Mike | Al's Cocktails

The Zombie Cocktail Recipe

March 7, 2014 By Mike

This is one of the most popular cocktails in Tiki culture. However, as is the case with numerous Tiki cocktails, the original recipe is a mystery. It was supposedly invented in the 30s by Donn Beach who was, at the time, owned a bar in Los Angeles. He developed the concoction in order to help a customer who was suffering from a hangover at the time and had to attend a business meeting. The customer returned and said that the drink helped him through the meeting, but he felt like a Zombie. This is how the cocktail got its name.

The Zombie is a very powerful cocktail. Its strong alcoholic content is masked by the taste of the fruit juices. Even though it seems light, the Zombie has quite a powerful kick.

Donn Beach was very careful with his recipes and he kept them locked in great secrecy so numerous variations of the cocktail are in use nowadays. We don’t know much about the original Zombie except the fact that it contained different varieties of rum, lime juice, Pernaud, grenadine, bitters and a secret combination of grapefruit juice and cinnamon developed by Donn himself.

Besides the fact that Beach kept his recipe secret, he was also known modifying it every once in a while. During the Tiki craze other bartenders also brought their own contribution to the Zombie and now the cocktail can be found in countless different forms, depending on the bartender creating it.

How to Prepare a Zombie

You can try this cocktail at home if you are in for something strong or if you are hosting a Halloween party. Its name makes it suitable for such events.

You need the following ingredients:

1 oz. of dark rum.
1 oz. of white rum.
1 oz. of gold rum.
1 oz. of apricot brandy.
1 oz. of pineapple juice.
1 oz. of papaya juice.
A dash of grenadine.
½ oz. of 151-proof rum.

All you have to do is to put all the ingredients except the rum into a shaker with ice. Shake the ingredients well and then strain the drink into a glass. You can choose any glass that it is large enough, preferably one with a strange and exotic shape to maintain the theme of the recipe. After straining, add the 151-proof rum on top of the drink. Since this has a very high concentration of alcohol, you can literally set your cocktail on fire at this point. Garnish the Zombie with a cherry, an orange slice or a pineapple wedge depending on personal preference.

This is only one of the numerous Zombie recipes that exist nowadays. Some other recipes include lime juice or exclude the papaya juice. There are also variations which include a dash of bitters. Play around with the ingredients, and find your own preferred version of the zombie.

The Yellow Bird Cocktail Recipe

March 7, 2014 By Mike

It’s summer and you feel like taking a vacation and going on a cruise? Until you might be able to do so, why don’t you get in the spirit of the summer by preparing a Yellow Bird cocktail at home? This is a tropical cocktail which is highly popular in the Caribbean and the Bahamas. Some say that it is better in the islands because it is made with local rum. However, you can definitely obtain a decent version at home using your favorite rum brand.

The Yellow Bird is traditionally a girlish drink because it is very fruity in taste and because it also has a vivid color. It is actually a variation of the Screwdriver, but instead of vodka, the recipe calls for equal parts of dark and light rum. Some Galliano is also used in order to enhance the flavors and to make the drink even more delicious. However, there are also Yellow Bird recipes which contain crème de banana and pineapple juice. These are obviously even fruitier, so if you really want something exotic, you should give them a try.

The Yellow Bird cocktail is usually served in a Collins glass garnished with a maraschino cherry.

It is entirely up to you which recipe you want to try: the simple one with rum, orange juice and Galliano or the more complex one with crème de banana and pineapple juice. Take a look at them both and decide.

How to Prepare a Yellow Bird

If you want it to resemble the Screwdriver and if you want to do it faster, here is what you should buy:

1 oz. of dark rum.
1 oz. of light rum.
1 ½ oz. of orange juice.
¼ oz. of Galliano.
The juice from half a lime.
A maraschino cherry for garnish.

Put some ice in a cocktail shaker and squeeze the lime juice over it. Add the rum, the orange juice and the Galliano. Shake well and then strain into a Collins glass over crushed ice. Garnish with the maraschino cherry.

