Category Archives: Absinthe

Absinthe, Angostura Bitters, Cinnamon Syrup, Falernum, Gin, Lime Juice, London Dry Gin, Navy Strength Gin, Old Tom Gin, Pomegranate Juice, Simple Syrup, Tiki No comments

Lunipela Zombie – Another twist on the Zombie

Having read “Professor Cocktail’s Zombie Horde” by David J. Montgomery (ISBN:9781-494352806), a book devoted to just Zombie recipes, I noticed that there were really very few Zombie recipes that used other spirits than rum. One that caught my eye though was a single Zombie recipe based on gin. This sounded interesting, so I went about creating a gin-based Zombie, starting from Don the Beachcomber’s original Zombie recipe, replacing the rum with gin and the grenadine with fresh pomegranate juice as described in an earlier post.

I found that the recipe was astoundingly well balanced. The absinthe played well against the juniper coming from the gin. Try it out and see what you think.

1 oz 30 ml Tanqueray No. Ten Gin, 47.3% ABV
1 oz 30 ml Haymans Old Tom Gin, 40% ABV
1 oz 30 ml Haymans Royal Dock of Deptford Gin, 57% ABV
½ oz 15 ml John D. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum Liqueur, 11% ABV
¾ oz 22 ½ ml Fresh lime juice
¾ oz 22 ½ ml Fresh pomegranate juice
½ oz 15 ml Simple syrup
6 drops / 1/8 tsp 0.5 ml Absinthe Libertine 55, 55% ABV
1 dash Angostura Bitters
2 tsp 10 ml Fresh grapefruit juice*
1 tsp 5 ml Cinnamon syrup*
6 oz /
¾ cup		 180 g Ice cubes

Place all ingredients but the overproof gin in a blender, adding the ice last, and blend at medium speed for no more than 5 seconds. Pour into a Tiki mug or, to better experience the beautiful vibrant colour of the cocktail, a tall glass (at least 15 oz/450 ml). Add ice cubes to fill. Layer the overproof gin over the ice at the top of the drink. Garnish with a wedge of fresh pineapple sandwiched between 2 maraschino cherries. Enjoy.

I have called this the Lunipela Zombie; lunipela in Hawaiian means Juniper, referring to the gin and also keeping it in the Tiki mold.

* Don’s Mix.

Absinthe, Cinnamon Syrup, Falernum, Jamaican Rum, Lime Juice, Overproof, Pomegranate Juice, Ron, Tiki No comments

Revisiting Don the Beachcomber’s Original Zombie Again

Having watched Jamie Oliver create a Zombie on his Drinks Tube, in which he used fresh pomegranate juice with its beautiful deep red colour instead of grenadine, I thought I’d see what a difference it would make to Don the Beachcomber’s original Zombie recipe. So I bought some pomegranates and extracted the juice from one. Extracting the juice was a little tricky, but it was easier than I thought. I cut the pomegranate in half and used a simple run-of-the-mill orange juicer to press out and collect the juice. Be careful though, because the juice tends to squirt out from all directions, especially if the skin of the pomegranate breaks, which it tends to do. Finally, squeeze the remaining pieces of the pomegranate to extract the last remnants of juice. I was surprised that the yield from one pomegranate was roughly 200 ml (just over ¾ of a cup)!

The colour is astounding and really improves the general experience of the Zombie. Unfortunately, to enjoy the colour you have to do forgo the Tiki mug. But how much juice should be used? The original recipe calls for 5 ml grenadine, but grenadine is a syrup and much sweeter than the fresh juice. Jamie Oliver used 15 ml. So I initially started with 15 ml, but soon went to 22 ½ ml (¾ oz). To compensate for the loss of sweetness from the grenadine, I added 15 ml (½ oz) of simple syrup.

So to add an extra dimension to the Zombie, replace the grenadine with freshly pressed pomegranate juice and simple syrup. This is now the recipe that I use when making my Zombies.

