laka laka

2 oz White Rum Blend (*)
1/2 oz Honey Syrup (1:1)
1/2 oz Don's Spices #2 (**)
1/2 oz Pineapple Juice
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1 dash St. George Absinthe

Shake with crushed ice, pour into a Tiki mug, and garnish with Tiki intent.
(*) 6 part Privateer Silver, 1 part Rhum JM Agricole Blanc, 1 part Wray & Nephew Overproof Jamaican Rum.
(**) Equal parts vanilla syrup and allspice dram.
The Saturday before Valentine's Day, I tried out my idea for the two person blender drink as a shaken single serving. While I liked it, it was a bit too spice driven and I ended up tweaking it a bit before it morphed into the Loyal Nine menu item the Queen of the Lava Beds. Actually, a dash of Angostura was also in this version, but I dropped it in the recipe above to mellow things out a bit. The two names that I had bandied about where the Queen of the Lava Beds and the Laka Laka (or the Laka Laka Love). For the runner up, I opted for the tribute to Laka, the Hawaiian goddess of love and creator of the Hula dance.