The Navy Grog, a component study in Mixology

I've been making this over the weekend using 3.5 oz of Bacardi Select (I'm otherwise out of rum!). It's very nice, really brings out the grapefruit, honey, lime, and allspice flavors. VERY nice.

[ Edited by: thePorpoise 2012-01-22 15:43 ]

On 2011-06-23 00:51, CincyTikiCraig wrote:
My Navy Grog is an amalgamation of TV's & DTB's recipes. This is one of my very favorite 3 or 4 cocktails, Tiki or otherwise:

3/4oz Lime (white grapefruit is preferred)
3/4oz Grapefruit
1oz Honey Mix (I make a rich honey syrup using 2:1 honey:water)
1oz White PR Rum (Ron Matusalem, Cruzan and Brugal all work fine)
1oz Dark Jamaican Rum (Coruba is best, but Myers works too. Avoid Goslings)
1oz Demerara Rum (not 151)
1/4oz Pimento Dram

Mix for 5 seconds with crushed ice and serve. An ice cone garnish is a nice touch.

The best Navy Grog ive ever had. Thanks for this.

One of the errors some people have done, including me, is believing that the Navy Grog recipe in Beachbum's "Grog Log" is from Don the Beachcomber. In fact, he writes that he figured out the recipe by watching a bartender at some old Chinese restaurant. Looking a various sources, I think the Don the Beachcomber recipe was something like this:

• 1 oz Light Puerto Rican Rum
• 1 oz Gold Jamaican Rum
• 1 oz 91.4-proof Demerara Rum
• ¾ oz Lime Juice
• ¾ oz Grapefruit Juice
• ¾ oz Honey Mix (2:1 honey/water)
• 1 tsp Don’s Spices #2 (1:1 vanilla extract/allspice dram)
• 2 dashes Angostura Bitters
• 1 oz Club Soda
Blend all except rums and soda in blender with crushed ice at high speed for five seconds. Stir in rums and soda. Pour into double old fashioned glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with an ice cone around the straw.

Note: 91.4-proof Demerara rum is no longer available. You can substitute ¾ oz 151-proof Demerara, 1¼ oz 80-proof Demerara, or dilute 151-proof Demerara down to 91.4 proof.

"I am Lono!" -- Hunter S. Thompson

[ Edited by: arriano 2016-11-13 11:43 ]

I think skipper rum is 90 proof demerara rum, although it is a bit sweeter than other demerara offerings. I've been using it in navy grogs along with an aged column still rum, and Appleton signature, with good results.

On 2016-11-14 08:44, ArchTiki wrote:
I think skipper rum is 90 proof demerara rum, although it is a bit sweeter than other demerara offerings. I've been using it in navy grogs along with an aged column still rum, and Appleton signature, with good results.

Thanks. I've never used Skipper and didn't even realize it was a Demerara. Should be a good sub

I have posted this elsewhere but always happy to share again.

Since we live 20 minutes from TV Atlanta and frequent too often, LOL, it has been my mission to replicate their Navy Grog. Short of using their grog mix this is the closest I have come.

3/4 Sugar Syrup
1/4 Cinnamon Syrup
1 Lime
1/2 Grapefruit
1/4 Pimento Dram - St. Elizabeth
1/2 Falernum - Taylors
1 Gold Rum (Zacapa 23)
1 Appleton VX (12)
1 El Dorado 8 (12)

I usually use the rums in parentheses as they taste leaps better than the standard rums listed.

One thing I haven't tried is adding Lemon juice, their recipe is 1/4 Lime with 1/2 Lemon and 3/4 Grapefruit. Then 1/4 Rock Candy and 1/4 Grog Mix along with 3oz of Rum (TV Light, Gold, Dark)

On 2016-11-14 08:44, ArchTiki wrote:
I think skipper rum is 90 proof demerara rum, although it is a bit sweeter than other demerara offerings. I've been using it in navy grogs along with an aged column still rum, and Appleton signature, with good results.

