Like everyone else I`m happy to see 2020 go…. we have all endured all kinds of hardships and trauma, let´s hope for a better year in 2021! Here are two Christmas drinks I made with passion fruit sorrel, a very tasty version of the traditional sorrel. The passion fruit sorrel recipe was created by my favorite chef, Chris de la Rosa of caribbeanpot.com! I just changed the ratios a little bit to suit my two Tiki cocktails. But you may double my recipe and have some to drink during the Christmas days, I did, and it´s sooo tasty! I can barely pass the fridge without having a few sips of it.
Christmas Lapu
2 oz fresh orange juice
0.25 oz fresh lemon juice
3 oz passion fruit sorrel
1.5 oz Tiki Lovers Dark rum
1.5 oz Tiki Lovers White rum
Shake well with ice cubes and pour into a double old fashioned glass with a large ice chunk. Garnish with green moss and a white tropical orchid.
Taste notes – Taste of hibiscus, a little spice, a little fruit and a little rum. Quite refreshing without being too heavy on the alcohol. This drink can be adjusted with how sweet or tart you want it by adding or reducing the lemon juice. The sweetness is in the sorrel, and I didn`t make it super-sweet, but there too, it can be adjusted by the amount of sugar added.
Passion Fruit Sorrel
1 cup Hibiscus flowers
3 cups water
1 bay leaf
1/3 stick of Ceylon cinnamon
3 slices of fresh ginger
3 tbsp light muscovado sugar
3 large or 6 small passion fruit depending on variety
1/2 orange, sliced
Add everything (except the passion fruit, sugar and orange slices) to a pot with water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium and simmer for eight minutes.
Add passion fruit pulp and add the shells too, except one that is saved for the Campari float. Add 3 tbsp light brown muscovado sugar and stir to dissolve the sugar.
Add the sliced orange. Simmer for another 2 minutes, then turn the heat off, put the lid on and leave it to cool overnight in room temp. This can be used both as a cocktail ingredient and as a Christmas sorrel drink. Chill in the fridge.
Before use, add a little sprinkle of fresh lime juice (about 1 tsp) and adjust the sweetness with sugar, coconut sugar or honey if needed.
Beachcomber`s Christmas
2 oz passion fruit sorrel
0.25 oz fresh lime juice
0.5 oz kombu seaweed infused Campari (to
float). Just Campari without seaweed works fine too.
0.5 oz Appleton Rare Blend (12 Year)
0.5 oz aged rhum agricole
0.5 oz Lemon Hart 151
Shake with ice and strain into a double old-fashioned glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a passion fruit shell containing the Campari float, and a cocktail umbrella.
Taste notes – it tastes like a mix of aged rum, passion fruit sorrel and Campari, exactly as what it is. It tastes like Christmas for grown-ups!
Kombu Seaweed infused Campari: Break off a 10 inch piece of kombu seaweed into 2-3 pieces, add to 1 cup/2.5 dl of Campari. Let sit overnight. The seaweed adds a hint of “salty sea” to the Campari. Just a “tingle,” but it makes itself known.
Here is a great drink, especially for the summer, created by my friend Emanuele Codispoti. It`s a tasty mix of the Pina Colada and the Missionary`s Downfall. Yep, what a drink marriage! the drink is so fresh and tasty!
Here is a little biography of Emanuele:
Emanuele was born in Rome and grow up in a small town in Calabria, south of Italy, He started to work in the hospitality business at an early age and started to work behind the bar in the early 2000`s. Researches about “tropical” drinks brouht him to discover Jeff Beachbum Berry and his books, Don the Beachcomber, Trader Vic and the Tiki cocktails. He fell into the “Tiki rabbit-hole” and it was love at first sight!
His obsession with faraway, exotic and mystery islands has its roots in his childood. As a child, and even before he was born, he listened to instrumental songs that his father listened to. Bands like Santo & Johnny, with their lap steel guitar did early on put their sound into the deepths of his mind. And Emanuele grew up with the myth of a Hawaiian paradise. There was something, like a recall, that attracted him towards a lost and mysterious world. As an adult and overcoming the fear of flying, he finally made his dream come true. He travelled across America to visit Tiki bars and sites. From San Francisco to Los Angeles and San Diego, from Maui and Ohau to New Orleans, from New York to Fort Lauderdale.
