thai chi-chi

2 oz Belvedere Intense Vodka (*)
1 1/2 oz Housemade Cream of Coconut
1 oz Pineapple Juice
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Thai Basil Syrup (**)
8 Drop Pimento Dram

Shake with ice and strain into a rocks or highball glass filled with fresh ice. Grate nutmeg over the top and garnish with a brandied cherry on a pick.
(*) Drink apparently works quite well with rum subbed here.
(**) One recipe I found online was 8 oz of boiling water added to 8 oz sugar and 3 oz of Thai basil leaves. Stir to dissolve sugar, let steep until cool, and then strain and bottle.
I think my absolute favorite drink at the Bar Room Brawl was the Thai Chi-Chi served by Portland's Teardrop. Luckily, one of the two cocktail apprentices making drinks on the Waking the Spirits Cemetery Excursion two days later was Thomas Klus, a bartender at the Teardrop, and he was able to email me the recipe for the drink off of his iPhone. The drink name seems to be a play on T'ai Chi Chih, the meditative Chinese martial arts, and with Thai elements like lime, coconut, pineapple, and Thai basil, the name switch made a lot of sense. While the drink was served to me as a Belvedere Vodka recipe, Thomas hinted that it would make a great rum drink as well. Of course, I completely missed the obvious and thanks to Sylvan of Tasty Libations for pointing it out, that the drink is based off of the Chi-Chi, the vodka-spirited Piña Colada; I completely forgot that drink existed.
Above is a photo of a Teardrop bartender making my second Thai Chi-Chi -- yes, the drink was that good, and unfortunately, it might have prevented me from giving another drink at the Brawl a try. However, I have no regrets. With one foot planted in the Painkiller camp, the drink could do no wrong. The coconut provided a rich creaminess and the Thai basil added an extra element to make the drink a bit more Asian-inspired than Caribbean.