These Are The 4 Greatest Tropical Cocktails

Today we're drinking only the best. The four best. My four favorite cocktails that I have shared here over the last two plus years. It's well over two and a half years now that I've been making videos on YouTube. Drinks so good, I just need more of you to know about them. I don't know how many cocktails I've made on YouTube. I would guess it's well over 500. I've shared more than 250 videos, and while every video has at least one cocktail, some of those videos have up to 10. So I don't really know the total, but today I'm sharing the ones that I just love the most. This was supposed to be a list of three cocktails and I like chiseled those three into stone. I knew exactly what I was doing, but then I remembered that I missed one and I couldn't leave any of them off. So we're doing the top four. The disclaimer I should probably make is that these aren't all cocktails that I make all the time or even that often. Some of them I've only made a couple of times, but they're just memorable and none of them are more memorable than the first one. This is the one I think about the most and it's the one that we base the make and drink rum barrel on. It's the Arkham Coola and it's from Jason Alexander and let's go ahead and make this one. I think every drink today I'm using the drink mixer, but you can always shake this instead of using the drink mixer. I'm going to start with three quarters of an ounce of lime juice, three quarters of an ounce of orange juice, half an ounce of grapefruit juice, quarter ounce of cinnamon syrup, half an ounce of honey syrup, half an ounce of passion fruit syrup, one and a half ounces of Plantation Zymaka rum, and half an ounce of Plantation OFTD. This is served in a hurricane glass and I'm garnishing with mint and an orchid. So there you go, the Arkham Coola from Jason Alexander. All right, let's try the Arkham Coola and I'm not going to say that I'm more excited for any of these cocktails over the other ones, but this one's been the longest. So I'm kind of wondering if I'm going to love it as much as I remember the first couple times I had it. So let's try it. Cheers. This is fantastic. It's still fantastic. It is juicy. It's like a big juicy cocktail, but usually when you think of juicy cocktails with like orange juice and multiple juices in them, you think of something being too much juice, too much dilution, and it's not. The rum comes through. There's just lots of bright tropical flavors. And when I think about modern Tiki, like the modern sort of the last 10, 15 years, like Tiki sort of movement, this is the flavor profile that I associate with that. It doesn't taste that similar to like historic Don the Beachcomber. It doesn't taste anything like Trader Vic. It's just its own more modern take on those drinks. And it's just like so balanced and juicy and rummy. And I enjoy it just as much right now as I did a year or so ago, maybe longer than that when I first had this. So this is a, everything today's a must, a must make. If you're going to ask me like, Hey, what cocktail should I make? These are the ones that's why I'm sharing these now. This is one that everyone should make. It's not too difficult to make this. There's nothing advanced. There's nothing crazy going on. You just need a couple of syrups, a couple of rums, and a couple of juices. And it is fantastic. Next on my favorite cocktail list is the Rongo Rongo, a drink created by Steven Lyles at Smuggler's Cove. And the drink was shared and imbibed many years ago, but the version that I'm going to make is slightly different than what was shared and imbibed. And the one today, I'm just kind of swapping up the rums from the last time I shared this on YouTube. It was shared to me by a bartender Smuggler's Cove. So I don't know if they've changed it since then, but it's a very simple cocktail and it is very teaky. So with one dash of Angostura bitters, three quarter ounces of cinnamon syrup, three quarter ounces of pineapple juice, one ounce of lime juice, three quarter ounces of plantation pineapple rum, three quarter ounces of an aged or somewhat aged Jamaican rum, and three quarter ounces of OFTD. Serving this in a Pilsner glass, garnished with some pineapple fronds and an orchid. So there you go. The Rongo Rongo from Steven Lyles. It's another drink that I haven't had in quite a long time. And as I was piecing this list together, I just went with my gut for like what I like. And I realized that this on paper, it seems pretty similar to the Arcanicola, but we'll see. So the Rongo Rongo, cheers. Very different than the last one. And now, now I'm piecing things together, remembering things, uh, cinnamon, uh, and Angostura, even though there's just a little bit of