He have had the honor to be guest bartending at The Hukilau beside Daniele Dalla Pola (Nu Lounge Bar, Bologna and Esotico, Miami) for the past three years. Now he works at a Beach Club called Mana Nui Sand bar at Verdemare Beach, in a small town called Soverato in Southern Italy. And here is his drink:
Missionary`s Colada, by Emanuele Codispoti
1.5 oz light Puerto Rican rum (Bacardi Carta Blanca)
0.5 oz gold Cuban rum (Havana Club 3)
1 oz Re`al cream of coconut
0.25 oz Re`al ginger syrup
1 oz fresh lime juice
0.5 oz Alamea Peach Brandy liqueur
8 mint leaves
6 pineapple chunks
pinch of salt
Blend until liquid and the add 1 cup of crushed ice and blend again until smooth but not slushy.
Pour into a snifter and enjoy! garnish with mint. I also added a small strawberry… Note that the drink I made looks very green, it´s due to that I took some extra (and very large) mint leaves, I`m a mint lover!
If you`re into tiki and exotic cocktails you might already be familiar with the Tiki Cocktail Challenge by “El Nova” (@el_nova55 and @tikicommando (Tacoma Cabana & Devil`s Reef) on instagram) which are weekly challenges to re-create or make a twist of, or go to a bar and order, a specific tiki cocktail and then post up a nice picture of it. The best picture wins. It`s all for fun and challenge your creative mode. It was a while ago (2015) but the Tiki cocktail challenge is back again and in full swing!
The pictures and recipes are posted in the “Tiki Recipes” group on Facebook and on Instagram with the hashtag that is set for each specific challenge for example #demeraradryfloatchallenge2019″ etc.
We are three weeks into it already and I made these drinks so far, my first entry, was for the “151 Swizzle” Challenge:
151 Tribute Swizzle Number Five
The recipe is based on the “Tribute to The Mai-Kai’s 151 Swizzle”v.4 by The Atomic Grog, my favorite tiki blog on this planet! but the grenadine is switched out for fassionola (homemade) and the ratios are upped as well while the sugar syrup is omitted. Then 0.5 oz Batavia arrack is added for a subtle layer of extra funk.
1 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz fassionola (BG Reynold`s, homemade or other quality fassionola)
0.25 oz falernum
0.25 oz cinnamon syrup
1 oz Lemon Hart 151 overproof rum
1 oz Dr Bird jamaican rum
0.5 oz Batavia arrack (By the Dutch or Batavia Arrack van Oosten)
1 dash Angostura bitters
2 drops Absinthe
Pulse blend with 1 cup of crushed ice for 5 seconds and pour into a chilled metal swizzle cup, other swizzle glass or pilsner glass, adding more crushed ice to fill. Garnish with a cinnamon stick.
My 2nd entry was for the “Beachcomber`s Gold” Challenge, I changed the recipe a bit and it became a darker more “secretive” take on the gold.
1 oz Coruba DarkÂ
1/4 oz Lemon Hart 151
1/4 oz Barbancourt 8
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
1/4 oz demerara syrup
1/4 oz Hibiscus grenadine
6 drops Pernod or Absinthe
2 drops almond extract
2 oz (1/4 cup) crushed ice
Flash blend for 5 seconds and strain into a saucer glass lined
with an ice shell forming a hood over the glass. Serve with short straws.
2.5 oz fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1.5 oz passion fruit syrup
0.25 oz sugar syrup
1 oz Demerara rum
0.25 oz 151 Demerara rum
0.25 oz maraschino liqueur
Shake everything, except 151 rum, with ice cubes. Strain into a double old-fashioned glass filled with crushed ice (or lined with an ice shell). Carefully float 151. Do not stir.
By Don the Beachcomber, circa 1941.
Ice shell:
The ice shell creation in the “Demerara Dry Float” is a bit different from the one in “Beachcomber´s Secret, with an ice shell that is not tilted to created a “hood” over the drink. It just sits upright and is also a little bit smaller or lower than the classic tilted ice shell you can see in the “Beachcomber`s Gold”. Drinks with these types of ice shells are usually served in a flaired glass,
In the old days of Don the Beachcomber these ice shells was a marvel to behold. They were made to perfection with very finely shaved ice creating very thin “walls” and the walls were not “buckled” in the way you see them today with crushed ice, instead they were smooth like silk! at least that`s what I`ve seen in a video.
