I’m currently preparing a review of A.J. Rathbun’s excellent book, Dark Spirits, which I hope to have done soon. But right smack dab in the center of the book is a recipe that I just have to go ahead and blog. A cocktail with a name like the Bosom Caresser is simply made to punch up the traffic numbers via Rule 5. Sue me.

In concert with A.J., let me caution the reader about making assumptions. Just serving one of these is no, um, License to Feel as it were. On the other hand, offering a drink called a Bosom Caresser to the object of your desire is a pretty clear declaration of intent, so if you don’t find yourself wearing this concoction right off the bat, you may be on the right track.
As a drink, the Bosom Caresser is actually pretty decent. It is sweetish and very rich in texture. Use good grenadine and you have a nice little tang as well. Drink it quickly though, as it does not improve as it warms.
As for how it looks…. I did not do a picture of the drink for a couple of reasons. First, where this drink really fails to be great is in appearance. A great cocktail has to look good, and this one looks cloudy and a sickly yellow-brown. Second, if I did a picture of the drink, I wouldn’t have an excuse to post the two pics I am using which are so much more appropriate anyway.
Regardless, if you are looking to roll the dice, connubially or cocktail-wise, give the Bosom Caresser a shot, with a smile.

I am sure that this will not end well, but I have joined Twitter.

Really?
Ready to surrender the last shreds of your life, huh?

Apparently. I intend to try to keep my followings to a minimum. We’ll see how long that lasts.

For those of you who want to follow me…

Awww!
I think it’s cute that you expect anyone to care.

… you can do so at @dawinship. Not sure what I’ll “tweet”…

How is a wordy bastard like you going to manage Twitter?
I hope you’ve put down drop-cloths or something to catch the mess when the 140 character limit makes your head explode.

Which is why I don’t think I’ll be posting much beyond a few links to stuff that isn’t cocktail related but fits the mindset of this blog otherwise. That and notices of new posts here.
Beyond that, I pledge to avoid keeping you updated about my bowel movements.

Thank you.

Just a little palate-cleanser for the first day after Tiki Month.
While I’m sure that Republic in Chicago is not at all my kind of place, and while I’m triply sure you aren’t going to get a well crafted blend of rum, lime, Luxardo, and grapefruit on the rocks if you were to order a Daiquiri there, I don’t care.
Merely feast your eyes on their new dress code, and raise your glass with me to say, Republic, I salute you!

(via FailBLOG)

Well, I had to let Tiki Month 2010 peter out just a bit this year. Real life intruded a bit and I couldn’t keep up the frenetic pace all month long. Still, I had a blast, and I hope you did too. So now, in a nod to my favorite late night TV host, Craig Ferguson (that’s CraigyFerg on the Tweety), and spurred on by Dr. Bamboo, PBBOTI’s own anniversary ruminations, I’d like to discuss a few of the things I learned this February.

I learned that There´s a fine line between a tropical drink and a Tiki drink because a Tiki drink is a tropical drink that is Tiki.

I learned that Tiki music is powerful stuff. Play the right song, and you can get carried away by it all.

I learned that once you finally find the right use for that bottle of Lemon Hart, it suddenly empties really, really, fast….

I learned that rambutan fruit scares grown adults….

I learned that now even books have trailers!

I learned that the right illustration will get you traffic….

I learned that Hawaiian shirts are properly called Aloha shirts… and men wear them to business meetings in Hawaii.

I learned that with seven Tiki posts unfinished and unpublished from this year’s Tiki Month, I have a great head-start for Tiki Month 2011!

I learned that when you do a theme month, you build up a lot of material for when it’s over, even with Tiki Timeouts.
Speaking of Tiki Timeouts, I learned that James Buchanan hod to go buy his own booze while President.

Mostly, I learned that this Tiki blogging thing is still cool, and I’ll be looking forward to next year’s extravaganza. I hope I’ll see you here next year, but with the next post, we return to our regularly scheduled programming! Please stay tuned!

Aloha!

This is probably the last Rule 2 Work of Tiki Month. Since I had done nothing this month with a funky Tiki ingredient like Blue Curacao, I thought I’d point you to a pretty interesting looking concoction offered by CHOW, The Flying Blue Dragon. CHOW doesn’t name this a Tiki drink, or whether it is an original or pre-existing concoction, but with the blue curacao, rum, and falernum, I call it Tiki.
I’d wait for the summer, and make it even more Tiki by taking a cue from the photo and add reminiscence of the dragons with a blue Aquilegia as additional garnish.
The dragons are of course from Avatar, and the drink is offered in an article with offers a different cocktail to match with each of the Academy Award Best Picture nominees.

