5 Tiki Cocktails that ONLY need 1 bottle!

When most people think of tiki cocktails, they're probably thinking of elaborate recipes containing three or four different rums, different sweeteners, different modifiers, lemon, lime, pineapple, elaborate garnishes. It doesn't have to be that way. I wanna show you six different tiki drinks that feature only one bottle. Now, this first drink is a three-ingredient cocktail and it's technically pre-tiki. It dates back two or 300 years and the tiki period wasn't until 1930s, 40s, 50s, around then. This has gone on to inspire tiki drinks, so I thought it'd be a good place to start. So I'm using Eldorado 8, two ounces, 60 mil of rum, and then a Demerara syrup. You'll notice today that a lot of these drinks have different flavored syrups, grenadine, Demerara, passion fruit syrup, and I'm using store-bought Liber & Co. syrups. I do think they're incredibly handy, especially since I've been making all these tiki drinks, that I can just keep them in the fridge. I'm pointing over here because this is where my fridge is. You can keep them in the fridge and you can have cocktails anytime and the syrups last up to 12 months, as opposed to a homemade syrup where you potentially haven't sterilized all your equipment and something like a simple syrup is only gonna last about three or four weeks. So they are incredibly handy to have on hand. So we're gonna go half an ounce, 15 mil of Demerara syrup, and we have fresh lime juice, half an ounce, 15 mil. You can strain this over fresh ice. I'm just gonna dirty dump. Pretty sure back in, you know, the 1700s, they probably, first of all, probably didn't have ice on the boat. They didn't have a shaker. And if they did shake it with ice, then it just would've been dumped in the glass. They're not gonna waste ice. Cheers. It is rum-forward because you're only using half an ounce of the sweetener and the lime juice, and the Eldorado 8 is quite rich. Molasses-forward, yum. Next cocktail is the Planter's Punch. You'll find plenty of varying recipes for this. This recipe comes from Shannon Mustapha's Tiki Modern Tropical Cocktails. Great little book. His recipe, but I've increased the lime juice ever so slightly. As I said, plenty of variations on this one, but this one calls for a pot-stilled Jamaican rum, so I'm gonna use Smith & Cross. That's the pot-stilled rum I have on hand. It's 57%, so it's over-proof, and it's typical of that pot-stilled Jamaican rum where it's just funky ho-go, tropical fruit notes. A really intensely flavored rum. If you don't like your rums, probably don't drink this style of rum. So we have Smith & Cross, two ounces, 60 mil, and 3 1⁄4 of an ounce, 22.5 mil of grenadine syrup. So this is made with fresh pomegranate juice, molasses, gum arabic, which adds more body, more texture, a little bit of citric acid, makes it really pop. It's nice and tart, really vibrant grenadine syrup. Then fresh lime juice, 3 1⁄4 of an ounce, 22.5 mil. Super simple recipe. It's like a sour ratio. Two ounce, 3 1⁄4 ounce, 3 1⁄4 ounce, done. Two dashes of Angostura bitters, adds that cinnamon, clove, warming spice character. Pineapple wedge and a maraschino cherry. Or if you're like me and you don't have a pineapple on hand, then just a pineapple spear. I keep these in the freezer, so. So for the straw, there we have a Planters Punch. Pretty looking drink, but don't let this one fool you because it's got two ounces of 57% overproof rum. Now you get, just on the nose, you get that pot still Jamaican style rum. Like it's strong, it's intense, it's funky. The flavor is intense, but the heat of the liquor is tamed by the tart pomegranate and the citrus, obviously. This is very deceptive, this drink. Be wary, be wary with most tiki drinks, but yum. Next one is the Port Light. This is a trade of Vic Creation and it's bourbon based. So a single bottle of bourbon, bit of honey syrup, bit of passion fruit. This also got an egg white, so it's gonna add a nice frothy nature to the drink. So I'll start by adding that in and measuring two ounces, 60 mil of bourbon whiskey Wild Turkey 101. Such a good, well-rounded bourbon to use for cocktails. A full ounce, 30 mil of lemon juice. Just under half an ounce, 15 mil of honey syrup. This is a three to one honey syrup. I sourced this recipe from Smuggler's Cove, but I tweaked the amount of honey syrup and the passion fruit because they used a one to one honey syrup. I'm using a three to one and the passion fruit recipe is a little bit different as well. So I feel like Labyrinth Cove's passion fruit is incredibly intense. So you could be a little bit more restrained on this, which is a good thing, plenty of flavor. So quarter ounce, seven and a half mil. Quick dry shake. I'm topping this one with pebble ice and leaving it ungarnished. So recap, bourbon whiskey, lemon juice, honey syrup, passion fruit, and a little bit egg white, which as you can see makes this beautiful frothy texture. Nice and tart, tangy, vibrant. The combination of the passion fruit and the honey syrup work really well. I quite like the balance that I've got with those sweeteners there. That honey and passion fruit flavor, so good. Now even though I'm using a higher proof bourbon, this still kind of seems light in comparison to all the tiki drinks that I've been drinking