but not Meyers)
1/2 oz trip sec
1/2 oz orange juice
1 oz pineapple juice
1 oz sour mix
dash bitters (optional)
dash falernum (optional)

Shake with ice. Garnish with pineapple wedge and cherry.

[ Edited by: Canned Tuna 2013-08-15 13:46 ]

You might consider coming up with a new name.

And putting more booze in it! :)

I agree. Zombies should have 3X more booze. They should turn you into a "Zombie."

"Limit Two Per Customer, Please."

I'd call that a slight variation of a Bermuda Rum Swizzle (or, maybe, call it an "Orange Hawaii").

The first day my wife and I made some recipes of the net, she passed out about 1/2 way through one drink. lol This still carries the "essence" of one of those without the knockout punch or hard liquor taste. I'm not a fan of the "one and done" cocktails.

It carries the essence of what? The recipe you posted bears no resemblance to a Zombie.

I believe the Bum did publish an actual 'simplified zombie' recipe, using Bacardi.. Never tried it, tho.

Just call it a "Tuna Rum Punch" and save yourself a lot of agita. The only way this resembles a Zombie is that it has rum in it. :)

On 2013-08-15 15:20, happy buddha wrote:
It carries the essence of what? The recipe you posted bears no resemblance to a Zombie.

No offence to happy buddha, but people surely get in a twist about what is 'authentic' & 'not authentic'.

All credit to Mr Berry for his decoding work, you can believe the drink creators were specific about the individual products used. Sub Appleton Special or Appleton VX in a drink - they have subtle differences. Use white / pink / red grapefruit & you will get more differences. Multiply these across all 8+ ingredients, you might as well have a different drink!

I see making the 'tiki classics' as experimentation - if we're not making close to the original recipes, hopefully we're enjoying it anyway :)

Regarding the Zombie, I slim the 1934 Zombie down to 3 shots. I agree with what Trader Vic said "Why people drink them I don't know.... Personally, I think it's too damn strong".

If Canned Tuna's drink is not a Zombie, maybe it'll be a nice punch. I'll try it :)

[ Edited by: AdOrAdam 2013-08-15 17:06 ]

Prior to getting the Beachbum books & reading about what a 1934 Zombie is, I read a few recipes on the internet. I amalgamated these & came up with my rule - 3 rums in whatever you want to call a Zombie.

I came up with my 'Jamaican Zombie', themed around jamaican rums:

1 part Wray & Nephews
1 part Appleton Special or VX
1 part Apricot Brandy
1/2 part Myers
1/4 part pimento dram
1 part lemon
1 part lime
Ice cubes & pineapple juice to fill, dash of passion fruit syrup to sweeten

I vary the amount of dark jamaican & pimento dram depending on what I have in ~ Myers & pimento dram can overpower a drink. If you get that right, its quite nice IMO - it all plays off together.

It makes an appearance every time I have several people over, I make it in a big sharer mug from Cheeky Tiki which is 60 fl oz!

Enjoy :)

[ Edited by: AdOrAdam 2013-08-15 17:09 ]

to me, a zombie is not only boozy, but also has a flavor profile of grapefruit, cinnamon, lime, and clove...

On 2013-08-15 17:01, AdOrAdam wrote:

If Canned Tuna's drink is not a Zombie, maybe it'll be a nice punch. I'll try it :)

[ Edited by: AdOrAdam 2013-08-15 17:06 ]

it's a Bermuda Rum Swizzle.

Simplified or not, you've "gotta" have the cinnamon/bitters/grapefruit thing happening

All the classic Tiki drinks are at least 2 ounces of booze and most are 3. The Zombie is even stronger.

I do sub LH 80 for LH 151 in my Zombie to make it a little less potent sometimes and keep the flavor right on.

Perhaps cannedtuna does not have the real Zombie recipe to draw from:

Zombie Punch
from “Sippin’ Safari”

.75 oz Lime Juice
.5 oz Don’s Mix (2/3 grapefruit, 1/3 cinnamon syrup)
.5 oz Falernum
1.5 oz Jamaican Rum
1.5 oz Gold Puerto Rican Rum
1 oz 151 Demerara Rum
1 dash Angostura Bitters
1/8th tsp Herbsaint or Pernod
1 tsp Grenadine
.75 cup crushed ice

Most of the folks around here don't consider these exotic ingredients, but staples.

On 2013-08-16 08:23, Swanky wrote:

Most of the folks around here don't consider these exotic ingredients, but staples.

In pretty much the same essential category as oxygen.

