Cocktail Challenge!

We are having a small winter luau on saturday, and want to be cost efficient with the booze... the lovely Alexis (at whose home we are having the shivery shindig) has reported the following contents of her liquor cabinet (see below).

The challenge? Can you come up with any drinks made with these items that require the adding of only one or 2 other alcoholic ingredients? Rum will likely be one of them. Any mix is acceptable.

1/5 bottle of Limoncello
3/4 bottle of vermouth
1/4 bottle of amarula
full bottle of drambuie

sweet or dry vermouth?

what flavor is amarula?

Ooh, I like this idea, Tikifish! Like an Iron Chef match for the bar, in reverse.
("Your ingredient tonight will be Pisco, and your challenge will be to make an appetizer, main course, side dish and dessert, all incorporating Pisco.")

Mix on! No hari kari if the drink is bad, please folks.

another question:

Will there be fresh citrus? Can't do much with those ingredients without some kind of fresh juice because all are fairly sweet (I'm guessing that it's sweet vermouth and that amarula is a liqueur).

It would be dry vermouth, I beleive we bought it for martinis at our New Year's Vegas themed party.

Amarula is sort of like Baileys Irish Cream.

"On the open plains of the African veld grows a tree, untamed by man. It is the Marula Tree, and its exotic fruit is at the heart of Amarula Cream - the perfect blend of fresh cream and the distilled Marula fruit. A drink with a distinctive, exciting and sophisticated taste."

Oh, as for citrus, yes - when I said "any mix is acceptible" I meant I will buy or squeeze any sort of juice required for the recipe. Prune juice, Pineapple Juice, Sunny D... ok, maybe not Sunny D. But you get the idea.

I also have an ice cream maker that doubles as a slushy drink machine.

Here's something from the Amarula website. What is the deal with the jelly though?

Bull Elephant
25ml (¾ oz) Amarula Cream
25ml (¾ oz) Bacardi white rum
2 ml (5 drops) lemon essence
25ml (¾ oz) lemon jelly
50ml (1¾ oz) hot water

Method
Add hot water to jelly, mix well until jelly has dissolved. Add crushed ice. Add other ingredients and stir well. Strain into a glass and add garnish.

The only existing drink I can recall that includes Drambuie is a Rusty Nail, which is scotch on the rocks with a splash of Drambuie.

So lets make up some!

1. You could make a tasty creamy drink with the 1/4 bottle of amarula (about 2 oz. per drink because it's pretty low proof right?), a bit of Drambuie (say 1/2 oz. per drink), and some light rum (1.5 oz. per drink). Blend with ice with that slushy machine. Pour into chilled wine glass or tiki mug. Serve with straw. Mmmmmmmmm. I'll call it an African Goddess.

2. How about 1.5 oz. rum (gold or light), 1/2 oz. Drambuie, and 1/2 oz. lemon juice. Shake and strain into chilled cocktail glass and float lemon twist. Let's call it a Honeycomber (Drambuie has honey in it).

3. 1/2 oz. limoncello, 2 oz. orange juice, 2 oz rum, a teaspoon vermouth, a teaspoon drambuie - everything but the amarula. Shake with ice and strain into short tiki mug with crushed ice. Garnish with orange slice and cherry (and pineapple slice if you wish). Add paper umbrella. The Witch Doctor.

4. 2 oz. rum, 1/2 oz. limoncello, 1/2 oz. lime juice. Dip edge of chilled cocktail glass in limoncello, shake off excess, and dip in superfine sugar. Shake drink with cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass. Add lemon slice garnish. The Hockey Puck (I couldn't think of anything else and it's popular in Canada).

Happy hangover!

The Bull Elephant sounds like a good hot drink. How about using the limoncello instead of the lemon jelly? Use a little bit at first so you don't ruin the drink.

Here are a few drinks made with Drambuie and
Amarula Cream

SPRINGBOK
Drink Type: Shots, Shooters & Slammers
Glass Type: Shot Glass

Ingredients:
3/4 oz. Creme de Menthe
1/4 oz. Amarula Cream
1 dash Cream

AFTERSHOCK
Drink Type: Punches & Party Drinks
Glass Type: Collins Glass

Ingredients:
Drambuie
Malibu Coconut Rum
Cherry Brandy
Lemonade

Description:
Pour the ingredients into the glass and stir

CACTUS PRICK
Drink Type: Cocktails
Glass Type: Cocktail Glass

Ingredients:
2 oz. Jose Cuervo Tequila
0.5 oz. Triple Sec
2 tsp. Drambuie
2 oz. Lemon Juice
Description:
Fill a shaker half full with ice cubes. Pour all ingredients into shaker and shake well. Strain drink into a Cocktail glass and serve.

MUSHROOM BOMB
Drink Type: Shots, Shooters & Slammers
Glass Type: Shot Glass

Ingredients:
Kahlua
Drambuie
Irish Cream

Description:
layer in order in shot glass

Lady Cello

Ingredients

1 oz Limoncello
1 oz Rum
1 tsp Grenadine
1/2 oz Lemon juice
Sugar

Directions
Shake with ice and pour into a sugar and Limoncello rimmed highball glass. Garnish with a cherry.

powerofthetiki

[ Edited by: powerofthetiki on 2003-02-12 05:14 ]

I don't have any cocktails that use those ingredients but a Blue Lagoon is a quick and dirty tropical drink suitable for letting guests do themselves or making in pitchers...