I have yet to accomplish an ice shell that look that way, that`s partly due to me not having an ice shaver and partly that a lot of training is needed. It`s not easy to get them to look so perfect. When you make a hooded ice shell you need to consider the temperature of the ice. it need to be a little “soft”to easily mold, but not too soft and melting. Then it need to be as fine as you can get it.
You need a flaired glass and you fill it up with the shaved (preferably, and if not, crushed) ice and with your hands (or with something round) form a hole in the bottom that you press with your fingers and slowly tilt upwards on the side of the glass until a hood is formed. Add a little more ice to the bottom to”hold” the hood.
Then you put the glass in the freezer for at least 1 hour before pouring the drink in it. When you make the non-hooded ice shell you just make the hole in the bottom pressing the ice upwards on all sides around the glass and put it in the freezer and that´s it.
That was all for now, if you want to join in on the challenge or check out all the other amazing drinks go to the Facebook group “Tiki Recipes” and also check out the hashtags #151swizzlechallenge2019″, “beachcombersgoldchallenge2019” and “demeraradryfloatchallenge2019” on Instagram.
They are already launching new rums and I`m a bit behind, but the World`s End Tiki Spiced Rum is an interesting addition to the tiki and craft cocktail scene. World`s End Tiki Spiced Rum is the creation of Lester Schutters and Tom Neijens. ( the Drifter Bar, Belgium) I have tried the dark also and tried them both paired with some really exquisite chocolate, a very pleasant experience. and of course, in a couple of refreshing drinks too. In this post i`m making my own drinks, but before I do that, a little about the World`s End Rum:
The first World’s End Rum was created 3 years ago by Lester Schutters and is a spin off of his liqueur company 2240 Social Club . Out of a lifetime interest in rum, the next step was to create something that he was looking for but could not find on the rum market . And so the dark spiced rum was born, a combination of pot and column still rums.
After being on the road a lot, getting the chance to meet some great people in the business, Lester met Tom Neijens. Tom liked what he did with the dark spiced rum, and with the opportunity to talk about a mutual interest “rum “, they finally, after several rum-talks, came to the point that Tom was looking for – a way to commercialize what he had created . He already used a raw version in his cocktails . And as Lester was looking to expand his range of spiced rum, they decided to get together to create what would become World’s End Rum Tiki Spiced .
Lester created a tailored blend for this project, which was a blend of Trinidad, Tobago and Jamaican rums . Pure focused on taste, he started to look for the character that this blend would become and finally, after adding the right spices, he released the World’s End Rum Tiki Spiced . Main spices in this rum are allspice and cinnamon . That`s the story in short. It`s difficult to make a good spiced rum because to get balance of flavors when spices are added, paired with not getting it too sweet, is a not-too-easy task. And generally, many spiced rums i think, falls into the category of “too sweet” or “unbalanced”, but there`s some that are balanced and good too.
Personally I usually tend to prefer to use spiced rums as cocktail ingredients, and that`s because to my palate, a little goes a long way here and they are usually sweet, with anything from balanced, to quite sweet, to so sweet that your teeths cringe. But this rum I think, is on the balanced side on the scale.
It`s also a quite perfect match for a good Coke. And a good Coke, (a MUST for a Rum & Coke) is not the usual thing in the supermarket, sweetened with the horrible and unhealthy high fructose corn syrup, it`s the Mexican Coke which is sweetened with natural sugarcane. There`s also “old-fashioned” craft cokes you can try. One (local brand) in my country that I like is “Kitty Kola” which uses organic apple juice as sweetener and ecological ginger juice, lemon and kola nut. It has a really old-fashioned cola-like flavor, the way I imagine coke used to taste in the 40s-50s and I find it delicious. It does not taste like just a coke though, it has a flavor of it`s own.
And actually, when researching, I found out that this cola was launched in Sweden in the 1953, (originally from England) It disappeared because Coca Cola out-competed it but it`s now back again on the market (with a re-developed improved recipe with only organic all-natural ingredients).
