Recipe: Molokai Maiden

This drink goes with the newest Mai-Kai Memories series mug by Crazy Al:

Molokai Maiden

• 1/2 oz fresh lime juice
• 1 oz fresh orange juice
• 1 oz soda water
• 1/2 oz simple syrup
• 1 oz Brandy (She was a fine girl.)
• 1 oz Vodka
• 1 oz. Dark Puerto Rican Rum
• dash bitters and a drop of orgeat or almond extract.

Shake or blend with crushed ice and pour into your Molokai Maiden mug with more crushed ice to fill.

Announcing Crazy Al's Molokai Maiden coming soon!

[ Edited by: Swanky 2014-06-04 14:54 ]

Making this on Friday. YOWZA. Sounds great.

That mug has an interesting straw placement, and the recipe does sound good -- what would you suggest for the 'dark' Puerto Rican Rum?

A tweak on the Scorpion Bowl recipe. I use Myers's as my standard dark rum for mixing. I like the richness of it.

Good choice of words for Myers's -- richness. I sub it in Painkillers too when I'm low on Pusser's and it works great.

I bought a new 1.75l bottle of Myers's earlier this week. They are using much darker glass now, it's almost black, and it's very hard to see the level of rum in the bottle.

That's my "nerdy cocktail comment" for the week.....

weird- somebody made me a Jungle Bird using Meyers's, and it seemed watered-down compared to the Blackstrap versions i had been drinking previously...

Myers's is a dark rum. Isn't Blackstrap an even darker "black" variety of rum? So if that is correct, it would make sense that Myers's in a drink would not have the same intensity of flavor as your Blackstrap. The only darker-than-Myers's I have is Kraken.

I don't think of Kraken as a dark rum, but a spiced rum. I actually like Sailor Jerry's better, but they are both good. Black Strap may be very dark, but to me it is too sweet and molasses. I could just be imagining the sweet due to thinking about Black Strap molasses. It brings other flavors to the drink that are not "dark rum". I like Myers's because it gives a strong traditional "dark rum" flavor and aroma to a cocktail. I also mix with Brugal and Coruba, and even Appleton VX as my dark. They are not as potent in the "dark rum" flavor, but play well in that role. Smith & Cross could go in there, but to me it has some notes that are distracting. I would also put the Demerara 80 proofs in there as dark rum mixers. Much better straight than Myers's, but in mixes have a similar profile that says "dark rum", only better. I don't use El Do 12 year as a dark rum because I can't get it here and it costs me a lot more than Myers's. In recipes that call for Demerara I sub Myers's if the drinkers are not going to notice. El Do will shine through for those with a good palette and make the drink better.

Gotta say I've pitted Myers vs Coruba in a number of drinks and Coruba wins across the board (richer, less 'medicinal' tasting). Luckily the liguor store down the street carries it, though it's a rare item in Chicago. Blackstrap is another beast entirely, something I'd never sub for dark Jamaican (unless you wanted to really change the taste profile), but works great in many drinks, and is cheap (at least the Cruzan Blackstrap is)

Agreed that Coruba >>> Meyer's.

Also agree that Cruzan Blackstrap is a rum unto itself. There are burnt notes in the flavor profile similar to Demara but not quite as acrid I don't think. Certainly not as versatile as Coruba but there are specific drinks where I think it really shines like the Jungle Bird, Corn 'N Oil, and Blackstrap Betty. In the Jungle Bird I think it plays really well with the Campari and pineapple juice.

Good comments, all! Myers's is typically the most common dark rum in the recipes I make, so I'm interested in exploring the darker and blackstrap varieties. And, Hayward, I forgot that Kraken was a spiced rum. I bought a bottle of Kraken because many of my friends like it, although I never could enjoy sipping it straight, it's a "mixer" that I want to try some things with. And same is true for the blackstrap and other dark varieties. Corn 'n' Oil is on my list to try at home.

Thanks, everyone, for the insights. My liver must be made to get in better shape ahead of the Hukilau next week.

