Shake, double strain, serve up

1/2 oz each:
Rhum Barbancourt 8 Year
Appleton Estate 12
Smith & Cross
El Dorado 5 Year
centrifuge-clarified lime juice
fresh grapefruit juice
cranberry juice
housemade Burnt Cinnamon

1 dash each:
Angostura bitters
Bittermen’s grapefruit bitters

5 drops Absinthe
7 drops housemade Macadamia tincture

Shake with ice, double strain into a crushed ice-filled Collins glass.

Muddle in a mixing glass:
1 hand cut sugar cube
5-7 coffee beans

Add bourbon & juices; let sit a few minutes

Shake & double strain into a punch glass filled with crushed ice. I made this at Joe & Kyung’s house when Helen was visiting from Castleton.

Bourbon & passion fruit were paired in a couple of historical tiki drinks I can think of… Harry Yee’s Tropical Itch at the Kaiser Hawaiian Village and also the Port Light served at the legendary Kahiki restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, in the Sixties.

I’d appreciate your help in the comments!

1 oz La Favorite agricole blanc
1/2 oz El Dorado 5 demerara
1/2 oz orgeat
1 oz clarified lime (Or: 3/4 oz + 1/4 oz burnt lime if avail.)
1/4 oz burnt cinnamon syrup
1/4 oz clarified sugar cane water
3 drops grapefruit bitters (floated on meniscus)

Shake, double strain, serve UP in a chilled cocktail glass with a lime wheel.

Glass Preparation:
Artfully brush the sides of a chilled martini glass with lemon-lime citrus paint, using a pastry brush.

Cocktail Preparation:
Shake & double strain into your prepared glass. Enjoy!

My drink pays tribute to the spirit of the Makahiki season by featuring three of Hawaii’s strongest crops: coffee, sugar cane, and pineapple. Those flavors are paired with a spirit (Aguardiente Grogue de Santo Antao, 40% ABV) and a liqueur (Ponche de Santo Antao, 30% ABV) from Cape Verde, a Portuguese-speaking island-nation off the coast of West Africa, that nearly shares the same latitude as the Hawaiian archipelago. I guess you could say that this drink is my ho’okupu to anyone who appreciates a hand-crafted, kitchen-driven cocktail?

The Makahiki Cocktail comes as the result of a series of kitchen/bar projects I’ve experimented with at Clio, alongside (and mentored by) Chef de Cuisine Douglas Rodrigues and Bar Manager Todd Maul.

Using a benchtop Jouan CR-422 centrifuge, fresh sugar cane juice (extracted in-house from Hawaiian sugar cane), fresh lime juice, and fresh pineapple juice (also extracted in-house) are spun at 5,000 rpm for an hour and clarified.

Clio Centrifuge

Clio Sugar Cane Extractor

The sediment from the pineapple juice is thickened and turned into a fully-edible ‘paint’—more on that in a minute.

(This drink began life as an attempt to fully deconstruct a pineapple, and use its parts in shockingly experimental ways: At one point we had taken pineapple pulp, dropped it into liquid nitrogen, shattered it, and realized the pieces looked like pop-rocks. We adhered the pop-rocks to the bottom of a glass with ‘glue’ made from centrifuge sediment, and when adding soda, the pop-rocks wiggled free and floated to the surface. It was fun to watch but too silly to drink.)

The Makahiki has the pineapple constituted 3 ways: solid (muddled at the bottom and in the divider disc sandwiched between the 2 layers of crushed ice; as paint (brushed around the glass on the inside of the top layer using a pastry brush); and as a chip (garnish).

Pineapple Paint

The paint is really bright, both in color and flavor. I use a brush to apply it to the glass, and then when the drink is decanted, it falls into solution, adding its cheery flavor to the drink. And yes, it really does come out super yellow; I didn’t need to add food coloring or anything! I got the idea to make pineapple paint after tasting a clarified genever gimlet Todd makes using lemon-lime paint. Mmmm!

Translucent Pineapple Chip Pre-Dehydration

Garnish-wise, the chip is a dehydrated candied pineapple slice that I made in the pastry kitchen, using a ring mold, a Cryovac, and glucose solution. I like to think that it’s allegorical to the sun rising over Haleakala—in this case, a huge mountain of crushed ice. Oh, and the marasca cherry is soaked in housemade allspice dram that I make too.

The Makahiki Cocktail

If you’re wondering about the color difference between the top and bottom layers, it is because the drink is filtering through the pineapple divider, and right after decanting & tea-straining, the coffee grinds tend to stay towards the top. As the drink sits a few minutes, the grinds move towards the bottom, and though the colors reverse, the flavor stays the same!!

Man I am really excited about this drink.

Still one or more two final touches before it’s ready to hit the road. Stay tuned…

Shake, double strain, up w/ a lime twist.

3/4 oz El Dorado 5 Yr Demerara Rum
3/4 oz Plantation Jamaican Rum
3/4 oz Rittenhouse 100 Rye
1/2 oz lime
1/2 oz grapefruit
1/2 oz allspice dram

Float: 1/4 oz Smith & Cross 110-Proof Navy Rum and 1/4 oz soda

Lime wheel & grapefruit twist over straw.

Todd’s cocktail list last year made quite a number of waves in the industry as a “secret/awesome cocktail program.” Well, in the last year, the long list has gone from 75 drinks to over 120! Beers on page 29!

Todd and I have been doing a lot of experimentation with kitchen-driven mixology. Here’s a list of some of the things we’ve had great success with.

• Manipulating citrus (searing limes, etc).  See the Thursday Conversation, Flaming Paco (slide #6), Mary Collins, Modern Fashioned.
• Smoke for glass (or ice) preparation. See the Tahitian Milk Punch, Frank-O, Smoking Cinnamon, Spring in the Afternoon.
• Ice as garnish/a new way to experience cocktails. See the Todd Collins, Bullseye Gin & Tonic, Enter The Dragon, and Wong’s Grog.
• Flash infusions of vegetal and herbal ingredients. See the Spring in the Afternoon.
• Working with fresh sugar cane and its juice. See the Clio Le Ti’ Punch and Scot Collins.
• Clarifying citrus juice via centrifuge. See the Clarified Gin Gimlet.
• Clarifying sugar cane juice via centrifuge. See the Makahiki.
• Thickening citrus impurities and making paint. See the Clarified Gin Gimlet and the Makahiki.
• Using kitchen/pastry techniques and hydrocolloids to create textures, both in the glass and on garnish. See the Makahiki.

One thing that has been ultra ultra cool is how well the chefs respond to, and are even influenced by, our cocktails and ingredients. A few months ago, I brought in a selection of Cape Verdean grogues for Todd to try in the Clio Ti’ Punch. Chef de Cuisine Doug Rodrigues happened to taste the grogues, and ended up working with a grogue for his tasting menu: White salmon poached in fresh sugar cane water, tahini, bamboo shoots, long pepper, periwinkle, pineapple, and Cape Verdean grogue.

Scottish Salmon Confit with Sugar Cane Water & CV Grogue @ Clio

In fact, there are two elements on that plate that came from the bar: the sugar cane juice, which is produced by throwing long stalks of sugar cane into “Rosie” (our sugar cane extractor), and the grogue. Totally awesome!!!

2 oz Beefeater Gin
1 oz Aperol
1 oz fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz St. Germaine

Shake, strain, serve up in a cocktail glass. Garnish with a fresh flower petal and a smile.