BG Reynolds Kickstarter for Fassionola, Gardenia Mix, and Honey Mix

Hey there TC!

Just letting everyone know about my kickstarter, BG Reynolds brings lost cocktails back from the dead!

It's fully funded, but running until June. Every pledge and share helps me bring my new ingredients to life, and I have some stellar pledge rewards to boot. Mai Tai Glasses, recipe booklets, BG Reynolds mugs, and even an exclusive kickstarter pin! Take a look at the kickstarter page!

And, since this is Tiki Central, and I expect it, feel free to ask me anything! I know there will be questions, deep mysterious tiki questions.

Cheers, and happy to be on board again.

• Blair

I contributed my humble amount and look forward to seeing this come to fruition.

I accept your tithing!

And now, as I ascend my crystal staircase, I say to you all "Avert your gaze!"

I too was happy to contribute, Master. But, Sir! Something’s weird in that link above! Here’s one that works:

http://kck.st/2JNlGdY

Looks like you’re only $3000 away from your next stretch goal of another mysterious new syrup. Hopefully a few more devoted lickspittles will “donate,” so that in your benevolence you might bestow more upon us.

And that, my dear Hamo, is how you get a promotion.

2nd level pissant. Wear it with pride.

My box of rewards arrived on Monday. Any other backers here get their stuff yet?

Got mine last week and thrilled to put them to use at the end of the month. I'm only kicking myself because I...for some reason...didn't get the Devil's Reef pineapple molasses.

I haven't opened my bottle yet. You could still get it from his website:

https://bgreynolds.com/products/devils-reef-pineapple-molasses-syrup

After watching Blair's Tiki with Ray episode, I'm kinda sorry I didn't get the circus peanut syrup....

My rewards box came earlier this week. Thinking I might deploy the fassionola first in a hurricane...too cliche? :)

kevin

Or maybe a Jet Pilot tribute?

kevin

On 2018-10-26 18:28, heylownine wrote:
Thinking I might deploy the fassionola first in a hurricane...too cliche? :)

I waited on a Hurricane until after a Cobra's Fang. Maybe I was too cliche?

Hopefully you're considering a future podcast to feature some of the new syrups. (Really, I just want a new episode of 5 Minutes of Rum. I'm getting the DTs.)

On 2018-10-26 22:28, Hamo wrote:

On 2018-10-26 18:28, heylownine wrote:
Thinking I might deploy the fassionola first in a hurricane...too cliche? :)

I waited on a Hurricane until after a Cobra's Fang. Maybe I was too cliche?

Hopefully you're considering a future podcast to feature some of the new syrups. (Really, I just want a new episode of 5 Minutes of Rum. I'm getting the DTs.)

I'm not sure which future episode it will be in, but I will be using at least one of the new syrups in an upcoming show.

kevin

Has anyone used their fassionola syrup yet, any opinions? surprised no one has said anything about this syrup yet. Any recommendations if I should buy it or not.

I backed his Kickstarter project and after months of waiting i can't say i'm too impressed. I haven't used them very much at all yet but out of the bottle both the gardenia mix, and the falernum especially, have a very strong clove taste (which i absolutely can't stand) and the fassionola is just a sweet, fruity flavoured syrup. Cherry is the dominating flavour that i get out of it.

What was most disappointing was the piss poor service he provided afterwards. I haven't opened the passion fruit syrup yet so it's going to be a shame if that is good because i won't be supporting his business ever again.

I didn't get any myself, but I have friends who got the gardenia mix. They think there was some kind of production contaminant or something, because the syrup flavor was not conducive to good cocktails. If there was a problem, hopefully it's been corrected for subsequent batches.

On 2019-01-24 17:26, swizzle wrote:
I backed his Kickstarter project and after months of waiting i can't say i'm too impressed. I haven't used them very much at all yet but out of the bottle both the gardenia mix, and the falernum especially, have a very strong clove taste (which i absolutely can't stand) and the fassionola is just a sweet, fruity flavoured syrup. Cherry is the dominating flavour that i get out of it.

BGR's falernum has always had a strong clove flavor. It's one of the few syrups that has been consistent through his process change (the syrups are made differently now, way back they were an opaque rich brown). I don't mind the clove, but it's very strong and can easily overpower a drink. I find the Latitude 29 more balanced and prefer it, but it's a royal pain to find.