1 ½ oz 45 ml** Myer’s Original Dark Jamaican Rum, 40% ABV
1 ½ oz 45 ml** Ron Varadero Oro 5 Años, 40% ABV
or
Ron Palma Mulata de Cuba Añejo Reserva 5, 38% ABV
1 oz 30 ml Lemon Hart 151 Proof Demerara Rum, 75.5% ABV
½ oz 15 ml John D. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum Liqueur, 11% ABV
¾ oz 22 ½ ml Fresh lime juice
¾ oz 22 ½ ml Fresh pomegranate juice
½ oz 15 ml Simple syrup
6 drops / 1/8 tsp 0.5 ml Absinthe Libertine 55, 55% ABV
1 dash Angostura Bitters
2 tsp 10 ml Fresh grapefruit juice*
1 tsp 5 ml Cinnamon syrup*
6 oz /
¾ cup		 180 g Ice cubes

Place all ingredients but the overproof rum in a blender, adding the ice last, and blend at medium speed for no more than 5 seconds. Pour into a Tiki mug or, to better experience the beautiful vibrant colour of the cocktail, a tall glass (at least 15 oz/450 ml). Add ice cubes to fill. Layer the overproof rum over the ice at the top of the drink. Garnish with a wedge of fresh pineapple sandwiched between 2 maraschino cherries. If available, additionally garnish with a half of a passionfruit, whose aroma will significantly add to the Zombie experience. Enjoy.

* Don’s Mix.
** The amount of rum can be reduced to 30 ml (1 oz) without a serious loss of enjoyment, if you wish to minimize the impact of the Zombie.

Absinthe, Angostura Bitters, Cinnamon Syrup, Falernum, Grenadine, Jamaican Rum, Lime Juice, Overproof, Ron, Tiki No comments

Revisiting Don the Beachcomber’s Original Zombie

In earlier post I describe my attempt to create Don the Beachcomber’s Original Zombie, but could not source the Lemon Hart 151 Proof Demerara Rum. In the meantime, I have managed to obtain a bottle. And yes, it makes a big difference compared to the El Dorado Superior Overproof Demerara Rum 151. Firstly, it has a much more characteristic rum aroma and taste. Secondly, its dark colour adds to the drink experience. So it is a must for the Zombie and have adjusted my recipe accordingly.

1 ½ oz 45 ml** Myer’s Original Dark Jamaican Rum, 40% ABV
1 ½ oz 45 ml** Ron Palma Mulata de Cuba Añejo Reserva 5, 38% ABV
1 oz 30 ml Lemon Hart 151 Proof Demerara Rum, 75.5% ABV
½ oz 15 ml John D. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum Liqueur, 11% ABV
¾ oz 22 ½ ml Fresh lime juice
1 tsp 5 ml Grenadine
6 drops / 1/8 tsp 0.5 ml Absinthe Libertine 55, 55% ABV
1 dash Angostura Bitters
2 tsp 10 ml Fresh grapefruit juice*
1 tsp 5 ml Cinnamon syrup*
6 oz /
¾ cup		 180 g Ice cubes

Place all but the overproof rum in a blender, adding the ice last, and blend at medium speed for no more than 5 seconds. Pour into a tall glass. Add ice cubes to fill. Layer the overproof rum over the ice at the top of the drink. Garnish with a wedge of fresh pineapple sandwiched between 2 maraschino cherries. Serve.

* Don’s Mix.
** The amount of rum can be reduced to 30 ml (1 oz) without a serious loss of enjoyment, if you wish to minimize the impact of the Zombie.