Not fruity enough for you? Try the following version.

You need the following ingredients:

1 part white rum.
1 part Galliano.
3 part orange juice.
3 part pineapple juice.
½ part banana liqueur.

You can follow the same method of preparation. Shake the ingredients with ice and strain into a Collins glass over crushed ice.

So, which one is better?

The White Lady Cocktail Recipe

March 7, 2014 By Mike

The White Lady is a cocktail with an elegant and delicate name. However, don’t let yourself fooled by appearance. The cocktail is indeed elegant, but it is also pretty strong. The recipe is actually a variation of the Sidecar, but it uses gin instead of brandy or bourbon. It is also known as Delilah or Chelsea Sidecar. Some experts say that the White Lady is in fact a combination between the Sidecar and the Martini. It seems to have something of both.

The history of the White Lady is controversial because more than one person is claiming to have been its inventor. One of the stories says that the cocktail was invented in 1919 by Henry MacElhone at Ciro’s in London. He made it with crème de menthe, but adjusted the recipe ten years later while he was in Paris and decided to use gin. Henry Craddock also claims the invention of the White Lady. In fact, the Savoy Cocktail Book published in 1930 also includes this recipe. A famous Savoy bartender, Joe Gilmore, has said that Laurel and Hardy enjoyed the White Lady very much.

No one can tell for sure who of the two men actually came up with the idea for the cocktail first. We also don’t have any clue on what inspired the name. It might have been inspired by the delicate and whitish appearance of the cocktail or by mythological bad ghosts known as white ladies.

If you like both the Martini and the Sidecar, you can try to prepare the White Lady at home. You won’t be disappointed in the result and the recipe is not very complicated either.

How to Prepare the White Lady

First of all, you need to make sure that you have all the ingredients:

2 oz. of gin.
½ oz. of Cointreau.
½ oz. of lemon juice.
1 egg white.

Put all the ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake well. As you can easily imagine, the egg white will make the cocktail foamy. Strain the drink into a champagne saucer which was previously chilled.

Traditionally, the cocktail is served in a chilled Martini glass. However, if the recipe calls for an egg white, a champagne saucer is better option for the foamy drink.

You don’t necessarily have to use the egg white because it is not included in all variations. Similarly, if you consider that the cocktail is too sour, you can add some sugar and cream to the recipe and make it sweeter.

The Vesper Martini Cocktail Recipe

March 7, 2014 By Mike

If you have watched Casino Royale, you definitely know about the Vesper Martini. This is the drink of choice of James Bond and it was actually an invention of Ian Fleming, the author who wrote Casino Royale in 1953. Bond orders this cocktail in a bar without giving a name for it. He just says that he wants a special martini made with three measures of Gordon’s gin, one measure of vodka and half a measure of Kina Lillet. This is the original recipe of the Vesper Martini. Later on in the book, Bond also named its cocktail after a female character, Vesper Lynd.

It was impossible for the Vesper Martini to remain unknown given the huge popularity of Bond and of Casino Royal. The cocktail is different from a traditional martini in several ways: first of all, it also has vodka which makes it significantly stronger, secondly, it uses Kina Lillet instead of dry vermouth and thirdly, it is garnished with a lemon peel and not an olive. When Bond ordered this cocktail for the first time, he asked for it to be served in a deep champagne goblet.

Nowadays it can be pretty complicated to put together a Vesper Martini. However, complicated does not mean impossible. Some of the ingredients used in Casino Royal are not available anymore, but they can be successfully replaced with others. For instance, you are not very likely to find Kina Lillet anymore. This is nowadays known as White Lillet. You can replace it with Cocchi Americano. In what concerns the vodka, Bond himself says that it needs to be strong and, preferably, made of grains. Gordon’s gin still exists, but it was reformulated ever since the 50s and it has a lower alcohol concentration nowadays. You can use Tanqueray or Broker’s gin instead.

How to Prepare a Vesper Martini

You need the following ingredients:

3 parts of gin.
1 part of vodka.
½ of Kina Lillet (or the substitute you can find, as mentioned above).
A lemon peel for garnish.

