The Islands of the Fraternal Order of Moai

I promised you guys a few days ago that I would report back after I made my first Jet Pilot. I'd never had one before.

Solid hit. Sitting here, drinking my Jet Pilot and dreaming of warm breezes!

Both the Jet Pilot and Test Pilot are great drinks.

Test Pilot (1941)
In the 30’s, word of Don the Beachcomber began to spread through Hollywood and beyond. “If you can’t get to paradise, I’ll bring it to you,” was the motto of the bar. As the bar’s reputation grew, so did its clientele. Regulars included Clark Gable, Frank Sinatra and Joan Crawford, who in a newspaper poll in 1953 was named by Beachcomber waiters as their favorite female customer (an ironic twist for Mommie Dearest).
One notorious regular was quirky billionaire Howard Hughes, who would sit at the bar solo and quietly doodle. The unconventional Hughes was known for wearing his expensive silk shirts only once. And the Filipinos workers at the bar loved him for this sartorial eccentricity; Hughes made sure his discarded shirts were given to them.
One story was that Donn Beach named this in honor of his friend, aircraft inventor and test pilot.

Ingredients
1/2 oz Fresh lime juice
1/2 oz Falernum
3 tsp Cointreau
Dash Angostura bitters
1/8 tsp Pernod
3/4 oz Light Puerto Rican rum
1 1/2 oz Dark Jamaican rum
1 cup ice

Preparation: Blend for 5 seconds (this is for an old Waring style blender. If you have a Oster, Ninja or other high speed blender, pills it a couple of times until the ice is crushed). Pour into double old fashioned glass. Add more crushed ice to fill. Garnish with maraschino cherry.

Alternate: Add all ingredients to shaker (using crushed ice), shake well, pour, unstrained, into double old fashioned glass. Garnish with Maraschino cherry.

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Procrastination means you are free today and always have a project for tomorrow.

Which Falernum did you use? We usually make our own because we can control how spicy or sweet it is. In fact, we often have Falernum-making parties with a bunch of our cocktail-making friends. Good times!

I ordered the falernum from Latitude 29.

I thought this would be relevant to such an interesting topic. I love to make a falernum with Rum Fire because I like the funky, high ester, Jamaican base. BUT... this is a post that I saved from a few months back by Richard Seale (distiller of Foursquare, Doorly's, Real McCoy, etc).

What follows is his post....
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A subject dear to me.

All rum brands in Barbados did a Falernum. John D Taylor did rum and Falernum. The rum is long lost but luckily not their uniquely Barbadian liqueur. There were dozens of brands, now sadly there are just TWO genuine authentic falernums. Taylors has survived because it was the most famous and most awarded when we used to have those "exhibitions" back in the day. The attached ad is from the 1950s. Four digits covered all the telephones ! Roebuck Street was home of all the rum brands.

JDT Velvet is not a "commercial version". It IS Falernum. There was no such thing as "homemade Falernum" thus commercialised. It was developed by the rum blenders. The idea that in a poor third world colonial country, people spent their money on a commercial version of something they could make at home is so laughably stupid. But not so long ago, Barbadians did not get their chicken from the supermarket, it came "fresh" from the back yard.

I suspect the cult of making "homemade falernum" started because the Tiki recipes called for Falernum and it was not available in the US for decades. Recipes of Falernum were simply guessed at. Today I see things labeled Falernum but they do not taste like any authentic Falernum I recall. And a Falernum without rum? please ! That is NOT Falernum!!!! Recipes were closely guarded secrets of the blenders. Not even written down. They are now mostly lost.

Every attempt at non Barbadian authentic "Falernum" usually overdoes everything. They have no idea that this was a liqueur made in a poor country for very poor people to buy. High abv? what a joke. Only enough rum to preserve was added. Excess imported spices? Laughable. This is not a Falernum. Maybe a fantastic lime liqueur, but not Falernum.

Now if you do not like Falernum, that is cool. If you make a superior lime based liqueur, that is cool too. You probably can because real Falernum was made by people with very limited resources to sell at a very modest price. Just do not call yours Falernum. It is the classic case of cultural appropriation. Barbados is/was too small to protect Falernum in the same way as say Cognac or Bourbon. The practical reality is that today's "falernum" brands do not relate to the myriad of Falernum brands of the 1950s, 60s or 70s in Barbados. For us, this hurts.