Blue Lagoon

1 shot of light rum
1 shot of blue curacauo
a hand full of ice cubes
fill the glass with lemonade

Depending on the party it can be nice to do simple drinks like this and concentrate on the garnishes.

IronTiki, posting after a very long hiatus. I kinda got lost in the switch from yahoo.

Tikifish...Did you try http://www.webtender.com for suggestions?

[ Edited by: Tiki Rider Five-O on 2003-02-11 19:14 ]

Thanks, I'm going to check out webtender now...

I have also had a request for a 'non-rum banana drink'. Sheesh! Fussy guests!
Any thoughts? Is it better to make drinks with real bananas blended up, or to buy the banana liqueur? I seem to recall a party a few years ago in which I tried to make a drink with real bananas and it came out the colour of baby puke.

On 2003-02-12 11:59, tikifish wrote:
Thanks, I'm going to check out webtender now...

Any thoughts? Is it better to make drinks with real bananas blended up, or to buy the banana liqueur?

Use real bananas for texture but for flavor add the banana liqueur?

Banana Mama

1 Banana
1 oz banana liqueur
Pineapple juice
Cream or milk

Pour into a blender with ice and blend till smooth

powerofthetiki

Ok, so with the help of webtender I came up with 11 drinks we can make with our meager stash, and by buying only 4 more alcoholic ingredients - rum, vodka, malibu and banana liqueur.

And, because I am a big nerd and I am not busy at work, I made posters for each of them. I also gave the ones with stupid names better names.

http://www.tikifish.com/cinapolada.jpg

http://www.tikifish.com/balihigh.jpg

http://www.tikifish.com/bananacreampi.jpg

http://www.tikifish.com/funkymonkey.jpg

http://www.tikifish.com/hawaiianeye.jpg

http://www.tikifish.com/hawaiianhighland.jpg

http://www.tikifish.com/malariadrink.jpg

http://www.tikifish.com/pinkcello.jpg

http://www.tikifish.com/scurvy.jpg

http://www.tikifish.com/tongatwist.jpg

http://www.tikifish.com/wrathofpele.jpg

Tikifish, very impressive.
soooooo, when can we expect your book or calendar of tropical tiki drinks to hit the stands?

Holy Crud! I want to work where you work! The last time I had any free time was...er....uhh, I can't even remember!

Keep up the groovy werk!

Sorry I'm joining this strand a little late...
You have Amarula?! I LOVE that stuff. It's made in South Africa and it's better than Baileys in my opinion. It's sweet and creamy and very smooooooooth but also exotic. Drink it and you'll sleep like a baby and have cool dreams.
I usually drink it straight or with/in coffee.
You could substitute Amarula for Irish Cream in most recipes. I like the African Goddess drink idea.
Keep us posted with what you come up with.

THE MORNING AFTER THE WINTER LUAU UPDATE!

Well, as expected, the Amarula went first... All the drinks were a success, even the Wrath of Pele which I was wary of... I guess you can't go wrong with a tonne of fruit, a tonne of booze, and a bunch of willing guinea pigs... of course by 3 am we were throwing just about anything into the blender to see what happened....

Also served were Presidents Choice Vegetarian Egg Rolls, and I made home made vegetarian coconut shrimp on a stick. Dipping sauces were the old school CHinese Sweet n' Sour and Cherry ones in the jar, bought mostly cause of their old school 'Chinese Restaurant' fonts. I'm sure they'd been sitting on the shelf since 1976.

I also invented a new game - I dont have a name for it, but it goes like this - you grab a phone book and pick a random, common name, like 'Bob' or 'Jeff' or 'Tracy'. Say for example you pick Bob, everyone at the table tells a true and amazing or stupid anecdote about someone they knew named Bob. But here's the catch - if you DON'T know a Bob, you have to make up a story anyway and convince the group your Bob is real. Then everyone votes true or false. A good party game!
I will post a few goofy pics momentarily... or maybe after I get back from a greasy Harvey's lunch!

The hula girl floating candles seem like a good idea, until her head burns off and then it's just weird and disturbing... a headless woman bobbing around plating the ukelele with her neck on fire...

Forget the crouton and lemon extract flaming garnish thing - I just copied the tiki tiki japan drink garnish and added cheap dollar store sparklers! Probably the aluminum sparks that fell in my Mai Tai will now give me alzheimer's...

The lovely and talented Crystal Chandelier (aka ALexis)

The power of Shecky is unleashed... stand back!

Cool pics. Keep 'em coming. (The sparklers was a good idea!)

I can't believe you guys get Amarula out there! I am currently working on some packaging designs for the company that makes it.

Great art Tiki Fish when is the book coming out? I can print these up I have printing press. We can put a book together and sell it. Let me know

Well of course you could never publish them, because it's all copyrighted images. That's the joy of making posters for your own home, you dont have to pay for fonts and you dont have to pay for pics!

please feel free to use them for your own parties - but using them for commercial use is strictly verboten!