I love Skipper in the Navy Grog. I've also started using it in my Kohala-sub blend after reading around a bit. Some people compare surviving samples of Dagger to the heavy British demeraras, Wood's 100 in particular, and I've heard some people who have access to both say they actually prefer Skipper to Wood's. I can't say if my blend is actually any closer to what Dagger/Kohala tasted like, but it's quite nice in Black Magics and Rum Barrels.

On 2016-11-14 10:40, arriano wrote:

On 2016-11-14 08:44, ArchTiki wrote:
I think skipper rum is 90 proof demerara rum, although it is a bit sweeter than other demerara offerings. I've been using it in navy grogs along with an aged column still rum, and Appleton signature, with good results.

Thanks. I've never used Skipper and didn't even realize it was a Demerara. Should be a good sub

They have been selling it at Old Town Liquor for a couple years now, but I have seen it popping up more often. It is a good and cheap mixing rum.

On 2016-11-16 17:04, mmaurice wrote:
I have posted this elsewhere but always happy to share again.

Since we live 20 minutes from TV Atlanta and frequent too often, LOL, it has been my mission to replicate their Navy Grog. Short of using their grog mix this is the closest I have come.

3/4 Sugar Syrup
1/4 Cinnamon Syrup
1 Lime
1/2 Grapefruit
1/4 Pimento Dram - St. Elizabeth
1/2 Falernum - Taylors
1 Gold Rum (Zacapa 23)
1 Appleton VX (12)
1 El Dorado 8 (12)

I usually use the rums in parentheses as they taste leaps better than the standard rums listed.

I made this last night to your specifications (only variable being a rich demerara sugar syrup where yours simply says "sugar syrup") and gotta say, I didn't care for it at all. Took me 30 minutes to drink which is very unusual for a Navy Grog, or any drink for that matter. It had a very strange mouth feel, which perhaps my sugar syrup contributed to, but I've never found that to be an issue before. Most importantly, it just didn't feel balanced at all. Curious to hear other opinions on this recipe.

For what it's worth, I recently had a Navy Grog at Trader Vic's Emeryville because the recommendation of you, as well as some others on here and a good friend of mine who has been to the Atlanta Vic's many times said it was his favorite drink on the menu. The one in E-ville was disappointing but still more enjoyable than this one. Perhaps it's just my palette but the Grog's I make at home I usually finish in a few sips and then crave more.

Are you using white grapefruit juice? If not, maybe that's the culprit.

Here's what I love:

1/4 oz pemento dram
3/4 oz lime
1/2 oz white grapefruit juice (fresh squeezed white only)
1/2 oz rich demerara syrup
1 oz El Dorado 12
1 oz Appleton 12

I made this last night to your specifications (only variable being a rich demerara sugar syrup where yours simply says "sugar syrup") and gotta say, I didn't care for it at all. Took me 30 minutes to drink which is very unusual for a Navy Grog, or any drink for that matter. It had a very strange mouth feel, which perhaps my sugar syrup contributed to, but I've never found that to be an issue before. Most importantly, it just didn't feel balanced at all. Curious to hear other opinions on this recipe.

Awesome, I love people trying my stuff. Not using fresh grapefruit but TV here in Atlanta doesn't use fresh anything (except their squeeze of lime) so, probably not it.

The recipe I posted above for TV's Navy Grog is from their current mixing guide but here in ATL doesn't use the book, the two bartenders (yes there are only 2 with a couple people who are trained as backups) can't stand the way corporate tinkers with the recipes. They say when they serve the corporate way, they get too many drinks sent back.

When they run out of Grog mix, and they do run out quite regularly, they make something almost identical to this, http://5minutesofrum.com/blog/2014/4/10/spice-syrup minus the sugar. The guy that makes it calls it a tea.

Then they use a splash of mix plus a 1+oz sugar syrup, 1 Lime, 0.5 Grapefruit, and ~1-1.5ea gold and dark. Nothing is measured and each guys drinks taste a little different.

I prefer making the syrup as it tastes much more like what we get at the bar but it's a pain so the mixture of cinnamon, falernum, allspice is to try and replicate it.

Their grog mix is probably one of the few things out there that nobody has the recipe for.

[ Edited by: mmaurice 2016-11-17 17:23 ]