tiki

All Saints’ | a holy day cocktail

/ Paul Burkhart / Leave a comment

Recipe

  • 2 oz Dark Rum
  • .75 oz St. Germain Elder Flower Liqueur
  • .5 oz Lemon Juice
  • .5 oz Falernum (or Ginger Syrup)
  • .25 oz All Spice Dram
  • Garnish: Lemon twist

Add all ingredients to a shaker. Add ice and shake. Double strain into a chilled coupe and garnish with a lemon twist.

* * * *

Today is All Saints’ Day (and the beginning of Kingdomtide). It is a beautiful Christian feast day that honors all of God’s people, known and unknown.

Every description I’ve seen of this holy day includes that little tag at the end–known or unknown–and I love it. There are those who belong to God in unknown ways we could not define nor specify. This day is a celebration of all the ways God draws people to himself.

And so to all of you saints–known and unknown–I raise a glass in toast of you. And in that glass is one of the best cocktails I’ve ever made.

It is complex and spicy, with a little funk. It is perfectly balanced with some brightness and sweet floral notes. As for symbolism, I just had two requirements when conceiving of this drink: it need All Spice Dram and Saint Germain (All… Saint… Get it?). I honestly didn’t think it’d work, but boy does it.

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“Halloween By Thy Name” | a cocktail for All Hallows’ Eve

/ Paul Burkhart / Leave a comment

Recipe

  • 2 oz White Rum
  • 1 oz Lime Juice
  • .75 oz Ube Syrup
  • 1 Egg White (or Aquafaba)

Add all ingredients to a shaker. Dry shake vigorously for at least 45 seconds. Then add some ice and shake again for 15 seconds. Double strain into a chilled coupe and garnish with something creepy.

* * * *

Yes, it is Halloween. Growing up Evangelical, I was taught this was a sort of anti-Christian day. But historically, this couldn’t be further from the truth. “Halloween” is an abbreviation for “All Hallows’ Eve’ning“, as it is the day before the Christian Holy Day of “All Hallows” (more commonly known as “All Saints Day“).

But more than just being the day before a holy day, Halloween has been a truly Christian holiday in its own right for quite some time. So it deserves a holy day cocktail! (It’s also Reformation Day for Protestants, and yes–there’s a cocktail for that).

There are an infinite number of spooky cocktails out there, but I wanted to go a little more elevated. Unlike my other cocktails, there’s no special meaning to any of the ingredients. It’s just great tasting and purple–a delightfully Halloween-ish hue. It is tart, sweet, a little nutty, and velvety smooth. You will adore this drink. All treat, and no trick.

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Resurrection Punch | An Easter Cocktail

/ Paul Burkhart / Leave a comment

Recipe

  • 2.5 oz Easter Honey Rum (or any Gold Rum)
  • 1 oz Lemon Juice
  • 1 oz Passion Fruit Syrup
  • .5 oz Cinnamon Syrup
  • .5 oz Apricot Liqueur
  • .5 oz Velvet Falernum
  • 1 dash Angostura Bitters
  • Top with Sparkling Water or Champagne

Scale this punch recipe as needed. Combine ingredients (minus the sparkling) without ice and let chill. When ready to drink, pour over large ice in a bowl or crushed ice in a collins glass. Top with bubbles. If you can’t chill it ahead of time, shake everything (minus sparkling) with just enough ice to chill and not dilute. Strain into glass with crushed ice and top with bubbles. Add a straw and garnish with a cherry.

View other Holy Day cocktails.

* * * *

It’s Easter! And to remind us that this is a season and not just a day, I’m giving you your Easter cocktail a few days in. Easter is the height of joy and celebration in the Christian Calendar, where Christians are invited–nay, expected–to be as extra as possible, with laughter, singing, hope, and yes, good food and drink.

To that end, I give you this tiki rum punch for this glorious season. And it is a delight. You can have it solo or with friends. It is sweet, floral, fruity, vibrant, bubbly, and bright.

For the base, I use a heavy pour of our Easter Honey Rum. I also knew I wanted to use Passion Fruit Syrup to remind us how Easter is literally the “fruit” of Jesus’ “passion”.

Cinnamon, Falernum, and the Angostura give the drink character and backbone; they are spicy and dark ingredients made sweet and bright here. This makes me think of the fires of hell, now quenched and by Jesus’ overpowering light and life.

Apricot is also a more biblical choice than you may think. Many scholars agree that Eden’s Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was based on an Apricot tree, not an Apple tree. So this drink tries to capture how death came through one tree, but life through another.

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Palm Sunday Cocktail

/ Paul Burkhart / Leave a comment

Recipe

  • 2 oz Light Rum
  • 1 oz Lime Juice
  • .75 oz Toasted Coconut Syrup
  • .75 tsp Pandan Extract
  • 2 dashes Grapefruit Bitters
  • 2 dashes Rhubarb Bitters
  • .25 oz Jamaican Rum float (optional)

Add all ingredients (except the Jamaican rum) to a shaker. Add ice and shake. Free pour all contents into a glass and top with the remaining rum. Add a straw and garnish with pineapple or palm fronds.

View other Holy Day cocktails.

* * * *

It’s Holy Week, the most important and consequential seven days in all of human history, when Jesus suffered, died, and was raised. Each of these days carries significance, so I’m crafting a cocktail for each one.

But it all begins on Palm Sunday: a strange day full of hope, expectation, worship, and joy (and quite a bit of human misunderstanding). Lent is a season of brooding and fasting, but because Sundays are still feast days (and because of palms, of course) we’re doing a tiki drink!

On Palm Sunday, Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem in a way that symbolized to the Jewish people that he was their long-awaited king coming to rescue them from their exile.

The people come out and lay their coats and palm leaves on the road, ushering Jesus with fevered excitement and joy. However, while they thought he was coming as a violent, political, conquering king, he instead intended to save them from an even deeper spiritual exile.

I tried to capture these contrasts in this drink. It is a riff on a daiquiri, and is bright, refreshing, and tart, with multiple fruit bitters for complexity. However through the middle of it are these deep, heavier notes of toasted coconut and pandan. It’s a fantastic drink.

Blessed is he who drinks in the name of the Lord. Cheers!

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