The Flying Dutchman

Featuring another obscure ingredient, here is The Flying Dutchman:

• 2 ounces orange gin
• Juice of ¼ orange
• Juice of ¼ lime
• 3 drops Angostura bitters

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker, and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

This drink, from a 1950’s Dutch cocktail book, calls for orange gin. Now gin and fruit juice just go together (as the poet Snoop Dogg pointed out so long ago) so it seems logical that it would be used to create a flavored gin, but at first I was a little hesitant to try this drink because of a bad mental association with flavored vodkas.

Jasper’s Rum Punch

Here is another summer cocktail, Jasper’s Rum Punch:

• 1.5 ounces Wray & Nephew White Overproof Rum
• 1.5 ounces Jasper’s Secret Mix

Stir with cracked ice in an 8-ounce highball glass. Garnish with a cherry.

Okay, so this doesn’t seem much different than Jasper’s Planter’s Punch – the only change is a different rum. But, man does it really change the flavor.

I like the Planter’s Punch but I loved this drink. Even though you are drinking 126-proof spirit, Jasper’s mix mellows it out and I could drink a pitcher of this stuff.

Leatherneck Cocktail

Did you say you wanted a blue drink? Try the Leatherneck Cocktail:

• 2.00 ounces blended whiskey (Crown Royal recommended)
• 0.75 ounce blue curaçao
• 0.50 ounce fresh lime juice

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker, and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wheel.

Okay, I don’t like blue curaçao. Curaçao is supposed to be a colorless spirit, but it is often dyed blue to add a weird color to drinks. Seriously, there is no blue food so there should be no blue drinks.

La Floridita Daiquiri

As summer comes to a close I wanted to make the La Floridita Daiquiri:

• 2 ounces rum (such as Havana Club from Cuba or Brugal from the Dominican Republic)
• Juice of 1/2 lime (If your limes are small, use the whole thing)
• 1 teaspoon sugar or sugar syrup (increase if too tart)
• 1 teaspoon maraschino liqueur

Blend with crushed ice. Serve in a saucer cocktail or champagne glass. Garnish with lime wheel and a maraschino cherry

Continue reading

Jasper’s Jamaican Planter’s Punch

A variety of one of the oldest known cocktails is Jasper’s Jamaican Planter’s Punch:

• 1.5 ounces dark Jamaican rum (Coruba)
• 1.5 ounces Jasper’s Secret Mix

Add to a 10-ounce highball glass filled with cracked ice. Stir vigorously. Top off with more ice. Jasper garnished his with a pineapple spear, an orange slice, and a cocktail cherry. You can also use fresh mint.

The earliest recipe for Planter’s Punch dates from 1908:

Jasper’s Secret Mix

Required for Jasper’s cocktails, this is the “secret” mix that makes these rum drinks so special.

• Juice of 12 limes
• 1.50 cups sugar
• 1.25 ounces [Angostura Bitters][1]
• 0.50 whole nutmeg, grated

Stir the ingredients together in a mixing vessel until the sugar dissolves. Let steep in the refrigerator for at least two hours.

I used a Ball jar to mix and store this ingredient. That way I can easily just shake it when I’m ready to make a drink.

The Modernista

Another rare Scotch-based cocktail, The Modernista:

• 2.0 ounces Scotch
• 0.5 ounce dark Jamaican rum
• 1 teaspoon absinthe or pastis (Pernod, Herbsaint and Ricard all work.)
• 0.5 ounce Swedish Punsch
• 0.5 ounce fresh lemon juice
• 2 dashes orange bitters

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker, and strain into a cocktail glass. Add a lemon twist.

This is Dr. Cocktail’s name for The Modern cocktail, and the references I’ve found in the intertoobz all have Scotch, pastis or absinthe, and orange bitters in common, but in vastly different proportions. A couple include sloe gin. The drink is supposed to have originated just after the turn of the century (1900, not 2000), hence the name.