Hello and welcome to our next submission for Mixology Monday hosted by Measure & Stir. This month’s theme is all about garnish. With that in mind, we immediately thought of tiki drinks and their elaborate accoutrements. We recently acquired some lovely rhum agricole, the Blue Cane from Depaz., so we started with that as our base spirit. We then settled on banana and passion fruit to add tropical notes, with some lime for additional acid. It still needed something to round it out with more sweetness and depth, so we added a touch of Benedictine. Christa felt that the grassy notes of the rhum agricole would mix nicely with the herbal notes of the Benedictine.

Then we addressed the garnish. We wanted some nice contrasting colors, and something substantial, this being a tiki drink and all. Pineapple was a must as we always associate pineapple garnish with tiki drinks. And of course there needed to be a brandied cherry in there, cause duh, you should always use brandied cherries when you have them.  We wanted a bit more color too, so we added some green in the form of a nice sprig of mint and a lime wheel.  Finally, we threw on an orange wheel for even more color, and to add to some nice sweet citrus notes to the nose. Without further ado, we give you the Monk’s Paradise:

Monk’s Paradise

• 2 oz rhum agicole
• 1/3 oz Benedictine
• 1/3 oz banana liqueur
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 1/2 oz passion fruit puree (unsweetened)

Shake and then serve on the rocks. Garnish with pineapple wedge, brandied cherry, sprig of mint, lime wheel and orange wheel.

Opens with the nice grassy notes of the rhum agricole and the herbaceousness of the Benedictine, followed by the tropical fruit flavor of the banana and passion fruit, then a big punch of tartness from the passion fruit and the lime for the finish. It’s also important to note that the rocks are important to help dilute and balance the drink.

We hope you’ll give it a try and warm up some otherwise dull weeknight. Cheers!

* For our last Mixology Monday post, we *ahem* left out the acid component of the foam. We’ve updated the recipe so please check out the most recent version. Rainier Sunset