The for this year unusually hot summer is now gone away, but a well-made Rum & Coke is really refreshing on any given day, so gonna present that here together with a few other drinks. Apart from going well with coke, I feel that the tiki spiced rum would go very well with a good Root-beer too, in for example the Caribbean Punch. I made a take on the “Don`s Caribbean Punch” (Don the Beachcomber, cirka 1957, from Sippin`Safari by Jeff Berry) on this blog many years ago. But of course, the tiki spiced rum as you can imagine, goes in all kind of cocktails. I decided to make a new take on the Caribbean Punch though, and making it on the slightly bitter side switching out Root-beer for Chinotto. Likewise I mixed equal parts of Kitty Kola and Chinotto in the rum and coke-type of drink to add a bit of a bitter edge to it.
But before I post the recipes, here`s just a little short note on how I find the World`s End Tiki Spiced rum neat:
The first thing that hits my nose is allspice and cinnamon with hints of citrus and sugarcane. The citrus is lingering around, lightly caressed by the sweetness of sugarcane. it´s backed up by the spicy notes of the allspice and cinnamon.Then at first sip I feel a warm cinnamon flavor with orange peel and hints of allspice followed by sugarcane notes. It´s quite balanced even though cinnamon dominates a little. it`s sweet and in my opinion does best in mixing where you can balance the sweetness with lemon or lime. It mixes very well in tiki drinks (and other cocktails) No burn either, it´s not harsh at all.
At the German rumfest last year I tried it with chocolate, but a chocolate pairing is another thing, and with the dark quality chocolate we had it became a different and elevated drinking experience.
The aftertaste is semi long with lingering orange and cinnamon notes.
Bitter Caribbean Punch
0.5 oz fresh lime juice
0.5 oz falernum
1.5 oz Chinotto* (to top)
1 oz World`s End Tiki Spiced Rum
0.5 oz Plantation OFTD overproof rum
0.5 oz Foursquare Triptych Barbados rum (or similar)
3 dashes Angostura bitters
1/4 tsp fassionola (or hibiscus grenadine)
4 drops La Maison Fontaine Absinthe Chocolat Liqueur
1 cup crushed ice
Blend at high speed for 5 seconds, (or shake it) pour unstrained into a suitable glass or tiki mug, and add more crushed ice to fill. Garnish with something tropical. It turned out to be very refreshing, with a pleasant bitter backbone from the Chinotto that just blended so well with the spicy notes of the rum.
Chinotto is an italian carbonated soft drink made from the juice of the fruit of the myrtle-leaved orange tree. It looks like coca cola but have a taste of it`s own, a bit cola-like, a bit orange-flowery, less sweet and with a slight bitterness, it`s truly delicious.
Marama Kula
1 oz /30 ml World`s End Tiki Spiced rum
1 oz /30 ml Plantation OFTD overproof rum
0.5 oz /15 ml Alamea Hawaiian Coffee liqueur
1 oz/30 ml fresh lime juice
0.5 oz /15 ml Cream of Coconut
0.5 oz /15 ml Guava nectar
0.5 oz /15 ml fresh pineapple juice
1 cup/2.5 dl crushed ice
Blend at high speed for 5 seconds and pour into a chilled snifter, add more crushed ice to fill, dust a little cinnamon powder on top. Garnish with paper parasol lantern.
There´s 2 oz of sweet/semi-sweet ingredients here and I found 1 oz of fresh lime still made a nice drink but if you prefer it more on the sour side just add up the lime a bit.
World`s End Rum &Â Bitter Cola
2 oz World`s End Tiki Spiced Rum
Top with equal parts Chinotto and Mexican Coke (or other craft coke not containing HCFS syrup, I used the old fashioned organic Kitty Kola)
Squeeze of 1 lime (or more to adjust the sweetness)
Cracked or crushed ice
Garnish large cinnamon stick, lime piece and speared amarena cherries.
Shake rum and lime with cracked or crushed ice, pour into a fancy tall glass and top up with more ice if needed. Garnish with a large cinnamon stick, lime piece and speared amarena cherries.
The combo of organic cola and chinotto makes a bitter-sweet combination.