Regarding fassionola, there is actually some debate as to what the stuff actually tasted like, this article talks a bit about it. I agree BGR's is cherry forward but perhaps Blair has done some research on the subject and that's what it's supposed to be. There is an alternative syrup made by Cocktail & Sons, but its made seasonally in the spring and not currently available. That one uses strawberries as a base, I haven't had it so I can't comment on how dominant they are in the flavor.

I find the gardenia disappointing because it's supposed to be a butter/honey syrup, not something built on a coconut base. I find BGR's gardenia a tasty syrup but not something I would use in any of the classic cocktails.

The honey mix is fine, but mixing honey/water 50/50 and heating in a microwave isn't exactly difficult.

I find BGR passion fruit syrup is just OK, from memory the old syrup was better, but the current on is just so-so. I think Small Hand Foods is much better.

The BGR syrups I like are the demerara syrup, cinnamon (this one like the falernum is overpowering), vanilla (now discontinued), donn's spices, and donn's mix #2 (also discontinued), and to a point falernum. Note he uses weird names for the last 2 I always forget what they are.

On 2019-01-24 17:26, swizzle wrote:
What was most disappointing was the piss poor service he provided afterwards. I haven't opened the passion fruit syrup yet so it's going to be a shame if that is good because i won't be supporting his business ever again.

I have to admit that the service I got wasn't the best either. The didn't ship one of my syrups and it took about 4 months (and several emails) for me to get it.

Still waiting on most of the physical rewards (booklet, shirt, mug).

I think the volume of orders in the kickstarter completely overwhelmed them, but that's not an excuse.

[ Edited by: rangda 2019-01-25 12:23 ]

There's a handful of ingredients that i just do not like in cocktails. Even used sparingly i can always taste them and although sometimes the overall drink might not be too bad i would never order them again just because that flavour doesn't appeal to me. At least in a drink.

For example, i eat cucumbers in salads and in sandwiches no problem but if used in a drink it just stands out so much to me and i feel it doesn't belong, no matter what.
Honey is another one. Perfectly fine to eat it when used in food but when it's in a drink that seems to be all i can taste.

(That was ONE of the issues i had with Blair. I specifically asked him if i could swap that bottle for something else and he said no problem but when my delivery finally arrived it contained a bottle of Honey Syrup. I'm not going to order something i just don't like but even more specifically, why would i order something which is one of the easiest syrups you can make, just like cinnamon and vanilla? Those i can make at home no problem. It's the more complex ones that i'm going to buy).

As for cloves, that is the one thing that completely ruins a drink for me no matter how little is used. As soon as it hits my tongue after the first sip that is ALL that i can taste and i can't drink any more, i hate that taste so much.

Now the Fassionola is perfectly fine, and i'm aware of the debate of people not really being sure, or agreeing on what it actually tastes like, but had i known it was going to taste predominately of cherry i could have just bought a bottle from a European deli and given one of those a try. Cherry, orgeat and a few other random flavours are syrups that can be found in European delis here quite easily.

There's a new store here that opened maybe a couple of years ago that specializes in bitters but they also do sell a few syrups. I was able to get a few different Small Hands Foods flavours for cheap because they were getting close to their use by date and they just couldn't sell them. (Including passion fruit. I'll have to make sure to save a little before i open the BG Reynolds one so i can compare). Unfortunately our population is just too small and there is no demand for any of these sorts of products. The majority of items are imported once, sit around forever and then never ordered again. There are a few Falernums i can buy but i haven't found one yet that was really impressed with. The best ones i've ever tasted have been in-house ones made at some of the awesome cocktail bars we are lucky to have here.

As i said, he's lost me as a customer just because of his poor service, but even if i was to buy from him again, unless i can try a product beforehand i'm not going to waste my money. I'll stick to the few ingredients i'm familiar with and can get easily for my mixed drinks at home and leave the experimenting to when i go out to a good cocktail bar.

Mahalo everyone,

I received my order of BGR Gardenia and Fassionola this week and made a Pearl Diver's Punch tonight. I thought the mix made a great drink and saved me from the pain in the ass process of going upstairs to our kitchen, melting butter, mixing with honey etc and then using the mix within a few moments to keep the butter from coagulating. I'm going to use the mix to make a Pina Passion next.

