So…I’ve been a little absent recently. I thought March would be a less busy month (ha!)…not sure what I thought this, because I don’t know what less busy means. So while I had a lot going on and I’ve been sorting out my feelings on Substack overall (not great!) it’s been hard to sit down and want to write.
But you don’t come here for heavy things. I write because it is a fun diversion from all the other weighty things in life, and I plan to continue to do that because frankly I need that. And I’m guessing you do too. Not everything is going to change the world. But perhaps…I can change the way you drink?
Even that is perhaps too weighty a goal. However, if I help you see some of the other ingredients sitting around your place in a slightly different light well…success! Rum is such a deep and rewarding door once you start to open it, but so are some of the other ingredients that are sitting around your place perhaps as well.
Let’s take that bottle of Aperol that has been sitting in your fridge (I hope? No judgment, I didn’t know that for a long time either, but go take care of that). You bought it to make some Spritzes because who doesn’t love a nice Spritz? It is a perfectly delightful summer drink, after all, and there is something sublime about the combination of bubbles and Aperol. Maybe you’ve even gotten a little bored or unsure of what to do with an entire bottle of champagne and moved into the weird and wonderful world of beer cocktails and made yourself a Spaghett? Who could blame you? It’s perfect and refreshing and you should always have some High Life around anyway.
So last night, as I was sipping on a Spaghett and thinking about how it hit like nothing else, I got to thinking about Aperol in tiki drinks. And you know what, there isn’t much there? Amari overall does not make a ton of appearances, but when they do? Tell me you’ve had a properly made Jungle Bird and then tell me you want anything else again? The fresh pineapple and lime, simple, a nice dark rum, and Campari? There’s no going back people. But apparently there wasn’t a lot of going forward, either, as you still don’t see the red bitter amari make all that much of an appearance.
I’ve had a lot of success riffing off of the Jungle Bird, both with the kinds of rum and the kinds of amari. Come over sometimes and I’ll make a Picon Tiki for you, where I just sub the Campari with Amer Picon. Feel free to make that on your own if you can track down a bottle of Amer Picon, but it’s not…the easiest thing in the world to find. At least in the United States. So it wouldn’t be totally fair to dedicate a whole post to that, now would it?
However, something needed to be done about this vacuum of Aperol-involved tropical beverages. And I’ve got the collection for it. Aperol pairs well with some interesting flavors to start building a cocktail around. Aperol and grapefruit? Great. Aperol and vanilla? Also great. So we got some places to start. From there, some of the decisions become easier. Sure, you can pair other citrus with grapefruit, but we all know lime is the best choice. It’s science. As for the rum, since I wasn’t building this around rum specifically, I decided to start with something nice and basic, so I pulled out a some Plantation Dark. And finally…I still wanted some bubbles. But you can do that with water just as well, you know? For basics, let’s just grab a Topo Chico. So what do we have here? Untilted Aperol Experiment #1:
1 oz grapefruit
.5 oz lime
.5 oz 2:1 vanilla syrup
2 oz Plantation Dark
1 oz Aperol
1 oz Topo Chico
Take everything but the Topo Chico and but that in your mixing tin. Grab some nice ice cubes, give it a good shake, and after you’re done shaking, then add the Topo Chico. Unless you like violently shaking things with bubbles in them? But that’s on you. Strain that into a Collins glass, top with fresh crushed ice, and give it a nice little umbrella
How’d it turn out? Would make again. Has some similar notes to a Jungle Bird for obvious reasons, but it’s subtler. Vanilla and grapefruit are not things I would normally think to put together, but similar to cinnamon and grapefruit, they do some pretty magical things together. The Topo does some nice things, though you could just as easily sub 2 oz of grapefruit soda for the grapefruit and Topo. If you are feeling real enterprising, you could probably use an ounce or two of High Life or champagne too.
Try it out. I guarantee that this will become a part of my regular rotation. And maybe I’ll come up
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!)
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