Monday, October 25, 2010

saturn

1 1/4 oz Gin (Bombay Dry)
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Passion Fruit Syrup (Trader Tiki)
1/4 oz Orgeat (Trader Tiki)
1/4 oz Falernum (Velvet)

Blend with 8 oz of ice and pour into a pilsner glass. Instead, I shook with ice and strained into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice and garnished with an orange slice.

On Thursday a week and a half ago, I was in the mood for something a little playful when searching for that night's cocktail. Therefore, I reached for Beach Bum Berry Remixed and found the gin-based Tiki drink, the Saturn. The drink was created by J. "Popo" Galsini, a bartender in Polynesian restaurants during the 1950s and 60s in California. The Saturn was one of his more famous recipes as it claimed first place in the IBA World Cocktail Championship in 1967.
The Saturn's aroma consisted mainly of orgeat and orange. Passion fruit flavors started the sip and these were followed by the lemon and the falernum's clove notes. The gin worked rather well in the drink for its botanicals complemented the falernum's spices rather deliciously; while rum would have made for a pleasing drink, it would have made for a much less complex one in that regard.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

This drink is absolutely sublime with Old Raj gin, the hint of saffron really blends well with the falernum (Trader Tiki in my case) and the extra proof gives it just a bit more bite.

Your post also inspired me to try one with rum, I replaced the gin with 3/4 Smith & Cross and 3/4 Clemente VSOP. This was also very good but not quite up to the high standards of the Old Raj version.