This is a Don the Beachcomber (Donn Beach) recipe from the early 1940s. Don(n) helped catapult the tiki movement to popularity in the mid 19th century. I’ve seen pictures of the drink garnished with a jet plane made of ice, which looks kind of cool but an unmitigated balls ache to make.
- 1.5 oz Black Jamaican rum
- 3/4 oz Cuban rum (sub for Puerto Rican if you can’t get it)
- 1/2 oz Falernum
- 1/2 oz Lime juice
- 3 tsp Triple sec
- dash Angostura bitters
- 1/8 tsp Pastis
Blend for 5 seconds. I used a stick blender to have better control of the ice destruction and stop the drink turning into slush.
My other half’s  first comment was “we’ve had this before.” We haven’t. But honestly, this tastes very similar to several other tiki drinks we have had. It’s nice, but I didn’t find it outstanding, and clearly OH didn’t either. I did have to make one compromise on the recipe, which listed black Jamaican rum as one ingredient. I didn’t have that, so I used Appleton VX. As a result, maybe this didn’t have the depth of flavour it’s supposed to have. It seems a small thing, but I know that the tiki doyens balanced the rums in their cocktails intricately, and this does seem to be a favourite for a lot of people in a category which I really like.