This little concoction is another creation of Don the Beachcomber. The Lui Lui dates back to the pre-war Tiki era, when Don was still just constructing his wing of the Tiki edifice. It is also one of my favorites of his creation (I’m more of a Trader Vic guy, at least when it comes to recipes). This is bright and exotic, with the dryer, tangier mix of flavors that you more often find in the older recipes.
It also has the singular advantage of providing me with an excuse to crack open my last two, previously un-remarked upon here bottles from Trader Tiki, the cinnamon syrup and the vanilla syrup. Since those bottles’ arrival was what cemented my determination to Tiki out again this year, I needed to put them to some use!

I dug this one out of Beachbum Berry’s Sippin’ Safari. Well, actually I reminded myself of the details in Tiki+, since I can’t find my copy of Safari right now! Wahhhh!

Source

Rick, over at Kaiser Penguin, recently got a message from an American serviceman currently stationed in Afghanistan. Alcohol is strictly forbidden to our troops over there, and this leads to a special problem. He likes to add bitters to his juice or soda for flavor. Since his favorites (and ours), Angostura and Peychauds, along with virtually every other cocktail-quality bitters, come in at about 45% abv, they are against regulations over there.

He’s done what long-distance looking he can and found a few non-alcoholic bitters, but is unsure which are hippie-trippy detoxification blends and which are proper cocktail bitters. Since I guess shipping a bottle of bitters will cost a bajillion times the bottle itself, he needs to be sure what he is getting.

Can any reader out there help out with a good, cocktail/cullinary quality bitters that is made without an alcoholic base? After all, if our fighting men and women can’t properly bitter their juice and sparkling water while on deployment, then the terrorists have already won….

Update: Welcome ONT readers! If anybody can help us our with a really good option here, you will have done a real service!

I recently reviewed Beachbum Berry’s Grog Log for Tiki Month. I thought I’d do a little Rule 2 work and point you to a much more comprehensive homage to the Log. Pegu Blog Board of Tiki Idols member Tiare has undertaken a Bloggessy she entitles Mixing Through Grog Log. This is a bit of Rule 2 on Tiare’s part as well, as she is riffing on Erik Ellestad’s mammoth jeremiad, Stomping Through the Savoy, over at Underhill Lounge. Erik is attempting to survive making every cocktail in The Savoy Cocktail Book, in order. (Itself a riff on similar to Julie Powell’s Julie/Julia Project of movie fame).
Tiare is making a run at the much more human task of running through the Grog Log. Not only is the Log shorter, but it is a Best Of compilation. Also, Tiare has made the decision to do an original variant on each of the Bum’s entries, and you can get a nice insight into the mind of a Tiki expert on crafting drinks. Plus, it gives her a chance to post a second, gorgeous picture….
The great thing about that is it gives me an excuse to steal a couple of her pictures to illustrate! Here are the pictures from Mixing Through Grog Log 5. On the left is Beachcomber’s Punch, on the right is Tiare’s variant, Tiki Queen Punch.

Apparently, everyone is buying into this Tiki Month thing….

Time for another Rule 2 examination of work by other non-Tiki bloggers getting their faux-tropical on. After searching for an image of my own to use for this post, apparently a Rule 5 situation is going on here, too. (Look around, Smitty’s minions. This whole month is dedicated to the forgotten Tiki drinks that didn’t suck. Put on your Hawaiian shirt and rock the appropriate tunes while you are at it.)
Recently, Randy Hanson of Summit Sips took note, as I do, that the best antidote for a winter like this one is to light the torches and sacrifice a virgin make a yummy Tiki drink! his offering has one of those awesome Tiki names I just love: The Chimp in Orbit.

Randy has lots of cool stuff about the space program in his post, and some good insights on the ingredients in this sucker, so be sure to swing by!
I mixed this one up myself, and was reminded once again of an immutable fact of cocktails: Creme de Cacao is the most powerful ingredient in whatever drink its in. Like Absinthe, its presence in a mix, no matter how small the quantity, in unmistakable. In most regular cocktails, this is a bad thing, which is why my bottle of the stuff is old and mostly full. But it is a good illustration of the magic of Tiki blending that the Chimp in Orbit is really pretty good.
I took pictures of my attempt at this drink, but they frankly turned out ugly. In it’s place, I thought you’d enjoy the image above of the chimp partying down after returning from orbit. (A discontinued statuette from Electric Tiki)
UPDATE: Smitty apparently likes this creeping ex-astronaut so much, he’s linked him again this week. Probably because he found a great YouTube video of what appears to be the same malefactor. Check it out at this week’s Rule 5 roundup.