Hidden Secret
1.5 oz/45 ml fresh lime juice
0.25 oz/7.5 ml ginger syrup
0.5 oz/15 ml cream of coconut
0.25 oz/7.5 ml strong cold brewed coffee
0.25 oz/7.5 ml Alamea Hawaiian Coffe Liqueur
0.5oz/15 ml World`s End Tiki Spiced rum
1 oz/30 ml Plantation OFTD overproof rum
1 oz/30 ml Plantation Stiggin`s Pineapple rum
1 oz/30 ml fresh pineapple juice
Garnish – 3 speared Fabbri Amarena cherries, orchid and pineapple leaf.
Add ingredients to a blender. Blend with 1 cup/2.5 dl crushed ice at high speed for 5 seconds, pour unstrained into a suitable tiki mug, or glass.
In the picture I used 2 mugs that belongs together and are called “Lieutenants Marqative and Posquesan”, made by Robbie Toth and you can view his artwork on Instagram here. Swizzle stick by MkGrider.
And like i said in the beginning of this post, the World`s End are launching two more rums! the Dry Spice and the 57 Navy Rum. You can find World`s End Rum on instagram here. They just won bronze medal for their new Navy Rum at the German Rum Festival,
They now have four rums in their range of rums, and a Falernum. They are so worth checking out!
Two posts in one … the Nu Lounge Bar Tiki XMas Tribute to the Mai Kai party and a sumptuous tasty tropical rum dessert recipe.
I think it doesn`t matter when or where… we always need a decadent dessert every now and then to add some sweetness and spice to life … and when they are spiked with rum it´s even better!
Here`s a tropical tiki style dessert, using the amazing Alamea Spiced Rum and Hawaiian Coffee Liqueur created by Daniele Dalla Pola, owner of the Nu Lounge Bar in Bologna, which btw on december 18th threw THE party of the year, the Tiki Xmas Tribute to the Mai Kai at the bar with guest bartenders, seminars, tiki market, live tiki carving, Polynesian buffet, tiki drinks and show at the bar, plus a live rockabilly band, the Lucky Strike, playing all night, and a tattoo artist doing alamea tattoos and a very lovely aloha vibe all around the place for almost 12 hours straight! I have added a few pics and videos after the dessert.
I was actually supposed to make this dessert for the Polynesian buffet but then it turned out not practically possible so instead I present it here so you can make it at home and you should because it´s that good…
Aloha Coconut Ice Cream with Alamea Hawaiian Coffee & Spiced Rum Pineapple!
For 3 servings, you need:
1/2 pineapple cut in 2 quarters, one with leaves still attached.
1L coconut ice cream
¼ cup (1,25 dl) demerara sugar
2 oz (60ml) Alamea spiced rum
0.5 oz (15 ml) Alamea Hawaiian Coffee Liqueur
Tropical orchids for garnish.
Cut up the pineapple in 2 pieces and save one for garnish with the leaves still attached. Peel the other pieces and slice them in ½ inch slices (1.2 cm) and set aside.
Pour demerara sugar in a nonstick pan on high heat and make sure to coat the entire base with sugar and place the pineapple slices on top of the sugar in one layer filling the pan. Cook and stir occasionally for about 5 minutes or until caramelized.
Add Alamea spiced rum and Hawaiian coffee liqueur and cook for another 2 minutes or until it`s brownish and syrupy. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
Place coconut ice cream on a serving plate, just a little bit ahead of time so it becomes a little bit soft. Garnish with the quartered pineapple and tropical orchids at the base of the ice cream. Pour the rum sauce on top.
This is a variation of a dessert I saw somewhere and turning it tiki style! it fits any tiki or tropical party or any other occasion or just no occasion at all, it`s simply delicious! and ridiculously easy to make. The only thing to pay attention to really, is to let the sauce cool down to room temp before pouring and to not take out the ice cream too early, but at the same time allow it to become just a little bit softened.
The Alamea exotic infusions are available at various places in Europe, and soon in the US and an online source is in the works. I will post more info when I know.
Nu Lounge Bar and the Tiki Xmas Tribute to the Mai Kai Party
Nu Lounge Bar is amazing, ecclectic and one of those tiki bars so full of things everywhere that you never get tired of looking. And the drinks … they are great, the menu fun and variable (and beautiful) the bartenders excellent and the aloha vibe is embracing you like a soft Hawaiian breeze…
There`s a restaurant there too and you can eat both outside and in the bar and Italian food does not suck … personally I`m a huge pasta lover but there`s so much more. But the last thing I had there the day after the party was an amazing lasagna al forno with a Nu Painkiller! not a bad combo.