On 2019-01-25 21:00, CincyTikiCraig wrote:
keep the butter from coagulating.

It won't do this if you dry shake first. You have to treat drinks with butter like drinks with an egg. Microwave it for ~5-10 seconds to melt before adding to the shaker tin. If using a cocktail shaker, dry shake for a good minute before adding ice. If using a drink mixer (which I recommend for tiki in general and especially for any of the butter drinks) blend w/o ice for 5-10 seconds. Then add ice and blend again for 5 more.

My opinion on butter Pearl Divers vs BGR Pearl Divers is that you can't taste the coconut (which is good) but that it does change the flavor and especially the mouth feel of the drink. The lime is much more forward with BGR, I assume that the fat in the butter rounds all the flavors out which the coconut in the BGR doesn't do. I've tried a few experiments with the BGR to see if I could get the drink closer to the butter mix flavor and I was unable to do it w/o having the coconut shine through. And while that was a tasty drink, it wasn't a Pearl Diver. It was a Pearl Diver riff pushing into the flavor of a Pina Colada. The BGR gardenia is probably a better substitute for Coco Lopez than butter mix. But of course YMMV.

I love the Gardenia mix and the fact that I don't have to make a giant mess before I even prep for mixing the drink. I'd like to taste more "true" Pearl Divers however so I can realign my judgement. A few years ago I made Hurricane Hayward's Deep Sea Diver tribute, but I can't recall the overall richness of the mix and cocktail. I'm not opposed to the coconut variation and I know a few other places choose that as well. I think if I could get a Pearl Diver from Latitude 29 or False Idol, I'd be able to better judge.

I've had Tiki Ti's Pearl Diver but I don't think it comes anything close to the legendary thing. In any of my Divers, I've never been left with a "creamy" sensation. As far as Blair's customer service, I've had no issues ever. I try to keep in mind that it's probably a very small team of people running it, and there's been recipe alterations over the years. I remember being head over heels with the original orgeat, complete with the toasty almond taste that turned a lot of people off. Nowadays it's a bit more like Small Hands, but don't particularly like most other brands because they're too sweet and not almondy enough for me.

On 2019-01-26 08:10, rangda wrote:

On 2019-01-25 21:00, CincyTikiCraig wrote:
keep the butter from coagulating.

It won't do this if you dry shake first. You have to treat drinks with butter like drinks with an egg. Microwave it for ~5-10 seconds to melt before adding to the shaker tin. If using a cocktail shaker, dry shake for a good minute before adding ice. If using a drink mixer (which I recommend for tiki in general and especially for any of the butter drinks) blend w/o ice for 5-10 seconds. Then add ice and blend again for 5 more.

Thanks for the suggestion, I am going to try that. I use a mixer, the issue for me is that my bar (where the mixer, rum, etc is located) is on my lower level and I have to go upstairs to use the microwave then back downstairs to mix. Hmmm, perhaps a small microwave for my bar....

On 2019-01-28 13:51, kkocka wrote:
As far as Blair's customer service, I've had no issues ever. I try to keep in mind that it's probably a very small team of people running it,

Ditto. I have ordered from Blair probably 12+ times and have never had anything but great service.

I got the fassionola and Devil's Reef pineapple molasses syrups, along with the mai tai glass and swizzle sticks, without any issues. I've also ordered from Blair in the past without any troubles. I've yet to taste any other fassionola, but I did find Blair's flavor to be cherry- and passion fruit-forward, and wonder how it compares to something like Jonathon English's. I've yet to open the pineapple molasses.

I finally opened my bottle of Pineapple Molasses, and it's different than I expected. Made these drinks from the Kickstarter recipe drinks.

Devil Reef

Plantation Pastime

Pink 'n Pine

And then this one's really enjoyable: Death May Die

@hamo try the Pampanito from the Smuggler's Cove book. That's great with the Pineapple Molasses Syrup.

Great tip, Kevin; thanks.

Blair’s about to launch another Kickstarter, this time for Hot Buttered Rum syrup:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/894866514/bg-reynolds-hot-buttered-rum-mix

I think this is as good a place as any to post a public service announcement: today https://bgreynolds.com is offering some great sale prices on syrups and other items.