donga punch

1 1/2 oz Aged Martinique Rum (JM Rhum Paille)
1 1/2 oz Don's Mix (Trader Tiki)
3/4 oz Lime Juice

Shake with ice and strain into a tall glass or tiki mug filled with crushed ice.

Last week, Trader Tiki sent us samples of his four cocktail syrups -- orgeat, Don's Mix, vanilla syrup, and cinnamon syrup -- and a handful of swizzle sticks! To figure out best how to utilize one of them, I flipped through Beachbum Berry's Sippin' Safari until I found the Donga Punch. Honestly, I was searching for a tasty recipe to try his artisanal orgeat, but the Donga Punch's call for Don's Mix arrived first into my visual cortex. Don's Mix is a combination of grapefruit and cinnamon syrup and just cracking the cap off of the bottle revealed an intense and complex cinnamon aroma. Checking his website's description, it's obvious that he took great care in selecting the origins of his ingredients as it contains "Barbados grapefruit and Asian cinnamon". Berry mentions that the Donga Punch derives from a cerca 1937 Don the Beachcomber recipe using the Zulu word for "gully in a field".
The beautiful cinnamon aroma came across strongly once mixed in the drink as well. The lime flavors appeared early in the sip and provided a good balance to the Don's Mix syrup and left it not too dry. The swallow was filled with a pleasing rhum agricole funk and cinnamon spice. While the recipe for the Donga Punch looks a lot like a Daiquiri variant, it ended up tasting very distinct in style.

Trader Tiki's syrups can be purchased from his e-store (link above), from CocktailKingdom, and from The Boston Shaker web or soon-to-be-opened (next week?) store. Moreover, Trader Tiki is sponsoring Thursday Drink Night on February 11th (7pm EST) so come prepared to mix and see what others can create with his syrups!