cocktail notes » zombie

zombie update; amarena cherries

tyler k — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 06:53:22 +0000

for thanksgiving i made, along with the blueberry thing, a batch of zombies. whereby i discovered that the santa cruz passionfruit nectar is superior to the ceres passionfruit nectar.

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berkeley bowl carries both toschi and fabbri amarena cherries, both approved by scott beattie.

more zombies, vodka watermelon, gladware ice

tyler k — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 08:56:00 +0000

i made another batch of zombies, this time i made the passionfruit syrup by reducing the passionfruit nectar in half. this was not as successful; i prefer the uncooked passionfruit flavor.

i also started thinking about being more mathematical/systematic about making syrups. i figure that a cup of 1:1 syrup has ~~360~~ 480 calories, 2:1 syrup has ~~480~~ 690 calories. so one need only apply algebra to convert a juice to the desired caloric level by reduction/evaporation and/or by adding sugar.

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vodka watermelon. does this shit really work? are the results any good? intuition tells me its a gimmick, that it sounds cute but emotionally unsettling, like adopting a feral cat.

but here’s an idea, why not saturate the melon with a cocktail? maybe something like 4:2:1 vodka/lime/syrup? maybe infuse the vodka with tarragon, mint, or chipotle?

would the lime turn before the saturation is complete?

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the 4 oz gladware ice cubes are cute, but smaller than hoped. not sure why i expected otherwise. i’ve got 4 oz measuring cups and a pair of eyes.

related, this showed up in the house. would make a nice big-ice tray, yes?

classics: zombie

tyler k — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:25:12 +0000

here’s what i took from kaiser penguin’s zombie recipe comparison: a zombie is a complex, carefully proportioned mixture of anything i want to put in it.

i had a hard time finding passionfruit juice, so i used santa cruz ‘passionfruit nectar’ which is a pretty sorry substitute.

i also didn’t feel like buying any 151 just to use in this cocktail. (though i really should since i need to make a new batch of falernum) i substituted with 2 oz of 80 proof rum.

it appears from the recipe-roundup that multiple rums are encouraged, and so i put in a little aged rum. not too much because that brew got a righteous funk on.

1 oz lime + 1 oz lemon (i made a 5x batch, so what i did was squeeze lemons until i surpassed the 5 oz mark, then squeezed limes until i hit (exactly) the 10 oz mark)
1 oz pineapple juice (dole)
1 oz passionfruit syrup (that bullshit nectar shaken with sugar, 4:3 ratio)
1 tsp dark brown sugar
2.5 oz 10 cane rum
0.5 oz brugal aged rum
1.0 oz goslings dark rum
1 dash angostura

shake without ice for 30 seconds (to help dissolve the sugar), then shake with ice.

this tastes like what i think of as a quintessential tropical rum punch. sweet, but not cloying, complex, perfectly balanced, and can definitely get you fucked up real quick.

did you know that ‘charlene‘ by stephen and the colberts is available as a rockband song?