Last weekend was the Fogcutter Challenge…..and this weekend we continued the boozy activity with the Jet Pilot Challenge! you were supposed to make a Jet Pilot or a variation of it and post up the picture on Instagram with the hashtag #jetpilotchallenge2015 and best picture wins a prize! you don`t even must make a drink yourself you can take a picture of a Jet Pilot in a bar too.
Follow @el_nova_1 on Instagram for updates and check the #jetpilotchallenge2015 for more boozylicious pics! there will most likely be more Jet Pilots posted there as I write and post this as well as the next challenge coming up being announced.
The Jet Pilot was one of the most copied drinks during the hey days of the tiki era, and the drink had many names – the drink was known as the Ace Pilot, Space Pilot and Astronaut…and at the Mai-Kai, it became the Jet Pilot created by Mai-Kai’s original mixologist, Mariano Licudine who before coming to Mai Kai to design their original tropical drink menu, worked for Donn Beach who btw was a decorated World War II veteran.
The Jet Pilot is a strong, spicy, rummy and intense drink which dates back to the Mai-Kai’s original 1956 menu and is based on Don the Beachcomber’s Test Pilot cirka 1941.
And Stephen Crane`s Jet Pilot from Jeff Berry`s “a must have…” – Total Tiki App!
And like I did in my last post about the Fogcutter Challenge, i`m posting up a few of the pics that were submitted, and let me tell you I had a lot of fun with this! not only do you get to imbibe some superlicious tiki drinks, you also learn something about each drink since you (hopefully) make a couple of different ones and so by doing that you try different rum combos and recipe tweaks and learn a lot about how flavors comes together.
It takes a lot of practise to get the tiki drinks right and things like this, different tiki drink challenges inspires you too experiment and learn….it`s fun and educational.
Also by looking at pictures and reading recipes of tiki drinks you learn something about what a tiki drink is and how it looks like, that for example, it´s not about adding as many ingredients as possible in a big mess where all the various flavors clash with each other or melt together into an undefined mess instead of being harmoniously layered…..
Tiki drinks are tropical and the roots of tiki drinks are in the Caribbean….that`s where most of the rums came from and some of the mixers, like the falernum and pimento dram, even though a lot of the tiki inspiration came from the South Seas.
So let`s get tropical….!
And the last one that came in…sent in from Mai Kai, what a beauty! I just love how drink pics coming in from all over the places….Tacoma Cabana, Lost Lake, Ventiki, Bootlegger Lounge, Latitude 29, Tiki Ti, Frankie`s Tiki Oasis, Mai Kai…and all private homes and home tiki bars!
And here are my three versions, they are all made from the same recipe the Stephen Crane version but they just contain different rum combos starting out the Jet Pilot night with a double drink in a huge goblet because I was thirsty….
Lost Pilot – made with Lost Spirits 151 Cuban Inspired and Polynesian Rums and Rum Nation Jamaica 8 year plus Wood`s 100 for the demerara flavor. Both the Lost Spirits and Wood`s are strong rums while the Rum Nation Jamaica 8 mellows the strong flavors out and keep them balanced adding “sweetness” to the drink, but not sweetness as in sugar sweetness….more like making it nice.
The next up were two drinks, yes both for me… 🙂 and I called them the Co-Pilots…they had slightly different rum combos in them. I decided to make two drinks (and yeah…after imbibing a strong double, don`t judge…) because I have these two ubercool pair (called The Royal Pair) of tiki mugs made by Wayne Hoareau, owner of Wild Thing Creations in Australia, maker of awesome tiki mugs and I wanted to feature this sweet pair together.
One has Rum Nation 8 and Coruba overproof, touch of Wood`s 100 demerara and then Rhum Barbancourt and that rum combo was nice, kinda mellow and not as strong as the double and maybe that was a good thing? because….
– The next had a strong wicked rum combo full of flavors, mostly in the blackstrap route….yes I´m there again…It had Blackwell Jamaican Rum, Rougaroux Fullmoon dark, Wood`s 100 and Cruzan Blackstrap float – and a generous one, just poured….
The Co-Pilots!
The last drink I made was….the PINEAPPLE Pilot!! flying pineapples all around!! with the cooolest pineapple Tiki mug on the planet!! made by Scott Taylor!! the pineapple was brimming full with Blackwell Rum, Lost Spirits 151 Cuban rum and Gunroom Navy Rum!
Tasty rum combo as well, the Blackwell rum and the GunRoom navy rum paired well together and the strength and slight fruity pineapple notes came from the ever so smooth but oh so deadly Lost Spirits 151 Cuban….
The Pineapple Pilot
So why not join in on the fun next weekend or whenever the next tiki drink challenge happens? head over to Instagram and follow @el_nova_1
Different proportions, and the absence of grenadine. In my opinion the original Jet Pilot is better than the original Zombie. Ive followed the original Zombie recipe to the tee with different rums many times and I just dont like it as much as some of the modern interpretations.
demerara on top like lemon hart or hamilton.
Garnish with a big mint top and a black cherry and a lemon wedge
And just as tasty 🙂
It should be noted that the Don the Beachcomber Jet Pilot has the exact same ingredients as the original Zombie — just in different proportions. So basically, a Jet Pilot was a weaker Zombie.