Aloha! Culled this one from the indispensable Grog Log. For god sakes, if you don’t have one, go get one of your own! Or better yet pick up the Triple Play Pack and get all three of Berry’s excellent books in one go.

This is a super tasty one that relies on passion fruit syrup, of which order into my home country from the US of A – specifically, the fine folks at Trader Vics. Recently, one of the local Tiki shops here in Vancouver started carrying the Trader Vics mixes (which is awesome, because shipping a bunch of filled glass bottles? Not so cheap) but the one thing they DON’T carry (because it’s apparently hard to come by) is the Trader Vics Passion Fruit syrup, which is absolutely the bees knees. For those of you in the US, you can get it off their website (though the “mail order” store has been down for a while… which is why I’m down to my last bottle of Passion Fruit syrup!) but for us shlubs up north, we pay dearly for shipping. While we do pay five times what Americans do for shipping, our consolation prize is that our government could give a rats ass about Fidel Castro’s red tendencies – and as such, Cuban rum (some of the best in the world) is freely available in our local liquor stores. Win some, lose some, I guess.

Anyhow, back to my Passion Fruit syrup and my dismal “half bottle” supply; One would think that when faced with a possible shortage of a certain item, you’d be inclined to keep it for a special occasion; but it’s Tuesday, and I’m thirsy, so that’s a special enough occasion enough for me.

So here we go: The “Chief Lapu Lapu”. According to Beachbum Barry, Lapu Lapu is the fella who capped Magellan when he and his Spanish buddies decided to tour the Philippines in 1521. So what sort of prize do you end up with when you snuff out one of the shining lights of a nation? You get a cocktail named after you, apparently!

Chief Lapu Lapu

3 ounces of orange juice
3 ounces of sweet and sour
1 ounce of passion fruit syrup (the Trader Vics stuff is the best)
1 1/2 ounce of light rum
1 1/2 ounce of dark rum

Shake over ice, then decant into a large snifter partly filled with fresh ice. Hoisting one and then chasing after a local cartographer with a cutlass is NOT recommended.

Cheers!

JJ.

I’m a big fan of bourbon. The “bourbon sour” is pretty much my go-to cocktail when I’m too tired to think creatively. If the cocktail waitress asks me what I want and I draw a blank, a little voice at the back of my head mumbles “bourbon sour” (and then goes back to sleep). The poor little voice could probably do with adding a couple of additional bourbon drinks to its repertoire, so I’m always on the hunt for simple, easy-to-make bourbon recipes.

So that’s how I came across this one, which is a little different than a bourbon sour – but still simple and interesting at the same time. It’s called a Goldrush, and believe it or not, I found the recipe in one of those airplane magazines they stuff in the seat pockets just a couple of days ago. I forget which hotel was credited as creating this (if you know, yell!) but it was simple enough to memorize and when I got home I gave it a whirl. Pretty tasty!

The Goldrush

3/4 oz of fresh lemon juice
3/4 oz of honey syrup (combine 3 parts honey with 1 part warm water, stir, and keep in the fridge for cocktails)
2 oz bourbon

Shake over ice, decant into rocks glass filled with fresh ice. Enjoy!

Cheers,
JJ.