Before the party we had a tasty fusilli pasta dish for lunch with a lovely tomato sauce served in a huge pot, very typically italian and with tiki drinks to wash it down of course … or was it rums shots? and during the party there was a Polynesian luau style buffet with all kind of tasty things. You can say that both the”food-me” and “drink-me” was very happy! but it was so much more than just food and drink, the ambiance was fantastic, the seminars interesting, the Lucky Strike band great, the tiki market beautiful with plenty of mugs from Maka Tiki (mostly)and wood carvings from Tiki Matt and Tiki Sam.
Here`s a few photos and videos of the fun, not the best of quality but hey I wasn`t there as a professional photographer … I was there to meet friends, party and visit the Nu Lounge Bar!
It´s a Zombie…
The topic of this party, Tribute to the Mai Kai.
Tiki Diablo Mai Kai Mug 2017. This mug is based on the Barney West tiki, one of the tikis in the Mai Kai garden. Amazing mug!
The tribute drinks.
The man behind the party … Daniele Dalla Pola, owner of the Nu Lounge Bar and Tiki King is on his throne, so the party can start!
But before that, our lunch…
And of course, espresso!
Then tiki drinks… this is Kama` Aina`, a mix of Plantation OFTD, tropical juices and spices.
Don the Beachcomber is watching over us.
And the rums…
Cool tiki mugs on the shelves in the bar.
From another era…
The King of fruits!
Seminars, here with Oriol Elias talking about tiki in his “Expanding the tiki flavors palette†and Clementine Guillot presenting Rhum Damoiseau. There was also a Masterclass called “Banks: il Rum di nuova generazione†by Daniele “James†Pons, sponsored by Bacardi, but I didn`t see it because it was in italian and I wouldn`t have understood much 🙂
After the seminars, the tiki market started. Mugs from Maka Tiki and wood carvings from Tiki Matt and Tiki Sam.
Mugs and decanters from Maka Tiki. http://makaproject.altervista.org/ and https://www.facebook.com/MakaTikiProject/ and http://www.makatiki.it/
Carvings by Matteo Cappellozza aka Tiki Matt, https://www.facebook.com/Tiki-Matt-1198157160275432/ and Instagram – @tiki_matt_
Moai by Tiki Matt and it`s mine…Â 🙂 (happy happy)
And tiki carving by Samuele de Vietro aka Tiki Sam, https://www.instagram.com/the_tiki_sam/?hl=en
I bought this cool little tiki while Oriol scored the one and only pineapple jigger…
Bad mobile pic… the pineapple jigger on the left side, how cool is that!?
More drinks! this one in a Re`al mug designed for Daniele Dalla Pola by Baï Tiki ( http://bybai1.wixsite.com/artbybai )
The Last Fang with edible cinnamon straw… I get really happy when I get these kinda drinks in my hand! rummy, fruity, spicy, rich and big! (by Oriol Elias)
And here´s the recipe.
And the man behind it, Oriol Elias, www.threeofstrong.com
And the oh so tasty Elixir Tropical…
Created by Maurizio la Spina. It was so tasty I ordered more than one… This amazing cocktail was in the Bacardi Legacy Competition.
The Nu Mai Tai with passion fruit…
Happy bartenders 🙂
And the rockabilly band Lucky Strike kept playing all night…
Me getting the alamea tattoo, both a memory and a hommage.
One of the things I like about this place… among all the tiki stuff you see a deer horn? 🙂
And some videos…
What a party! they say this was the party of the year and I agree on that, it was amazing.
Tiki World Rejoice!! This is super exciting! four stunning products will soon be released (in october) that I know especially the tiki world will LOVE! It`s the Tiki maestro Daniele Dalla Pola behind them, you know that guy who loves pineapples so much? and builds up a real show during his entertaining presentations? and not to mention amazing tiki drinks and tiki drink photography, plus he owns the Nu Lounge Bar in Bologna, Italy.
The vintage style tiki labels on these products are something you really want in your tiki bar or home bar or any bar for that matter. They are stunning work of exotic tropical art! And the products? I have tasted them all and they are just as good as i thought, or even better. Personally I do not ever want to not have them in my home tiki happy place/bar. These will be available for shipping worldwide and I will update in this post when the website is ready.
