Peach-pineapple, honey, mint
Put on some R&B, and roast a chicken. This is a two-person drink that likes spice and slow beats.
Considered a Don the Beachcomber masterpiece, the Downfall is an example of his garden-to-glass ethos, prefiguring that sensibility by a good seventy years. It’s easy to see why this minty pineapple slush became a sensation in tiki bars around the country. Like the best cocktails from this era, the taste of alcohol completely disappears into an herbaceous embrace. Whatever you do, don’t pick out a bottom-shelf peach brandy. We use Mathilde Pêche—properly a liqueur, not brandy—but it works well.
MAKES 2 (OR 1 LARGE DRINK)
2 ounces (60 ml) light rum (Flor de Caña 4 Yr)
1 ounce (30 ml) peach brandy (Mathilde Pêche)
2 ounces (60 ml) honey syrup (see page 242)
1 ounce (30 ml) fresh lime juice
½ cup (65 g) diced fresh pineapple
¼ cup (5 g) loosely packed mint leaves, plus a few leaves to garnish
Combine all ingredients in a blender with ice. Pour into a pair of chilled cocktail glasses and garnish with a sprig of mint.
ORGEAT
Orgeat (pronounced OR-zsat in English, or, OR-zsa in French) is a nonalcoholic almond-based syrup that tastes like marzipan. It appears as a frequent ingredient in tiki drinks, most famously in the Mai Tai (page 185), but also in early drinks such as the Japanese Cocktail (page 33). It lends thick texture along with a touch of je ne sais quoi, thanks to the addition of orange flower water. This is one of the great mixers in the entire cocktailian toolbox—you’ve never had a Mai Tai until you’ve had one with high-quality orgeat. Most commercial versions contain stabilizers or high-fructose corn syrup, so we supply an easy-to-make recipe on page 244.
FALERNUM
Falernum is a key tiki ingredient with a fuzzy past. It’s a sweetened lime and spice syrup that most likely hails from the island of Barbados. It’s old enough that Charles Dickens mentioned it in his travel writings, and it’s sold as both a liqueur (John D. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum) and a nonalcoholic version (such as Fee Brothers). Recipes for falernum vary (see ours on page 246), but its flavor profile typically contains almonds, ginger, allspice, and cloves.