If you can’t find a deep champagne goblet, you can use a modern cocktail glass. Combine all the ingredients and shake until they are ice cold. Strain in a chilled glass and garnish with the lemon peel.

The Vampiro Cocktail Recipe

March 7, 2014 By Mike

The name of this cocktail makes us think about the Halloween. In fact, it is a suitable drink for such an occasion because it contains tomato juice and it has a bright red color that resembles blood. This is how it got its name. In fact, the Vampiro is similar to a Bloody Mary, but it is not vodka based. It has the same spicy flavor, but the alcoholic base is tequila instead of vodka. This makes perfect sense if you think about the fact that this cocktail originated in Mexico. It eventually became popular worldwide and numerous Americans are preparing it at home for Halloween parties.

The Vampiro is refreshing and very spicy. It couldn’t have been otherwise given the fact that Mexicans love both tequila and spicy food. Preparing this cocktail at home will make you feel like you have started cooking. You’ll indeed have to chop some onion and some peppers, but it is sure worth the effort. The Vampiro has a unique flavor that can’t be obtained in a different manner.

How to Prepare the Vampiro Cocktail

You’ll probably need to go shopping because the Vampiro definitely needs a lot of ingredients. Some of them are not among the common things that you usually need when making a cocktail.

Here is what you should buy:

1 oz. of silver tequila.
2 ½ oz. of tomato juice.
1 oz. of orange juice.
1 tbsp. of lime juice.
1 tsp. of honey.
1 tbsp. of chopped onion.
3 thin slices of hot chili peppers such as jalapeno.
A dash of Worcester sauce.
Ice.

It does feel like cooking right? In fact, all these ingredients are contributing to create a unique and reach flavor that can only be enjoyed in a Vampiro.

If you want to, you can rim the glass with salt. You’ll need some coarse salt for that.

Put all the above mentioned ingredients in a shaker and shake them well. You need to make sure that the chili has time to release its flavors.

Strain the drink in a tall glass over ice cubes. It would be best if the glass is chilled.

As said, you can rim the glass with salt and you can also use a lemon or orange wedge for garnish.

The Tuxedo Cocktail Recipe

March 7, 2014 By Mike

The Tuxedo is a gin based cocktail which is perfect for a black tie event, just like its name suggests. It is very similar to a Martini and it has a unique flavor thanks to ingredients like the anise liqueur, the maraschino liqueur and the dry vermouth. In fact, it is a variation of the Imperial. The only thing that differentiates these two cocktails is the fact that the first one is flavored with some absinthe and it has a unique anise flavor that the Imperial misses. Some recipes call for stirring all the ingredients together while others suggests that the absinthe should only be used for coating the walls of the glass. It will thus transfer its flavor to the drink in a subtle manner.

The origins of the Tuxedo cocktail seem to be connected with the Tuxedo Club. This was a private country club located in the state of New York. It is also the place where the tuxedo as a clothing item first came into fashion. However, the first written reference about the cocktail with this name appeared in 1882 and the club only opened four years later.

The Tuxedo, just like any other decent Martini, is supposed to be stirred and not shaken. Some bartenders prefer to use anisette instead of absinthe, but this is sweeter in taste and it might disrupt the balance of the cocktail.

How to Prepare the Tuxedo

This cocktail is not very difficult to prepare and it only takes a few minutes. You can do it at home and serve it to your guests. It is a wonderful alternative to a Martini, so you can try it if you like the Martini, but you are also in for something new and different.

You need the following ingredients:

1 ½ oz. of gin.
1 ½ oz. of dry vermouth.
¼ tsp. of absinthe.
¼ tsp. of maraschino liqueur.
2 dashes of bitters.
A maraschino cherry for garnish.

As said, this cocktail needs to be stirred, not shaken. Put all the ingredients in a mixing glass over ice and stir them well. Strain the drink in a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with the maraschino cherry.

If you like, you can use the absinthe for coating the walls of the glass. Simply pour it in, swirl it around and then discard the excess.