Vote Goggin!

It appears that at least one of the contestants from 42 Below’s Cocktail World Cup last week is on his way to true global bartending rockstar status. James Sugarfoot Goggin, of the storied family Goggin, has become the first New Zealander to make the finals at Tales of the Cocktail, the pinnacle of this green earth’s drinking events.

I was lucky enough to be behind the bar in Queenstown for a little while. Goggin was struck by a bolt of genius and turned out a banana Sazerac, inside a banana skin. Somehow, methinks, this is not going to be the last Goggin recipe I post here.

Once Upon A Time

By: James Goggin

 1 oz. (30ml) Old New Orleans rum

 .66 oz (20ml) Appleton Estate Extra 12 Year Old rum

 .33 oz. (10ml) Myers Dark rum

 .66 oz. (20ml) Dolin Blanco vermouth

 .66 oz. (20ml) Fee Brothers Falernum

 .50 oz. (15ml) white grapefruit Juice

 .50 oz. (15ml) lemon juice

 2 dashes Fee Brothers Rhubarb Bitter’s

 1 dash Elixir a la Grand Chartreuse

 Dash of Egg White

 Wray & Nephew Over-Proof Flamed Atomizer Spray

Glass: Tiki Mug or Highball

Add all ingredients (except the spray of Wray & Nephew) and shake like hell, double strain into glass.

Finish by spraying with the Wray and Nephew across a lit match to flame the drink.

Comments:

This is proper Zombie-Tiki style, with a modern New Orleans twist… The rums I chose add definition and get supported by the double bitters. Two different citrus for balance, plus the under rated star falernum to add depth and Dolin for the finish.

I added a dash of egg white for that velvet foam which will get a blast of char-grilled banana skins from the flamed Wray.

For balance I suppose I should also mention the drink that won as well. Obviously Goggin didn’t use enough ingredients, I wish good luck to the drinks team that has to churn these out for the masses in 107 days at Tales…

Death in the South Pacific

By: Evan Martin

 0.75 oz. Appleton Estate Extra 12 Year Old rum

 0.75 oz. Rhum Clement VSOP rum

 0.5 oz. Grand Marnier

 0.33 oz. Trader Tiki’s Orgeat Syrup

 0.33 oz. Fee Brothers Falernum

 3 dashes Absinthe

 0.5 oz. Fresh Lime Juice

 0.5 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice

 0.5 oz. Fee Brothers Grenadine

 0.5 oz. Cruzan Blackstrap rum

Add all ingredients except for the grenadine and Cruzan Blackstrap to a Zombie shell glass and fill with crushed ice. Swizzle the drink well to mix and frost the glass and then pour in grenadine. Overfill the glass with crushed ice and then pour in Cruzan Blackstrap.

Garnish:

Take a bamboo skewer and put a brandied cherry through at the very top followed by 1 pineapple leaf (insert through the middle) and then cut off skin from 1 large orange slice and then cut the strips in half. Insert the ends through the skewer having them hang on opposite sides of each other. Then insert the straw through the loop in the bamboo skewer. It should look like a guy hanging off of the drink (cherry=head, pineapple leaf= arms, citrus peel dangling away from each other are the legs)

Comments:

The drink’s name is a play on Love in the South Pacific and Death in the Afternoon. I found the name fitting as it’s modeled after the Zombie (use of absinthe, good amount of citrus balanced by various sweeteners, and needed a name that gave as much warning as the zombie) as well as its color (should be a light tan with a muddy and bloody looking float) and the death in the afternoon’s use of absinthe.

Great looking drinks. I wonder if there’s a position open as a taster next year…