Instead of following the same old recipes, design your own drinks. Mix it up and get creative with DIY Cocktails!
DIY Cocktails gives you the knowledge you need to create drinks tailored to your tastes. Using a simple system of basic ratios, the book will help you:
- Mix new flavor combinations for the perfect new blend, using the Flavor Profile Chart as a guide
- Master advanced mixology techniques from infusing liquors at home to creating custom-flavored syrups
- Concoct seasonal drinks and garnishes with fresh fruit and herbs
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Hi Marcia, I just found your website and I love it. Like you, I don’t mind doing a lot of work for a good reason, like a better tasting cocktail. I want to share with you a recipe I learned from a bartender in St. Lucia for rum punch. Mostly rum punch is not very good, but when people taste this their eyebrows go up. Herewith:
Make the bush tea (local expression meaning herbal infusion): with 2 quarts of water add two large double handfuls of bay leaves (no such thing as too much, but too little is a sad thing). Also, a couple of cinnamon sticks, star anise, not too many cloves (6 or 7), 20 or so allspice berries, a 3 or 4 inch long piece of ginger sliced into thin rounds. Boil all for 10 or 15 minutes, then allow to cool. This is enough for several pitchers of punch, but it keeps in the fridge, so no point in making it as you go.
Make the punch: in a pitcher add 4 cups of bush tea and 4 cups of mixed fruit juice like half pineapple, half orange or grapefruit. Then add 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice and a 1/2 cup of grenadine syrup and stir (this makes 9 cups of liquid, if it won’t fit in your pitcher, adjust accordingly). When you taste the punch it should be intense, have a balance of sweet/sour and be fragrantly aromatic with the bay leaves and spices. Since the bush tea is pretty bitter it balances the sweetness of the fruit juices.
Make the cocktail: measure your rum into the glass (I like to use Bacardi 151, has a nice flavor and doesn’t take up too much room in the glass). fill with ice and punch, then stir. Grate some nutmeg over the top. When you run out of punch, there’s more bush tea in the fridge to start another batch. The difference between this and most other versions is vast. Please try it out, perfect the instructions and share with your audience.
Thanks, Richard! I agree that rum punch is hit or miss, but that does sound like a hit.