Angostura there. And then pineapple has a, a nice spice note. I think the, the fact that we use so much cinnamon syrup, like three quarters of an ounce feels like it amps up the spice flavor, even though there's not a lot of Angostura in here, but I make tropical and tiki cocktails. And I think the assumption would be like, I just love pineapple juice. I'm kind of indifferent to it. Like it's, it's good. It's fine. I don't really like crave pineapple juice. However, when you pair pineapple juice with something like passion fruit or cinnamon or passion fruit and cinnamon, it just makes this amazing combination of ingredients. And this one feels as a cliche as it might be like, this tastes like Smuggler's Cove. It tastes like a drink you would have at Smuggler's Cove. The smell and the aroma of it has that smell and aroma of Smuggler's Cove. And it just has that spice, rum, and then just, you know, the touch of acidity and sweetness to balance it out. The next cocktail is weird and unusual. And sometimes you might think that weird and unusual is bad, but usually it's good. And this one is not just good. It is great. This is the permanent holiday cocktail from Trey Jenkins. Start with half an ounce of lime juice, one ounce of grapefruit juice, half an ounce of passion fruit syrup, half an ounce of liquor 43, one ounce of Averna, and then one ounce of bourbon. This is a glass I picked up on Amazon. I'll have links to all the glassware I can in the episode description, but Libby makes one as well. I'm going to garnish this with mint, grapefruit twirl, and finally a blue umbrella. So there you go. The permanent holiday from Trey Jenkins. All right. So this is the one that was not on my list because I started piecing together this list a long time ago, probably like at least six months ago. And this drink came after that. I also featured this drink in a video with two other cocktails about bourbon, tropical and tiki cocktails. So the fact that it was in that video, when I was piecing together, you know, this list was, it's kind of out of my mind. And then I remembered, oh yeah, this is an amazing drink. And what's really cool is that just recently, I know a bunch of you have made this. It seems like most people that make this really like this or love this. And Trey Jenkins, the bartender who made this had shared that this was like, I think his favorite cocktail that he's made. It is, I mean, I haven't had it right now, but it is, I'm setting my expectations here. It is just like a flavor bomb of unique combinations that somehow work together that you're just not used to. And if you, if you have these ingredients or even if you don't have them, you should pick them up, but it just makes something that feels like modern tiki as well as the Arkenkola, but, but with ingredients that we don't associate with tiki. So before talking about it even more without trying it, let's try it. Cheers. It's one of those drinks that you serve it to someone. They're going to say, Oh, what is in this? It is delicious. So it's not, it's not a liquor 43 cocktail. It's not a Verna. It's not bourbon. It's a combination of the, it's the grapefruit, the bitterness from the grapefruit. It's passion fruit. Get that bright pop of acidity and tropical flavor. It's everything you want from a modern cocktail without being forced to make a bunch of stuff. And it's just taking those staples that a lot of you have, or maybe you should have, or maybe you should get that are on your bar and using them in a cocktail. And somehow this combination of ingredients, it seems so unusual, just works together so well. And it's everything together. It's all of these things pieced together, make a beautifully delicious cocktail. Before we get to the final drink today, I want to share some honorable mentions and I'll have links to all of these drinks and videos in this episode's description. First, the maiden name from Ivy mix. It's a coconut milk, cachaça, cinnamon, and passion fruit cocktail. Another one of those like cinnamon ones with passion fruit that works so well. It's just so good. I love cachaça. I don't talk about it or use it enough here. And I need to change that in the future. And speaking of cachaça, Dr. Barker's fluffy banana from Dane Barker at Smuggler's Co. Banana and cachaça is a perfect combo of flavors. I've shared that drink in videos twice now. It's great. Dr. Dane Barker is also a really cool guy. Next up is the bird of paradise from Garrett Richard in the tropical standard book. It's one of my all-time favorites. I started my cocktail journey back in 2005 with, well, legally in 2005 with the first bottle I ever purchased being Bombay Sapphire. So gin has always had this very warm botanical place in my heart. I love that