On 2013-08-16 08:23, Swanky wrote:
Perhaps cannedtuna does not have the real Zombie recipe to draw from:
.....

Most of the folks around here don't consider these exotic ingredients, but staples.

Which "real Zombie recipe" version is that? lol

I'm going to try a recipe that includes Don's Mix but no grapefruit, and see about modifying my recipe. Either way, it's good and the bitters and falernum just add to it. Maybe make a batch and experiment with the bitters, falernum and Dons Mix. It's light enough for a party drink. That's the idea.

I do need to improve my rums though.

On 2013-08-16 08:23, Swanky wrote:
Perhaps cannedtuna does not have the real Zombie recipe to draw from:

...Zombie Punch from “Sippin’ Safari”...

Most of the folks around here don't consider these exotic ingredients, but staples.

RE the thread & Zombies:

The thought crossed my mind too (no offence Mr CannedTuna), so I suggested changing the thread to including home made reciepes. As a newbie putting your 1st post as 'heres my version of a tiki classic' is bold!

I'm interested if people will put their home made Zombie drink reciepes 'out there' & see what others think.

Re: ingredients

I agree, once you pick up something 'exotic' & to makes a great drink, you never go back :)

On 2013-08-16 10:38, AdOrAdam wrote:

On 2013-08-16 08:23, Swanky wrote:
Re: ingredients

I agree, once you pick up something 'exotic' & to makes a great drink, you never go back :)

I'm an avid cook so I know how important GOOD ingredients are. To put in perspective, I've had to explain what curacao was to a handful of local liquor stores looking for ingredients. I'm currently composing a small list to purchase online.

For a long time, my home Zombie was basically the Spievak 1950, but with Gosling's 151 in place of 151 Demerara (when I couldn't get Lemon Hart), grapefruit instead of pineapple, and Coruba in place of the white rum which is a waste of space in this drink imo. So basically:

• teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 ounce white grapefruit juice
• 1 ounce lemon juice
• 1 ounce lime juice
• 1 ounce passion fruit syrup
• 1 ounce gold PR rum
• 1 ounce Coruba
• 1 ounce Gosling's 151
• heavy dash Angostura bitters
• mint sprig garnish

The straight 1 ounce measures made it easy and I think the grapefruit makes this an improvement over the Spievak, but now that I can get LH 151 I pretty much stick with the 1934.

Interestingly, while my wife often complains that several of the hardcore classic Tiki drinks are too boozy, she can suck 1934 Zombies down like nobody's business!

On 2013-08-16 11:05, Canned Tuna wrote:
I've had to explain what curacao was to a handful of local liquor stores looking for ingredients. I'm currently composing a small list to purchase online.

To my mind all the ingredients in a drink make it what it is. Try these without rum:

http://putneyfarm.com/2012/04/12/tiki-cocktails-the-sumatra-kula/
http://rumdood.com/2012/06/07/missionarys-downfall/

I double the lime / grapefruit / OJ / honey mix in the Sumatra Kula. But do the Missionarys Downfall as it is. IMO Two drinks that prove it aint all about alcohol, I'd drink them all day if I was near a blender:-)

This thread is good help for picking rum: http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=45005&forum=10&9

Where are you from? Give us a mini introduction in the introduction thread :wink:

On 2013-08-16 11:14, Sunny&Rummy wrote:
For a long time, my home Zombie was basically the Spievak 1950, but with Gosling's 151 in place of 151 Demerara (when I couldn't get Lemon Hart), grapefruit instead of pineapple, and Coruba in place of the white rum which is a waste of space in this drink imo. So basically:

• teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 ounce white grapefruit juice
• 1 ounce lemon juice
• 1 ounce lime juice
• 1 ounce passion fruit syrup
• 1 ounce gold PR rum
• 1 ounce Coruba
• 1 ounce Gosling's 151
• heavy dash Angostura bitters
• mint sprig garnish

The straight 1 ounce measures made it easy and I think the grapefruit makes this an improvement over the Spievak, but now that I can get LH 151 I pretty much stick with the 1934.

Interestingly, while my wife often complains that several of the hardcore classic Tiki drinks are too boozy, she can suck 1934 Zombies down like nobody's business!

Yep - thats why I made my own, no LH151. I use Woods 100 or El Dorado 5 as my demeraras.

It's worth the effort to make these drinks as close to the originals as possible. Anyway, that's part of the fun.

I would just rename the simple version and add to the long list of tiki drinks.

Besides, nothing kicks ass like a real Zombie.

-Longboard