I’ve been working my way through Jeff Berry’s excellent cocktail recipe books for a number of years and have been hitting a couple of road blocks when it comes to finding ingredients. #1 on my “Most Wanted” list is falernum — a Jamacian sweetener that consists of sugar water, lime juice, rum, cloves, and other spices. It seems to be available in a couple of forms in larger cities on the west coast, but living in Florida, it’s impossible to find in our local liquor stores, who seem more interested in selling Budweiser.

The internet is abuzz with falernum controversy: enterprising cocktailians have developed their own formulas and are fermenting them in mason jars, one company is importing what may (or may not) be a holiday spiced version version of the stuff from the islands again, and all the while no one can quite agree on what is the “authentic” taste as none of the interested parties actually tasted the stuff back in the ’30s and ’40s when it was frequently used in cocktail recipes.

While all of this controversy has been raging, Fee Brothers, maker of cocktail mixers and bitters since 1863, has been steadily producing their non-alcoholic falernum, which Jeff Berry recommends for Don the Beachcomber-style drinks he’s championed. If it’s good enough for the Beachbum, it’s good enough for me, and oddly, the stuff is now being sold on Amazon.com, so it’s available to us unwashed masses that don’t live in the historical shadows of the rum cocktail revolution.

I placed my order last night and can’t wait to compare all three versions of the Zombie in Sippin’ Safari!

Buy Fee Brothers Falernum at Amazon.com

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Woe is the day when you’re ready to mix a Mai Tai but have neither the energy or the ingredients. Mai Tai mix to the rescue! Trader Vic’s, the originator of the drink, sells a pre-made mix online, but recently I’ve read lots of good things about Dave & Anna’s Signature Blends Mai Tai Mix.

Dave was a bartender for Trader Vic’s and eventually his own restaurant, Honolulu, in Alexandria, VA, and claims to have made over 200,000 Mai Tais in his lifetime. He and his wife ran the establishment for 25 years until the restaurant closed due to a DOT construction project.

Besides the mix, their recipe calls for 1 oz of light rum, 1 oz of golden rum, 1 oz of lemon juice and a squeeze of lime. Not necessarily close to the original formula, but definitely easier for the home bartender to produce.

Find out more at Dave and Anna’s Signature Blends

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Beachbum Berry, alcohol archeologist and author of The Grog Log & Intoxica has just come out with a new book recounting the origins of classic tiki drinks.

Sippin’ Safari: In Search of the Great “Lost” Tropical Drink Recipes… and the People Behind Them packs 184 full-color pages with vintage photos and graphics, accompanied by 69 exotic cocktail recipes from the golden age of Tiki — 48 of them never before published in any form, including the classic “Zombie.”

Beachbum Berry will be appearing at Hukilau 2007, which takes place in just 3 days in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and at August 18, 2008 at Tiki Oasis in San Diego, California.

Buy Sippin’ Safari from Amazon.com | Visit Beachbum Berry’s Blog

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I’d always been hesitant to use fresh pineapple in my drinks because of the expense of sliced pineapple at the grocery store — a small package of chunks can run up to $5.00 in my area. I’d attempted to cut up a whole pineapple a couple of times with just a sharp knife: it worked OK, but after a good 15 minutes of effort I ended up with something that looked more like a science experiment than a garnish.

Recently, I came across a William & Sonoma-branded version of the Vacu Vin pineapple slicer in the clearance rack of their otherwise highbrow store. It’s deceptively easy to use: you slice off the top of the pineapple, then push the Vacu Vin down into the flesh of the open pineapple, twisting as you move deeper into it. When you get to the bottom, you pull the device up and out of the fruit and you end up with a length of 1/8″ high, perfectly spiraled pineapple.

Cutting the pineapple this way takes less than a minute, the fruit is ready to cut into rings or smaller slices, and you end up with a hollowed out pineapple — perfect for pouring drinks into!

There’s three models available: a plastic version with cutting wheels for three different sized pineapples, in plastic at a single-sized, and in stainless steel at single-size. My single-size plastic has been doing great — the stainless steel model would be a good choice if you cut a lot of pineapples, but is probably overkill for the average person.

$7.95 – $18.95

Buy Vacu Vin plastic plastic pineapple slicer at Amazon.com | Buy Vacu Vin stainless steel pineapple slicer at Amazon.com

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U.S. and Thai researchers have found that adding alcohol to colored fruit boosts its natural antioxidant level. According to a Reuter’s story, the scientists “accidentally” discovered the effects while trying different ways to preserve strawberries for shipment.

Ethanol, a type of alcohol found in rum, vodka, tequila, and other spirits, boosted the antioxident levels in strawberries and blackberries, but the scientists theorize that it should work for any colorful fruit.

One can only assume that they’ll be looking for a large grant to continue their research.

Read the story at Yahoo News

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As a big fan of Beachbum Berry’s Grog Log and Intoxica drink recipie books, I had never seen the need to own Trader Vic’s Tiki Party, despite the obvious tie-in to one of the most famous tiki restaurant chains and the inventor of the Mai Tai and other classic cocktails. As fate would have it, my girlfriend and I received the book as a present, so I spent last weekend pouring through the pages (and pouring drinks made with the recipies inside).

Overall, the book was a pleasant surprise. Besides the drink recipies (many of which also appear in Berry’s books), Trader Vic’s Tiki Party includes home-kitchen versions of many of the Trader Vic’s restaurants’ appetizers and entrees and a section for newbies with suggestions on how to throw a proper tiki party (although I have to disagree with the author’s opinion that drinks should be served in clear glasses — half the fun of tiki drinks is receiving them in ceramic mugs). The book is thick with saturated-color photographs that glamorize the recipies, which is a nice addition for beginners who would have no idea whether the drink they were mixing looked right or not.

If you’re a hardcore tiki bartender that’s been mixing with Beachbum Berry’s recipies for years, this probably isn’t the book for you. However, if you’re a fan of the Trader Vic’s chain and their food or a newcomer to the tiki scene looking to get started, Trader Vic’s Tiki Party will fit the bill nicely.

The book retails for $19.99. Amazon sells it for $13.57 and used copies usually for for around $10.

Trader Vic’s Tiki Party at Amazon.com

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Voodoo Spiced Rum has been making a name for itself lately in the tiki scene, as it’s a better-tasting and much higher-quality rum than other products on the market today, such as Captain Morgan.

With October right around the corner, the company has posted eight special Halloween cocktail recipes on its website. My favorite is the VooDoo Pumpkin Martini. I bet it tastes just like pumpkin pie.

• 1 oz. VooDoo Spiced Rum
• 3 oz. Bols Pumpkin Smash liqueur
• 1 dash Half-and-Half
• Ground cinnamon, for garnish

Link to company website | Link to recipes

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