Substitutions in classic drink recipes - divinity or heresy?!

We all do it from times to time: we substitute an ingredient or two.

It might be using a 'demerara / jamaican' combo in your mai tai instead of the 'official' 'martinique / jamaican' combo. The El Dorado 12 / Appleton 12 combo is my preferred mai tai, I would suggest that it is divine.

I read recently that Paul McGee & Three Dots & a Dash serve their namesake cocktail with orange curaçao instead orange juice. I bulked at the idea & cried 'Heresy!'...

Then I got to thinking: in that particular drink, is it really? How much substitution is heresy?

PS I feel I need to confess:

In lieu of an agricole of everyday mixing price I make Three Dots & a Dash with bajan rum ~ its a totally different drink but tasty :)

For a while I have been persisting with making Test Pilots (a difficult cocktail IMO), tonight I have followed Paul McGee's example & made a Test Pilot with orange juice instead of cointreau - much more palatable.

I see nothing wrong with it, as you illustrated with the mai tai. In the end if you need a Puerto Rican light rum and only have a Jamaican light, is it really bad as long as you have the correct type?

If it tastes good to you, I say use it!

There is no way around substitutions when you have a finite amount of space/money for ingredients and a seemingly infinite amount of cocktail recipes to try.

I used to keep many more rums on hand than I currently do for the sake of authenticity in replicating cocktail recipes. That got to be pretty crazy and expensive and I have winnowed down to about a dozen essential rums. I have softened quite a bit in my feeling on substitutions.

Similar to Ad's rum sub on Three Dots and a Dash. I will often sub ED 5 for the rhum agricole in a Donga Punch. A totally different drink but a very good one.

"If you keep on drinking rum, the world will soon be quit of a very dirty scoundrel."
Robert Louis Stevenson

[ Edited by: Sunny&Rummy 2013-12-29 12:30 ]

It might be using a 'demerara / jamaican' combo in your mai tai instead of the 'official' 'martinique / jamaican' combo. The El Dorado 12 / Appleton 12 combo is my preferred mai tai, I would suggest that it is divine.

I read recently that Paul McGee & Three Dots & a Dash serve their namesake cocktail with orange curaçao instead orange juice. I bulked at the idea & cried 'Heresy!'...

Then I got to thinking: in that particular drink, is it really? How much substitution is heresy?

I try to make them as authentic as possible, but there are times when a drink just tastes so much better with a little tweak. For example, when recipes call for club soda, I usually reduce it in half, or omit it completely. I tend to find those drinks to be too diluted. Just a tiny splash of soda in Don's own Planters and you got yourself one of the best drinks ever.

Substitutions most certainly encouraged!

Some of the best drinks have been invented this way and even Beachbum Berry will tell you that many of the classic tiki drinks we all know and love from Don and Vic are riffs on classic drinks such as the daiquiri and the planters punch.

To experimentation! For science!

On 2014-01-12 14:16, leisure master wrote:
Some of the best drinks have been invented this way and even Beachbum Berry will tell you that many of the classic tiki drinks we all know and love from Don and Vic are riffs on classic drinks such as the daiquiri and the planters punch.

Very true. And we also have to accept the fact that we'll never have the same ingredients these classics were originally made with. We don't have the rums and we have no idea how their syrups tasted like. So experiment away. It's most important that it tastes good to you.

On 2014-01-12 15:11, mamelukkikala wrote: we also have to accept the fact that we'll never have the same ingredients these classics were originally made with. We don't have the rums and we have no idea how their syrups tasted like. So experiment away. It's most important that it tastes good to you.

Agreed, some drinks taste better with a dash of bitters to lift them!