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Walking Buddha

Warren Bobrow’s Cocktail Hour: Tropical enlightenment with the Walking Buddha Cocktail

Cocktail Whisperer Warren Bobrow whisks us away to warmer climates with this week’s cocktail.

Cocktail inspiration comes from the internet- driven media as well as my twisted sense of my often enlightened self. This morning I was reading the “Tweets” from my friend Patti Clauss. She linked and re-Tweeted a recently published journey in Eater Magazine involving Anthony Bourdain, eating and drinking his way through the streets of San Francisco. I love Tiki bars, especially the ones in San Francisco. They are a fantasy for the mind and the body. It’s funny to me how drinking rum in tropical vessels just seems to evoke a dreamy sensibility that is all things San Francisco.

One of the quotes in Anthony Bourdain’s article struck me as the perfect name for a cocktail “Walking Buddha”.  This cocktail is Tiki in derivation and it tips the hat to all the great Tiki bars in the land.

On this blustery cold morning in Morristown, NJ, I offer you a hint summer for your glass. Stay warm and dream of the tropics!

The Walking Buddha Cocktail

Makes two rather enlightening cocktails!

Ingredients-

Few White Whiskey

Ron de Jeremy Rum

Royal Rose “Rose” Simple Syrup

Charred in a cast iron pan then freshly squeezed – Lime, Grapefruit and Tangerine juices (Essential!)

Bitter End Thai Bitters or Angostura Bitters and a bit of chopped hot pepper

Coconut Water Ice (Essential!) -please find the recipe below-

Preparation:

Fill a cocktail shaker ½ with regular ice

Add 2 shots each Few White Whiskey and Ron de Jeremy or your brands of choice

Add 4 Tablespoons of Royal Rose “Rose” Syrup

Peel the citrus of all white pith (it’s very bitter) and segment. Char in a cast iron or your choice of pan, cool then juice

Add the Freshly squeezed juices, about 1 shot of each one

Add 1 tsp of the bitters

Shake and strain into two short Rocks glasses with roughly crushed coconut water cubes, garnish with a tangerine slice

 

Coconut Water Ice– To an ice cube tray, fill with sweetened coconut water and freeze overnight

warren bobrow sipping a tropical cocktail

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Danger- The Veritable Mind Eraser!

 

Warren Bobrow’s Cocktail Hour – The Veritable Mind Eraser Cocktail

Writing about Rum comes easily to me because my late step-father was very fond of Rum. He and my mom owned an ocean going yacht and it made for a comfortable passage from island to island in the search of fine food and most importantly cooling rum cocktails. It was a nice adventure!

The two meals I looked forward to the most on our day trips from island to island were lunch and dinner. Lunch because sailing all morning in the blistering heat develops quite a hunger and thirst, and dinner because after hard sailing all day, the meal could start with a refreshing rum beverage and finish the meal with something quite extraordinary. I say extraordinary because the islands, being British or French had open trade agreements with Cuba. As everyone who has tasted Cuban Rum knows, it has a very unique Terroir and character.

Recently I have been experimenting with the Ron de Jeremy Rum. This Rum is very smooth with a long finish. It tastes very similar in the mouth to the historic Rums of Cuba.

Francisco “Don Pancho” Fernandez makes this Rum taste like his old country with sweet notes of vanilla sugar and citrus blossoms bursting into bloom with every sip.

It’s just about the closest thing I’ve tasted here at home- that tastes like the rum we used to mix into Painkillers down in the islands.

So I leave you with the Very Twisted Cocktail Whisperer version of the “pain” cocktail that I cannot say the name of in the hot sun.

This drink makes 2 veritable mind erasers, fact- that is the name of the cocktail:

The Veritable Mind Eraser Cocktail

To a cocktail shaker muddle fresh pineapple, orange and tangerine chunks that you’ve previously seared lightly in a sauté pan until crispy and “charred”

Add some ice to the shaker, about ¼ full

Add some coconut milk (sweetened) to the fruit. Use about 2 shots

Add some coconut water (sweetened) to the milk and the fruit. Use 1 shot

Add 4 Shots of Ron de Jeremy Rum

Shake

Crush some coconut water ice- you know, freeze coconut water in an ice cube tray overnight then crush…

Fill tall glasses ½ with this special crushed ice

Pour the Rum/Citrus mixture over the top

Garnish with a scraping of fresh nutmeg

Garnish with a hunk of grilled pineapple

DANGER!!!!

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Some recent writing for Williams-Sonoma with thanks for the re-print.

All This Rum! A New Tiki Bar Cocktail

Ever since I sat as a Rum Judge at the 2010 Ministry of Rum tasting competition in San Francisco, the whole direction of my spirits-writing career has changed. I used to only write about wine.

Then a flash went off: wine is so serious; why not write about something fun, like spirits?

I’ve always loved rum. Rum appeals to me.

Rum is a spirit woven from history. Flavors exist within rums that don’t reveal themselves in other lighter-colored liquors. I’m a fan of rums aged in used wooden casks that formerly held bourbon or cognac. The caramelized notes of smoke, butter and bittersweet chocolate reveal themselves beautifully with the white flower aromas of freshly crushed cane sugar.

What is good rum, and how does it differ from all other rums? I’m not entirely sure. But when you’re out on a yacht, somewhere between Bermuda and the Virgin Islands, nothing tastes so delicious with some coconut water ice.

 

Over the past few years, Tiki Bar cocktail lounges have revealed themselves as funky representations of times gone past. Tiki gives credence to the easier times in America.

 

Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco faithfully reproduces a dream Tiki bar located down off a decaying pier, jutting out into a world of rotting boats and handcrafted cocktails. If a stage set of liquid pleasures could be created, Smuggler’s Cove fits the West Coast genre to a T. Over on the East Coast, on the Island of Manhattan — described as the Greatest Island in the World – PKNY – formerly named Painkiller(the name is another story for another day) has a knack for Tiki as well.

 

Here’s a Tiki Bar cocktail you’ve never had before.

 

The Yachtsman’s Demise


3 oz. Kōloa Rum from Hawaii (use their Spiced Rum for this cocktail)

1 oz. fresh mango juice

1/2 tsp. freshly chopped coconut meat

1/2 tsp. freshly scraped ginger

3 drops Bitter End Thai Bitters

6 ice cubes made with coconut water and freshly grated nutmeg (just a bit, it’s strong stuff!)

1/2 oz. Lemon Hart 151 Rum

Q-Ginger Ale to finish

 

Fill a cocktail shaker with fresh ice (reserve your coconut water ice for the glass). Add the Kōloa Rum to the shaker, then the fresh mango juice, coconut meat and ginger. Add the Bitter End Thai Bitters.

 

Shake and strain into a tall Tiki (ceramic) mug filled with your coconut water and grated nutmeg ice cubes. Float the Lemon Hart 151 Rum over the top, and finish with Q-Ginger Ale. Makes 1 cocktail.