From the Editor's Desk
This week the smoke is real. Mont Pelée erupted on a Thursday morning in May of 1902 and wiped out the city of Saint-Pierre, Martinique — thirty thousand people gone in minutes, half the island's molasses distilleries gone with them. The geological catastrophe forced a pivot: from molasses to cane juice, from rum to rhum, the agricole style that defines Martinique today. We open this week on that volcanic terroir, cross the windward passage to a copper pot still in Trelawny Parish, Jamaica, and finish in the Pacific theater of 1941 with a drink Donn Beach built for the Navy — ice cone, straw, three rums, no apologies.
Ti' Punch
The Martinique national pour — rhum, cane syrup, lime, no ice.
The Provisions
- 2 oz Rhum JM Terroir Volcanique (aged Martinique agricole)
- 1/4 oz sirop de canne (cane syrup) — or substitute simple syrup
- 1 disc of fresh lime (a flat coin of zest and pith)
The Method
- Cut a small disc from the side of a lime — about the size of a quarter, taking zest, pith, and a sliver of flesh.
- Drop the disc into a small lowball glass. Add the cane syrup.
- Stir or muddle gently for five seconds to release the citrus oils into the syrup.
- Pour the rhum over. Stir once more with the lime to integrate.
- No ice. Drink slowly — this is a sipping pour, not a mixed drink.
Glassware · Garnish
A short, footed verre tulipe if you have one; a small old-fashioned glass works fine. The lime disc is the garnish — it stays in.
The Legend
The phrase you'll hear in Martinique is “chacun prépare sa propre mort” — “each prepares his own death.” The custom is for the bartender to set down a bottle of rhum, a small carafe of cane syrup, a lime, a knife, and a glass — and let you build your own. There is no canonical ratio. The Ti' Punch is the only drink in the tiki canon that's also an act of self-determination. Traditionally made with rhum agricole blanc (white); the vieux version you're making is an autumn variation that trades grassy snap for caramel depth.
The Bywater
Chris Hannah, 2010 — a daiquiri that doesn’t taste like a daiquiri.
The Provisions
- 1 1/2 oz Smith & Cross Traditional Jamaica Rum
- 1/2 oz Aperol
- 1/2 oz Giffard Crème de Mure (blackberry liqueur)
- 1/4 oz John D. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum
- 3/4 oz fresh lime juice
- Garnish: a brandied cherry on a pick across the rim
The Method
- Add all liquids to a shaker tin with ice.
- Shake hard for 10–12 seconds, until the tin is properly frosted.
- Double-strain into a chilled coupe.
- Lay the pick with the cherry across the rim.
Glassware · Garnish
Chilled coupe. The drink is the color of a Spanish brick wall at sunset — let it show. A Nick & Nora glass works too.
The Legend
Chris Hannah created the Bywater around 2010 while bartending at Arnaud's French 75 in the French Quarter of New Orleans. He named it for the Bywater neighborhood — downriver of the Quarter, where the cool, slightly weird people live. The drink looks like a daiquiri on paper (rum, citrus, sugar) but plays like something stranger: Aperol's bitter orange, the blackberry liqueur's jammy depth, and the falernum's clove note layer on top of Jamaican funk. It's been on craft tiki menus ever since and is one of the few post-2000 cocktails to legitimately enter the canon.
Navy Grog
Donn Beach, 1941 — three rums and an ice cone with a straw bored through it.
The Provisions
- 1 oz Ron del Barrilito Two Star (light, aged Puerto Rican)
- 1 oz Smith & Cross Traditional Jamaica Rum
- 1 oz El Dorado 8 Year Demerara
- 3/4 oz fresh lime juice
- 3/4 oz fresh white grapefruit juice
- 1 oz honey mix (2 parts honey, 1 part hot water, stirred until dissolved)
- 1 oz club soda (optional — some Donn versions omit; Smuggler's Cove includes)
- Garnish: an ice cone with a straw bored through it, plus a mint sprig
The Method
- Make the ice cone ahead of time. Pack crushed ice tightly into a small paper cup or cone mold. Insert a chopstick down the center to create a tunnel. Freeze for 4–6 hours. Peel away the cup when ready.
- Add all liquids to a shaker with crushed ice.
- Flash-shake briefly — 5 seconds, just to chill and integrate.
- Pour everything (liquid + crushed ice) into a chilled double old-fashioned glass.
- Stand the ice cone upright in the center of the glass so the straw-tunnel points up.
- Insert a long straw through the cone's tunnel into the drink below. Slap a mint sprig and lay it alongside the cone.
Glassware · Garnish
Double old-fashioned. The ice cone is the entire show — you can serve the drink without it and it's still delicious, but you'd be skipping the reason Donn invented it. The straw bores through the cone so the subscriber experiences the drink the way Donn intended: cold, slow, dramatic.
The Legend
Donn the Beachcomber unveiled the Navy Grog in 1941 at his Hollywood bar, dedicating it (like the Test Pilot) to the men of the Pacific theater. The three-rum architecture — light Spanish, heavy Jamaican, aged Demerara — was Donn's signature move for layering complexity. The ice-cone-with-straw is one of tiki's great pieces of garnish theater, second only to flaming limes. Smuggler's Cove in San Francisco has not removed this drink from their menu since opening in 2009. If a tiki bar serves Navy Grog, you can usually trust the rest of the menu.
End of Episode II
All three recipes use spirits already on your bar (see Ingredient_List.xlsx). The only pantry asks: fresh lime + grapefruit, honey, and four hours of freezer time for the Navy Grog ice cone.
Update your ingredient list any time. Next Friday at 4:00 PM, three more drinks — chosen against whatever is on the shelves then, never repeating the last twelve weeks.
Next week · Episode III · "The Trade Winds and the Trouble They Bring"
A Scout & Riggs publication