[orana maria]

2 oz Hamilton's 80 Proof Guyana Rum
3/4 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Giffard's Banane du Bresil
1/4 oz Velvet Falernum
1/4 oz Fee's Orgeat
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a coupe glass.

For a second drink at Estragon, I narrowed my choices down to two in Sahil Mehta's drink notebook, and I let Sahil pick this unnamed tropical drink of the day. The recipe reminded me of a Mai Tai with the orange liqueur aspect split into banana liqueur and falernum. Since Mai Tai was based on a Tahitian phrase, I looked up the Tahitian word for banana, and their indigenous fe'i banana almost steered me into calling this the Fei Tai. However, the search led me to Paul Gaugin who included Tahitian bananas in a few of his paintings including the 1891 La Orana Maria. Sahil expressed great joy in the art connection, so I dubbed this one the Orana Maria.
The Orana Maria presented a banana aroma accented by clove spice to the nose. Next, lime and the rum's caramel on the sip transitioned to rum, nutty, and banana notes on the swallow with a spice-laden finish.