Absinthe, Cinnamon Syrup, Falernum, Grenadine, Jamaican Rum, Lime Juice, Overproof, Ron, Tiki No comments

Don the Beachcomber’s Original Zombie

I attempted to create my first Zombie based as near as possible on the original recipe of Don the Beachcomer (Donn Beach born Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt) from 1934 as figured out by Jeff Berry (Beachbum Berry). The recipe as quoted by the Beachbum:

1 ½ oz 45 ml Gold or dark Jamaican Rum
1 ½ oz 45 ml Gold Puerto Rican Rum
1 oz 30 ml 151-proof Lemon Hart Demerara Rum
½ oz 15 ml Falernum
¾ oz 22 ½ ml Fresh lime juice
1 tsp 5 ml Grenadine
6 drops / 1/8 tsp Pernod or absinthe
1 dash Angostura Bitters
½ oz 15 ml Don’s Mix
(2 parts grapefruit to 1 part cinnamon syrup)
6 oz /
¾ cup		 180 ml Crushed ice

Place in a blender, adding the ice last, and blend at high speed for no more than 5 seconds. Pour into a tall glass. Add ice cubes to fill. Garnish with a mint sprig.

Cinnamon syrup:

16 oz 454 g Sugar
8 oz 226 g Water
3 3 Cinnamon sticks

Combine the sugar with water in a saucepan and then whisk over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Add the cinnamon sticks (coarsely crushed). Simmer for 5 minutes, then cover and remove from heat. Let cool and strain into a bottle.

Unfortunately, I was not able to source Lemon Hart 151 Proof in Germany in February 2016 as it was out-of-stock at all the online suppliers that I frequent. Once it comes back in stock, I try a Zombie with it. Instead of the Lemon Hart, I used El Dorado Superior Overproof Demerara Rum 151. Not a dark rum like Lemon Hart, but at least a demerara rum. Would also be interesting to try using Wray & Nephews Overproof Jamaican Rum, which I have in my cabinet.

For the Jamaica rum I used Myer’s Original Dark Jamaican Rum. Since I had no gold Puerto Rican rum, I used Ron Palma Mulata de Cuba Añejo Reserva 5, which I had in my drinks cabinet. For the Pernod or absinthe, I used Absinthe Libertine 55, which I also had to hand. The 6 drops were a bit difficult to measure, so after initially trying 1 ml absinthe, which made the Zombie taste too unbalanced in the favour of absinthe, I settled on 0.5 ml.

Since I have a Vitamix Professional Series 300 blender that simply turned the crushed ice to water at high speed after 5 seconds, I decided to change tactics and use ice cubs and settled on blending the drink at medium speed for 5 seconds. This resulted in a much more pleasing consistency of the drink.

So here is my take on the original Zombie. I must emphasize that it is really important is to use really fresh grapefruit juice. My initial attempts using a rather old grapefruit that was lying around the kitchen at the time were completely overshadowed when I bought and used a fresh pink grapefruit. Since many recipes call for white grapefruits, which I couldn’t source at short notice, I will have to see if using a white grapefruit will make a big difference in some future attempt.

1 ½ oz 45 ml Myer’s Original Dark Jamaican Rum, 40% ABV**
1 ½ oz 45 ml Ron Palma Mulata de Cuba Añejo Reserva 5, 38% ABV**
1 oz 30 ml El Dorado Superior Overproof Demerara Rum 151, 75.5% ABV
½ oz 15 ml John D. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum Liqueur, 11% ABV
¾ oz 22 ½ ml Fresh lime juice
1 tsp 5 ml Grenadine
6 drops / 1/8 tsp 0.5 ml Absinthe Libertine 55, 55% ABV
1 dash Angostura Bitters
2 tsp 10 ml Fresh grapefruit juice*
1 tsp 5 ml Cinnamon syrup*
6 oz /
¾ cup		 180 g Ice cubes

Place all but the overproof demerara rum in a blender, adding the ice last, and blend at medium speed for no more than 5 seconds. Pour into a tall glass. Add ice cubes to fill. Garnish with a mint sprig and/or a wedge of fresh pineapple sandwiched between 2 maraschino cherries. Layer the overproof demerara rum over the ice at the top of the drink. Serve.

* Don’s Mix.
** The amount of rum can be reduced to 30 ml (1 oz) without a serious loss of enjoyment, if you wish to minimize the impact of the Zombie.