The name Alamea on the label is named after a starfish species (crown-of-thorns starfish). An old Samoan saying is that among Samoan traditional fishermen it has been said that if you happen to get stung by the spines of the alamea, you should turn the starfish over and have its spongy-like feet touch the area where you have been stung and the alamea will heal its own doing.
Here are my taste notes and impressions of the Alamea Hawaiian Coffee Liqueur, Peach Brandy Liqueur, Pimento Rum Liqueur and Spiced Rum.
Alamea Hawaiian Coffee Liqueur
Deep Coffee flavor from Hawaiian coffee…sumptuous and satisfying.
Alamea Pimento Rum Liqueur
I tasted it side by side with the Hamilton Pimento Dram and I find the Hamilton to have more punch and body but this one to be more refined and frankly I like them both equally much. I think they can be preferred in different drinks depending on how heavy the drink is. Sometimes a heavier or lighter pimento dram may be called for.
Alamea Peach Brandy Liqueur
This one is so good I could lick the bottle, it´s just so incredibly TASTY! made from fresh peaches of italy.
Alamea Spiced
One of the best spiced I`ve had. I`m usually not a fan of spiced rums so very much but it depends, and this one I find to be good and not too sweet (super important when it comes to spiced rums) and with natural flavors.
You will see more of these products on this website in the future because I know I will use them a whole lot. So now…on to the drinks! these are fun to mix with and a great addition to the tiki and other exotic (and other) cocktails.
O`opa`s Trap
1 oz/30 ml Laphroaig 10 whisky
1.5 oz/45 ml Plantation OFTD overproof rum
0.5 oz/15 ml Alamea Hawaiian Coffee Liqueur
0.25 oz Alamea Pimento Liqueur
0.25 oz/7.5 ml Alamea Spice
0.5 oz/15 ml banana cream mix*
1.5 oz/45 ml fresh lime juice
1.5 oz/45 ml fresh pineapple juice
Blend in blender with 1 cup/2.5 dl crushed ice and pour into a zombie (chimney) glass and add more crushed ice if needed. Garnish with cocktail umbrella and speared Fabbri Amarena cherries.
Banana Cream Mix – 1 part butter + 1 part honey + 1 part banana syrup
Make a simple syrup with 2:1 ratio of demerara sugar and water (about 1 cup/2.5dl of sugar) and slice 1 banana in it and mash slightly with a fork and bring to boil, then simmer on medium-low heat for a couple minutes. Take off heat and leave to cool and settle for about 1 hour, then strain and bottle in a clean bottle.
Make the Banana Cream Mix and keep it slightly above room temp for use. This is sumptuous and delicious….perfect for tiki drinks with pineapple, banana and coffee.
2 Ports Cup
1 oz/30 ml GunRoom 2 Ports rum
1 oz/30 ml Plantation OFTD overproof rum
0,75 oz /22.5ml Alamea Peach Brandy Liqueur
0.5 oz/15 ml Campari to float in a half passionfruit shell on top of the ice.
0,75 oz /22.5ml fresh lime juice
0.5 oz/15 ml fresh pineapple juice
0.5 oz/15ml passionfruit juice
The passionfruit seeds from one passionfruit.
Add everything to shaker except the Campari and shake hard with ice, strain into a snifter. Add the passionfruit shell with the Campari float on top of the ice, to be floated before drinking. Garnish with pineapple leaf.
Punch Taiohaè
2 oz/60 ml fresh pineapple juice
0.75 oz/22.5 ml cream of coconut
0.25 oz/7.5 ml Alamea Hawaiian
Coffee Liqueur
1 oz/ 40 ml fresh lime juice
0.5 oz/15 ml Alamea Spice rum
1 oz/30 ml aged rhum agricole
0.5 oz/15 ml Demerara rum
0.5 oz/15 ml Appleton Rare Blend (Appleton 12)
Blend with 1 cup/2.5 dl crushed ice or shake very hard with ice cubes to get that cream of coconut to mix in perfectly and pour into a tiki mug filled with crushed ice.
Garnish with grated nutmeg, flower, tropical leaf and 3 speared cocktail cherries, Fabbri Amarena or Luxardo.
