shrunken skull

1 oz Demerara Rum (Lemon Hart 80)
1 oz Gold Puerto Rican Rum (DonQ Gold)
1 oz Grenadine
1 oz Lime Juice

Shake with ice and strain into a skull mug filled with crushed ice. Here, a Tiki mug garnished with mint and nasturtiums.

Once you get on the Tiki kick, it is hard to shake. With so much garnish available from mint to flowers that are still open and blooming at the cocktail hour, it is all too alluring. To assist that, there was another Instagram Tiki challenge with that week's drink being the Shrunken Skull. Since the recipe is essentially a two rum Jack Rose, I probably would not have made this one without some prodding such as this. In Remixed, Beachbum Berry did not give much history other than attributing it to midcentury, cannibal-themed origins. Others have traced it to mid-1950's Mai Kai menus.
My choice of garnishes yielded a peppery and minty bouquet. Lime, caramel, and pomegranate on the sip gave way to rich rums. My first thought was that this combination could use some spice element, but otherwise it was definitely a tasty classic combination of flavors. While I did get some spice from the nasturtiums on the nose, others have taken to the spiced ingredient route, for the Shrunken Skull at Hale Pele splits the grenadine with cinnamon syrup and adds a cinnamon stick as a garnish.