drink so much. That cream syrup is just like amazing. The disco banana from Jeanne Grant. I've only had it that one time. I need to have this more. It's a 10 out of 10. It's a must make. It's a banana daiquiri with cinnamon, pernubes, and rum fire. I think we'll have to come back to this concept here and do my favorite frozen drinks. That drink came because Kevin Crossman, who's a member of the Make a Drink Mai Tai tier, he requested that I make that one. And it's fabulous. Another honorable mention is the Tiger's Claw, a drink from Eric Castro. Cinnamon, coffee, pineapple, and tequila. It's so good. I guess I do just, I guess I just love pineapple. As long as you pair it with cinnamon or coffee or passion fruit or anything like that. But the last drink and the final drink that I'm going to make and drink for us today is a drink that most of you that have had it seem to absolutely love, which is one that I also love. And it's a tropical standard Navy Grog. This one requires some acid adjusted grapefruit juice and a Grog concentrate, which I've already made here a few times. I'll have links to those videos in the episode's description, and then instructions for you to make this without watching a video in the episode's description as well. Start with five drops of a saline solution, three dashes of Angostura bitters, one ounce of our acid adjusted grapefruit juice, three quarter ounces of the tropical standard Grog concentrate, one teaspoon of St. Elizabeth allspice dram, three quarter ounces of Hamilton 86, three quarter ounces of Appleton Estate 12, and three quarter ounces of Bourbon Court White. And between you and me, the Grog concentrate that I'm using today, it should last you at least a few weeks. I may have made that, I don't know, a year ago and froze it. And I do that with a lot of syrups. If I make larger batches of syrups, for the most part, I'll freeze them. I don't usually freeze juices, maybe orange juice or pineapple juice that's fresh. But when it comes to syrups, if you have the space and you have extra, you can always freeze some, thaw it out later and use it then. So let's try it. Cheers. Just as good as the first time I made it. This is the first drink that I made from the tropical standard book. It's the first video from that book that I shared here. It has the Navy Grog flavors. You want that Trader Vic's Navy Grog, which is rum, grapefruit, and then allspice. So the Coca-Cola Grog concentrate brings some of those allspice flavors as well. We're using a little bit of allspice dram and then you can taste all the rums here. You might have a hard time, well actually you cannot find the standard Bourbon Court White Rum anymore. I've been holding onto it just to use for this drink. The one you can find nowadays is the 110 proof. So it's higher proof. It might even be a little better. I don't know. But in my opinion, if you are trying to find a sub for a Bourbon Court, the unaged rum, I would go with a sort of a lighter cachaça as opposed to a Rum Agricole, which has even more intense grass flavor. The Rum Bourbon Courts are much milder. So a mild cachaça would work better than using Rum JM, but this is wonderful. It's delicious. It's fabulous. It's one of my favorite cocktails and it is the best Navy Grog that you are ever going to come across. I promise you it will be the best one you've ever had. So there you go, folks, my four favorite cocktails, the four favorite best cocktails, in my opinion, that I've had here on YouTube and shared with all of you. If you have had all four of these, let me know on the console. If you've had any of them, let me know in the comments below. If you make these and you're someone who's on Instagram, go on Instagram, tag the person or the bar behind them, because I know that the people involved in these cocktails with bars or the individual, they like it. They love seeing that we're all out here enjoying their creations. And then if you get the opportunity, go to these bars, go support these bars and the people behind them that make these delicious cocktails who are willing to share them with all of us. Well, it looks like I have a fun day ahead of me here, finishing the rest of these drinks. And if you put a gun to my head and you made me choose one, I would say pull the trigger. I'm not, I'm not choosing one. They're all amazing. If you enjoyed this video, that's pretty dark. That's pretty dark. All right, whatever. If you enjoyed this video, please give it a like below. Consider subscribing. If you want to support this channel more, please check out my Patreon page. There's different tiers, and there's even a tier where I'll make one of your favorite cocktails here on YouTube. So check me out on Patreon. Otherwise, see you on the next one.