And if your "corn n oil" does not use Barbados rum or authentic Falernum, please do not call it corn n oil. If you think there is a way better version with other rums and other lime liqueurs, no problem at all. But if you want to taste what Barbadians actually drank in their veranda in the evening before dinner, then you need Barbados rum and real Barbados Falernum. Only then can you mimic the experience. If you feel you can improve on it, no objections. Just do not take our names. They still mean something. Well to us anyway."

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Chacun prépare sa propre mort.

I have had some good, mediocre, and really bad Falernums. The worst- flavors were off and the ABV was way to high, enough so that it knocked the cocktail balance out of whack. Thankfully I think that one never got a foothold in the market and is gone. Some folks I know hate John D. Taylor for being to tame compared to some other products in the marketplace, but with that we do at least know it is being produced in the old style using a Bajan recipe. If I want a corn n oil I prefer it over most of the others I have tried.

BTW I like the Latitude 29 version just fine. It is more about availability in our area than anything else.

Now if you want to talk syrups, Vince Martini makes some excellent ones. Worth chatting him up to discuss tips and recipes.

Cheers!

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That's what I do, I drink and I know things.



"Feeling weird is how you know you’re still here."-Halt and Catch Fire

Indeed! I've learned a lot from Vince. That guy has some interesting tastes and some I would have never thought about pairing, but work fantastic.

Now when I first got into home bartending, I would try my luck at making my own syrups, but never my own falernum or orgeat. Just seems like a lot of work for something that I would only use 1/4oz or 1/2oz per cocktail with the occasional entertaining. I always keep JD Taylor's on the shelf and as for an orgeat, I like to use local company who are expanding nationwide, Wilks and Wilson. It allows me to support a local friends' business and they have a consistent flavor that is pretty spot on to what you would want in an orgeat.

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FOM MC

Rako Motu Nui

Wilks & Wilson, Latitude 29, and Giffard all make great, but wildly, different orgeat. I've made falernum at home before with that Rum Fire base, but really have little need for it. It's pretty intense for most people. In a small commercial bar, we've got to buy orgeat. We go through so much of it so quickly. Consistency is also a big concern that comes into play for larger volume places. At home I don't care as much if one batch is slightly different than the last. This brings to mind an episode of Bartender at Large with Blair Reynolds of BG Reynolds. I found it interesting how he went about starting the company.

https://soundcloud.com/bartenderatlarge/making-syrups-depression-beating-stress

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Chacun prépare sa propre mort.

The Latitude 29 is made by Orgeatworks who are a sponsor of our Makahiki. I actually prefer their original blend over the Latitude one. They also have one made with Macadamia nuts which is pretty damn tasty too.

I just don't have time to dick around zesting that much lime and waiting. If you know of a good, quick, do it yourself recipe, please share it. I would gladly make my own.

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FOM MC

Rako Motu Nui

I hate to say it, but I really dislike the Lattitude 29 falernum. what a blank, boring syrup.

Rumfire falernum is incredible. For years, people made it with JWray, so Rumfire makes sense from flavor profile, even if it is so much more estery.

But yeah, that repost from Richard Seale should sum it all up... but most importantly, it aint falernum if it aint made of rum.

I think back to those crazy days of 2007 when you couldn't find any of this stuff on the shelf outside of a few major cities... now we get to talk about what brands we like better. Living in the 21st century does have some positive moments.

For a few cocktails I use's Fee's falernum. It really is not a true falernum by Seale's standard but I like the flavor. But if I could have only one it would be Taylor's.

Orgeat I honestly have no standards for. Sure the craft stuff like OrgeatWorks is better quality and I'm happy to use it but when we're down to 1/4oz in a cocktail I cannot tell the difference. Fee's. Torani. Monin. Whatever is lying around.

-Rev

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To taua na Moai!

Choosing which of five orgeats to use in his Mai Tai: #RevProblems

I liked my homemade falernium. It was a pain to make. Until I can automate lime zesting, my choice in falernium will be: does the bottle say falernium on it.

One of these days I will find the time to sift through the recipes of the Stonington Historical Society and find the syrups and infusions that discovered Antarctica and repelled the British scum in 1814. I have this feeling that our garden botanicals are here for a higher purpose: rum punches.

Sent from somewhere exotic

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FOM MC original

Excrementus Cadaemus

I want to attend a Falernum making party. That sounds divine!


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I think the best Jet Pilot on the planet hails from the Mai Kai--be sure to try it if you're fortunate enough to be there. They're pretty potent, so pace yourself.

I love the Jet Pilot at the Mai-Kai, I always order that first. Very different from the Steve Crane original though.

-Rev

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To taua na Moai!

Mai Kai is at the top of the wish list, but it may be a while