Hukilau is going to hit me hard. The wife and I have been dieting so the booze consumption went way down to cut some calories. Not in peak drinking form, but maybe the drink tab won't be so astronomical this year!

Ace, for the Corn 'N Oil you will probably be unimpressed if you use Taylor's Velvet or Fee Bros. Falernum. But if you have a good homemade Falernum with strong clove and ginger and lime zest notes a Corn 'N Oil made with 1:1 Cruzan Blackstrap and Falernum is one of the best things you'll ever drink.

Coruba and Brugal are not readily available here. Myers's is a bit too much for some things. I like that though. I would probably use Coruba or Brugal for everyday mixing if it was always around.

On 2014-06-06 09:22, Sunny&Rummy wrote:
Ace, for the Corn 'N Oil you will probably be unimpressed if you use Taylor's Velvet or Fee Bros. Falernum. But if you have a good homemade Falernum with strong clove and ginger and lime zest notes a Corn 'N Oil made with 1:1 Cruzan Blackstrap and Falernum is one of the best things you'll ever drink.

Great suggestion! I've been making Falernum myself for a few years now, and bought a bottle of Taylor's Velvet Falernum once and it was very weak. I just can't see Taylor's making much impact in a modern cocktail, there was not enough lime/ginger/clove flavor at all, it was a sweet and very wimpy syrup.

So homemade Falernum it shall be!

I like Gosling's Black Seal, anybody use it?

Goslings is the only way to make a proper Dark and Stormy, for sure, and is serviceable for most dtinks calling for a rich dark rum. I will choose it over Myer's 10 time out of 10. And before Ed Hamilton resurrected LH151 the Gosling's 151 was the closest sub I could find.

For what it's worth, Myers is a common ingredient named in many of the old recipes. Not sure how much it's changed over time, but my feeling is if a brand is mentioned by name it's the one to go with for accuracy (which is always the best place to start). Make it "right," then adjust it to suit your individual "I'm a precious snowflake" needs. :wink:

That why I drench my citrus in DDT before I use it; I try to be as accurate as possible. I guess I'm a tiki hipster. Now, where the hell am I going to find a flannel aloha shirt to go with my ironic beard?!

Oh, you have a beard? What's her name?

While I agree with you in principle, TikiTacki, easy, snarky response to "go with the brand identified by name" is: Gordon's? Kina Lillet? Rose's Lime Cordial? Bacardi??

Lots of venerated brands have been reformulated so much over time that now it would be a disservice to a classic cocktail to use the bramds originally called for.

I don't know that this is the case in regard to Myer's, but at the same time I am not convinced of how many truly authentic recipes called for Myer's versus the ilater iterations that called for it because it was the only acceptable alternative available. A look at the mid-century rum ads confirms that there was a great variety of dark Jamaican rums to choose from, like Dagger and A slew of offerings from Wray and Nephew that must have been stellar. I think Myer's was just one of the pack, but as that pack thinned out it bacame the default dark Jamaican rum because there weren't other options.

I cut my rum teeth on Myer's and don't dismiss its usefulness entirely. I'm just not convinced its cough syrup one-dimensionality is representative of what the classic Tiki recipes really used.

On 2014-06-06 19:53, wizzard419 wrote:
Oh, you have a beard? What's her name?

Myers is called for quite a bit in Trader Vic's Book of Food and Drink. He was enough of a stickler for details that I doubt it was simply because it was the only thing available. But, as I mentioned, who knows how it's changed over time?

[ Edited by: TikiTacky 2014-06-06 20:08 ]

[ Edited by: TikiTacky 2014-06-06 20:10 ]

On 2014-06-06 19:58, Sunny&Rummy wrote:

I cut my rum teeth on Myer's and don't dismiss its usefulness entirely. I'm just not convinced its cough syrup one-dimensionality is representative of what the classic Tiki recipes really used.

That is hard to say, the food in that era was absolute shit (with some exceptions), and even then there wasn't as huge a focus on process for spirits as there is now. The idea of a store stocking hundreds of varieties of a single spirit would be far-fetched to say the lease.