A friend asked me a few days ago how I get my ice the way I do. And the answer is pretty simple, I go Safeway, buy a 9 lb bag, and when I need crushed ice, I put it in the old Lewis bag and smash it with an ice mallet. Right, simple?
Look, a year ago, I did not know what a Lewis bag was, and I certainly did not have an ice mallet, nor had I broken a cutting board by maybe hammering the ice just a little too hard. All things I’ve learned along the way. So for this week’s installment at Trader Jane’s, it seemed like a good moment to take a step back and talk a little bit about what I use to make all these fun drinks besides the rum.
Let’s start with the obvious, you are going to need something to mix your drink in. Pictured here are what I go for most often. I’m a Boston shaker kinda gal, and I honestly forgot where I got this set, but you can find a decent one just about anywhere. Hell, if you’re local, you can find most of this stuff at Kamei on the cheap (though lol, you are gonna have to do that in person, Kamei ain’t got time for a website). If you’re a cobbler shaker kinda person, more power to you, it won’t dramatically affect things in my opinion, go with what you like.
You are going to need something to measure all of this, though. That’s where we get to the first of many items I purchased from my friends at Umami Mart this year. I have a 2 /1 oz and a .75/.5 oz. I like the elegance of steel, and I can work quickly with these, but any small measuring cup will do.
You will need a strainer too. I like a Hawthorne strainer myself, but maybe someday I’ll change my mind and get into Julep strainers. That I didn’t get from Umami Mart, though, I just picked up an OXO one from Target (though you can just order it straight from OXO. I used to have a different one and found the handle to be too long, I like the short handled strainer. Not pictured, but you will also need a small mesh strainer occasionally. Less true of tiki, but great any time you are serving a tiki drink up (like a Saturn).
Lastly, get yourself a bar spoon. It’s classy. And sometimes you want a barspoon’s worth of something. Besides, how else are you supposed to get those Maraschino cherries out of the jar? This one is also from Umami Mart.
Great, you have a bunch of tools, what next? You are going to need some crushed ice. I actually had a devil of a time finding a Lewis bag back when I was trying to order one. I managed to track one down (not on Amazon, but I cannot remember quite where) and then still had to go there anyway to get a mallet later because life is funny like that. Now it seems you can find the two as a set from Viski, but I didn’t know that at the time. That’s why I’m here, to pass this knowledge onto you. It’ll also come in handy around the Derby when you find yourself wanting a Mint Julep.
As for the ice itself, I wasn’t kidding. I literally buy 9 lb bags from Safeway for the ice I want to crush or throw in the blender. This isn’t high tech people. It’s easier than making all the ice myself.
On the other hand, most times I’m shaking I prefer cubed ice. You can find these silicone trays for 1 inch ice cubes anywhere, and good ice does make a difference, but also…it’s ice. A common mantra I will give you is to work with the tools you got. I may have gone a bit overboard as we entered into the COVID times when it came to setting up my home bar, so take what works, discard the rest, or come back later when you are ready. I’ll be here, crushing ice.
So you got liquor and mixers. You got tools. You got ice. Now you need something to put it in.
These are (mostly) in order by volume. I got many of them but not all of them at Umami Mart. Yes, Diamond Strong glassware is expensive. No, you will not be disappointed. Starting on the right, we’ve got a:
Toyo-Sasaki Champagne Coupe (4.2 oz)
Toyo-Sasaki Hard Strong Diamond Cut Highball Glass (10.3 oz)
Bormioli Rocco Hurricane Glass (17 oz)
A footed pilsner glass that I probably got at Target years ago (16 oz)
A snifter I got online that’s not that good and I wouldn’t recommend but I cannot remember the brand (22 oz)
Again, do you need all this? Of course not. You will need glasses of various sizes, and of course the shape, size, and all that will affect your beverages! But do you need it, no. Again, we work with the tools we got. I decided I was an adult and I wasn’t spending money going out and I deserved good glassware, so I spent some money on that. But there are plenty of vessels that will do the job at any price range, and you could probably even do pretty good work at your local thrift store buying glasses fools like me overbought. Hell, one of my favorite bars in the world (Young Joni’s back bar for those of you keeping score at home) stocks their entire bar with glasses from Arc’s Value Village near as I can tell. And it works because their drinks are amazing. Don’t get too hung up on this. But of course, if you get the chance, also get a rum barrel or a seahorse :) (h/t to a friend who got those for me, I owe you a drink or two in them)
Anyway, that’s enough for now. All the other stuff you might need isn’t bar specific, and we don’t need to get into blenders right now (though if you are in the market, I’m happy to talk blenders too). Though you should probably get some straws. But that’s nothing fancy
So, I’d be remiss not to leave you with a drink at least, wouldn’t I? I’ve been tinkering with a lot of stuff, so let’s go with something I ended up with after a bit of an experiment. Using a Banana Stand as a launching point, I decided to tinker a bit with the basic formula. A nice peaty scotch and banana do compliment each other surprisingly well, and I saw no good reason to mess with that aspect. So I pulled out the Laphroig 10 and the Giffard Banane du Bresil. Keeping the lemon and the cinnamon seemed like a good call too, which left me to experiment with the Chartreuse. I swapped in Green because I guess I wanted the extra kick? I omitted the Allspice dram as well, not because I don’t love it but because it seemed like a bit much at that point.
But I also found myself, at that point, making a higher octane beverage. And it seemed remiss not to reintroduce rum to a tiki drink. But I needed a rum that would stand up to this, so it needed to be a little funky to cut through. This is not the time for Don Q Cristal, my friends. I thought about the Hamilton Pot Still Black, but that might have be…more funky than I wanted. Similarly, this would be a great opportunity for Doctor Bird, but I didn’t have a bottle handy at the moment. On the other hand, this is just what the Denizens Merchant Reserve is for.
I had my bottles, I had everything else, but the formula needed some adjusting given what I was working with. Here’s what I settled on:
1 oz lemon
.5 oz cinnamon syrup
.5 oz banana liqueuer
.75 oz Chartreuse
.75 oz Denizen Merchant’s Reserve
1 oz Laphroig 10
Put that all in your mixing tin, give it a good shake, strain into your double rocks glass, and top with fresh crushed ice. Garnish with a cinnamon stick.
So how did it fair? Pretty well. I’ll probably continue to make small adjustments. But hell, that’s the entire fun of tiki is continually tinkering. Let me know how the tinkering goes for you
This is Trader Jane’s, a periodic newsletter about drinks (mostly tiki) and other fun writing. Follow me on Substack for something once or twice a week (that’s the goal for now at least), and follow me on Twitter and Instagram for more timely updates on my beverages (and for lots of other things of course!)
And, as with any good drink, feel free to share (responsibly, of course)