After years of waiting, I finally posted about the Reverb Crash on my blog

Call it my paltry attempt at helping the Reverb Crash get the attention that it deserves.

I try to aim my cocktail blog at a pretty "across the board" swath of audience, so I put in just a few paragraphs on what tiki is and also how to make passionfruit syrup.

I pretty much started out my cocktail passion here on this forum, so I was happy to gush over Tiki Central in the post.

I also mentioned in it that Doug over at Pegu Blog is about to wrap up his "Tiki Month" 2011 celebration. Check it out!

My post: http://spiritedremix.blogspot.com/2011/02/reverb-crash-and-tiki.html

Tiki Month 2011: http://www.killingtime.com/Pegu/category/tiki/tiki-month-2011/

cool blogs. thanks for linking these.

for passionfruit syrup i've just been using 3 parts juice w/1 part rock candy syrup. i'll have to try your recipe and a commercial version for comparison. mine is probably a syrupy passionfruit juice instead of a passionfruit syrup.

Thanks for posting this.
I tried to post this comment, not sure if it went through.
Quote:
Thanks for posting about my drink. Let me just summarize my comments from various discussions, as an advice for people trying it:
If the main flavor is not bitter, than you have made it wrong.
It has become really hard to find the right ingredients to make it balance right, so people might get a sweet syrupy concotion, which is not how the drink should taste.

Ran

End Quote.

I love this drink bc it is so grapefruity.

Thanks, Ran. Yeah, it didn't post in the comments, so I did it for you.

There are definitely times that this drink comes out sweet rather than bitter.

What do you think the secret is to achieving the bitterness in the drink?

I'm sure Ran will chime in with the Answer,
but I am gonna take a stab at it.

Ran uses white grapefruit for this,
not pink ones.

The Pink ones are way sweeter.

Jeff(btd)

P.S.
Ran I got a bunch more White Grapefruit for ya.

Unfortunately, white grapefruits are becoming harder and harder to obtain. I can't think that I've ever seen them in a store.

Also, Ran said originally that he made this drink with bottled refrigerated grapefruit juice. If someone wants to point me in the direction of a brand of bottled white grapefruit juice, please do...

On 2011-03-07 10:13, DJ HawaiianShirt wrote:
Unfortunately, white grapefruits are becoming harder and harder to obtain. I can't think that I've ever seen them in a store.

Also, Ran said originally that he made this drink with bottled refrigerated grapefruit juice. If someone wants to point me in the direction of a brand of bottled white grapefruit juice, please do...

This is what use.

:drink: ,
Erik the Red

On 2011-03-07 12:26, Mr. NoNaMe wrote:

On 2011-03-07 10:13, DJ HawaiianShirt wrote:
Unfortunately, white grapefruits are becoming harder and harder to obtain. I can't think that I've ever seen them in a store.

Also, Ran said originally that he made this drink with bottled refrigerated grapefruit juice. If someone wants to point me in the direction of a brand of bottled white grapefruit juice, please do...

This is what use.

:drink: ,
Erik the Red

BZZZ! Erik, wrong answer, sorry :)

These type of juices from concentrate taste pretty bad in the drink, IMHO.
The bottled grapefruit juice I used was in Israel, not here. It's true, it's impossible to find "freshly squeezed" type (not from concentrate) white grapefruit juice.
I try and find white grapefruit - some ethnic markets have them from time to time, and so does Whole Food$...the best is to have your own tree or a good friend like Jeff that has a neighbor with one.

Getting more practical:
Florida's type not from concentrate ruby red grapefruit juice in the chilled section is what I used when I couldn't find white grapefruit juice. Of course I had to adjust to compensate for the extra sweetenss.

Now - how to adjust? with more rum :) and with changing the balance to the more flavourful dark rum, that comes through.
Also another huge offender is usually the passion fruit syrup. The solution is not to use less, cause then you loose an important dimension of the drink.
You need to find one that has pronounced tartness. I have yet to find a good commercial one. I thought Trader Tiki's would be good, but it's too sweet in the drink.
My solution is to use frozen passion fruit pulp and mix with simple syrup. The brand I had the most succes with is La Nuestra. I also tried Goya, but I think it didn't turn out as well.

Hope this helps some, feel free to ask more if you need additional info.

Ran

Thank god you're here, Ran!

I use freshly squeezed red grapefruit - but here's the kicker, I use it as I pick it. It has none of the character notes you associate with red.