lately because it doesn't have overproof rums that are even higher than the whiskey. It doesn't have three kinds of rum. It doesn't have that Jamaican funky flavor. The whiskey is just, it's more delicate in comparison to some of the tiki drinks out there. Very tasty. All right, time for the Dr. Funk. So Trader Vic's recipe, or at least the version in Smuggler's Cove, does call for a black rum, and they do specify using a pot still black rum, which I don't have. I've got Gosling's Black Seal, so it's the closest thing I've got on hand. If you have a pot still black rum that's gonna add more of that funkiness to it, then you can use that if you like. Otherwise, be like me and use something else. So we have two and a quarter, 67.5 mil of a black rum. So we're doing half an ounce, 15 mil of lemon juice, half an ounce, 15 mil of lime juice, half an ounce, 15 mil of Liver and Co's Demerara syrup. Demerara, Demerara, Demerara. Can never, I don't know. Forgive me. I don't know how to pronounce ----. We have nice tart, Liver and Co. grenadine syrup. Only a quarter ounce, seven and a half mil. Just a little touch. So you're gonna get the richness from the Demerara, but then you're gonna get this little tiny tart kind of pomegranate note from the grenadine. Quarter ounce. I could just take the lid off here. Quarter ounce of Herbsaint or Abyssinth. I'm actually going a little bit less. That's probably closer to a teaspoon for me. We have some soda water. Seltzer, what have you. Now, of course, if you don't have a pot still black rum and you have something like Gosling's, you can always use an ounce and a half of that and then half an ounce of my Smith and Cross to add that funkiness. So I have one ounce, 30 mil. Now, typically Smuggler's Cove, they use like a milkshake blender, a spindle blender. So therefore it's open and therefore putting the soda in it doesn't pose any risk as it does when you're shaking. So it's gonna add a little bit of pressure. The carbonation is gonna let loose, potentially pop your shaker. So just be careful. Should be fine. And three pineapple fronds for garnish. Now, you probably want to use a straw for this one to get through that purple ice and also not to stab yourself in the eye with those spears. The Dr. Funk. Funk it. Cheers. I think I made a wise choice with the amount of absinthe in there. This is like a, I can't remember off the top of my head, but it's like a maybe 69% absinthe. So I probably didn't need a full quarter ounce. Just a teaspoon was fine with that. That anise flavor still comes through plenty strong. Nice and bright. Get a little bit of tartness, but it's rich from the Demerara and of course from the rum itself. If you don't like anise, you can probably just skip the absinthe altogether and it would still make a very flavorful drink. Drink number six is the 151 Swizzle. Now, it was originally made, I believe, with Lemon Heart 151, which is a Guyana rum. So a Demerara rum. Another rum that you can't get in Australia, unfortunately. So I'm substituting for Plantaray OFTD, which is a blend, a multi-island blend from Jamaica, Guyana, and Barbados. Sits at 69%, so it's a little bit lower. It's still overproof, so it's still strong and still intensely flavored, so it'll work perfectly fine. But if you have access to Lemon Heart 151, you've got it on your shelf. Feel free, go right ahead. So I have one and a half ounces, 45 mil of overproof rum. You can use a highball glass, 40 pilsner, pilsner glass like this. Then fresh lime juice, half an ounce, 15 mil. Simple syrup. I'm gonna use Libra & Co's Demerara. Don't have any simple syrup in the fridge. This is just gonna lean into that, you know, molasses character from the rum itself. So half an ounce. It is a rich syrup, so I've actually gone a little bit less. Should be more like a third of an ounce. One dash of Angostura. I'll go two. Then six drops of Absinthe. I'm just gonna dash from a little Japanese bottle, Japanese dasher bottle. Just half or three-quarter, fill your glass. Add a little bit more. And swizzle. Now you have to remember that this is a 69% rum, or in the case of a 151, it's 75.5. So you wanna make sure that you've got adequate dilution in there. The water is an important ingredient. Mince-free garnish. Serve with a straw. Hope you've enjoyed today's video. Single-bottle tiki cocktails. What made it so much easier is the fact that I have these syrups on hand in the fridge. Once they're open, they last up to 12 months, so follow the link in the description if you wanna grab yourself a bottle. If you're in Australia, if you're in Europe, there's a retailer in Europe that you can grab them, or the US, just follow the link in the description below. The 151 swizzle. The fact that you're using an overproof rum, it's very well-hidden, and the key is the dilution. Like you've got a little bit of acid from the lime juice, you've got the sugar in there to balance it out, but dilution is key with a cocktail like this. So serve it on pebble ice. Make sure you get it really cold. Swizzle it well. Water is important. It's a crucial ingredient. You get those rich molasses, toffee, caramelized sugar characters from both the syrup and the rum. If you want a copy of the written recipes, then just follow any of the links in the description below. Cheers.