Drinks are free.
Club Tropicana.
Since we’re just past midsummer I’m gonna keep thing simple and summery with a fun but tasty drink that I inventified a couple of summers ago and named after a horribly cheesy 80s song. There’s nothing too crafty going on here – this is just a fun Tiki cocktail to please the masses with the familiar flavours of rum, coconut and pineapple but boosted by the inclusion of falernum and ginger. But first a word about coconut rums (even though we’ve been there before). A lot of coconut “rums” contain so much sugar they are no longer worthy of the name. For a while I made my own but these days I just suck it up and use the least bad of the mainstream options – Bacardi Coconut – and balance the sweetness accordingly. Indeed, given the target audience I let this one run a little more to the sweet side that I normally would. Also in keeping with making the Club Tropicana cheap and cheerful I don’t entirely discourage the use of decent bottled pineapple juice (gasp!) but yes, if you use fresh juice it will be even tastier. When we shake pineapple juice we get a nice foamy top and the harder we shake the better that goes – so feel free to get extra jiggy with this one. You will notice the addition of a small measure of Wood’s Navy rum which we discussed recently. While I understand you may not have access to this particular rum it does add a lot to the drink so if you’re living in a Wood’s desert (fairly likely) opt for another Navy style rum, some Plantation OFTD or an overproof demerara. Not much more to say other than get some friends ’round, shake up some Club Tropicana’s and make sure there’s enough for everyone…
Club Tropicana.
1oz / 30ml Mount Gay Eclipse rum*.
1oz / 30ml Bacardi coconut.
0.25oz / 7.5ml Wood’s Navy rum (or see text).
1oz / 30ml fresh lime juice.
0.666oz / 20ml ginger syrup.
0.333oz / 10ml golden falernum.
2oz / 60ml pineapple juice (see text).
Shake hard with plenty of ice and pour, unstrained, into a Tiki mug or Collin’s glass.
Garnish however you damn well like but make it fun.
Toast Wham! (Holy shit, I can’t believe I’m writing this…)
*You could use other typical dry gold Barbados, Jamaican or Cuban rums.
