Recipe
- 1.5oz gold Spanish rum
- 1.5oz gold or dark Jamaican rum (Coruba Dark)
- 1oz 151 proof demerara rum (Lemon Hart or Hamilton)
- .75oz lime juice
- .5oz falernum
- 2tsp grapefruit juice
- 1tsp cinnamon syrup
- 1tsp grenadine
- 1 dash of Angostura bitters
- 1 dash of absinthe or pastis
Combine all ingredients with plenty of crushed ice (at least 1.5 cups full), and shake well or aerate using a few quick whirls of a blender. Dump everything into a tall glass, and top off with extra ice if there’s room. Add a sprig of mint and prepare for an epic night!
About
Halloween is coming…what will you be drinking? I don’t think there’s a drink more appropriate for the occasion than a classic Zombie. There are essentially 5 whole ounces of booze in here, not a pineapple or cherry in sight, and damn, I’d forgotten how strong and incredible this drink is.
The Zombie is a classic cocktail that dates back to the 1930s at the beginning of the “tiki” era. The secret recipe was created by Donn Beach and made famous at his Don the Beachcomber Los Angeles bar. Since the recipe was so closely guarded and the drink so popular, it drew many imitators, many whom would just toss together a smorgasbord of juices and syrups, fortify it with a ton of rum, and sell it by that name. Alas, other than being “strong,” these were no comparison to the original, which is not overly sweet nor tropical fruity, and with all sorts of flavor depth.
However, the popularity and wide-spread replication attempts helped the Zombie (or at least the name) survive to this day as one of the most famous tiki drinks. Luckily for us, the extensive research and reverse engineering from tiki historian Jeff Berry has unearthed the original secret recipe. It’s quite a laundry list of ingredients, but these complex flavors are what cement the drink as the masterpiece it is.