I also use Finest Call Passion Fruit Syrup - a big improvement over some of the others I used.

I served this drink last night at my Poly Pop Party to one of the guests. He absolutely loved it.

On 2011-03-07 15:38, kick_the_reverb wrote:

BZZZ! Erik, wrong answer, sorry :)

Hope this helps some, feel free to ask more if you need additional info.

Ran

Shit. Time for pegleg punches. I'll have to get small bottles of the O'S grapefruit juice for my wife. She loved the Crash the wrong way. :)

I had no idea white grapefruit was so hard to find, that's the standard grapefruit that i've always known.

On 2011-03-07 18:58, Mr. NoNaMe wrote:

On 2011-03-07 15:38, kick_the_reverb wrote:

BZZZ! Erik, wrong answer, sorry :)

Hope this helps some, feel free to ask more if you need additional info.

Ran

Shit. Time for pegleg punches. I'll have to get small bottles of the O'S grapefruit juice for my wife. She loved the Crash the wrong way. :)

Or, try the other stuff and see if she likes it even better :)

On 2011-03-07 19:23, thePorpoise wrote:
I had no idea white grapefruit was so hard to find, that's the standard grapefruit that i've always known.

That's what I have always known until I moved to the States and noticed that Ruby Red and Pink have taken over the market.

Ran

I made one tonight.

Very refreshing and enjoyable.

I had to use bottled Grapefruit Juice and some sub standard Orgeat I had opened, combined with the Finest Call Pasion Fruit puree. I used Cruzan and Coruba rums. (By the way, Coruba is great!! Meyers who??)

I cannot wait to set up the fresh ingredients and give a few of these a real spin.

Thanks guys.

I made this for the first time tonight and am loving it. It wasn't as grapefruity as I expected considering how much is in it. I found white grapefruit at Gelson's and used Trader Tiki's orgeat and passionfruit syrups. The latter probably makes it a bit sweeter than it was intended to be, but there's still some bitter aftertaste that's not unpleasant. I think I'm going to have to pick up some more grapefruit...

We are at nearly at the end of Grapefruit season, so if you live in California or Florida or close-ish -- do NOT miss out on a fabulous season. This year's crop have been amazing.

Varieties to look for (White Grapefruit):

Melogold
Oroblanco
Duncan (usually just labelled as "Florida White")

Don't forget to cut out/off the central column of your pieces before pressure-squeezing: Makes it easier to juice and avoids a large amount of the flavorless bitterness.

enjoy!

I am a newbie to making tiki drinks. My 4th drink attempt was the Reverb Crash. It is phenomenal. One of the best drinks of any kind I've ever had.

If you live in Southern California finding white grapefruits is actually not hard at all. I bought some today at the Buena Park farmer's market. At least two different vendors had them.

I made the drink according to spec except I used about 1/5th red grapefruit mixed with the 4/5th white - all freshly squeezed a few hours before mixing. I used fresh lime juice, and Gosling's Black Seal for the dark along with 1/2 Appleton VX and 1/2 Bacardi white for the light. All I have at the moment for syrup is Toroni so I used 1 oz of their passionfruit instead of the recommended 1 and 1/2, and about 1 tbspoon or less of Toroni orgeat.

The drink is incredibly delicious. It has the bitterness of the white grapefruit, the slight acidity of the lime, and the sweetness of the syrup balanced perfectly with the rums. I don't really think this drink can be improved upon though I plan to get the Trader Vic syrups soon to see if they improve the flavor, and ultimately try to make my own orgeat and passionfruit syrups.

Kudos to kick_the_reverb/Ran for inventing such an amazing drink. I plan to make these in large amounts for parties in the future.

What rums do people like in the Reverb Crash?

For some reason I had it in my head that I should use Smith & Cross along with a white and it just destroyed the drink.

Hey wupput!

I've actually heard from a rum expert or two that Smith & Cross can be a bit temperamental when it comes to mixing it certain ways.

I do still think you should stick with Jamaican dark rum, however. I think an easy and safe place to start would be Appleton. They recently changed the names of their blends, but Appleton 12 Extra is a luxurious choice that you won't regret. I also wouldn't have a problem with some of the cheaper brands that are darkened with molasses/caramel like Myers' or Coruba, but some folks on the board might differ with me on that.

Thanks DJ! OK, next time I'll go back to Coruba, until I can get my hands on some of that Appleton!