Sunday, February 18, 2018

tony rocky horror

1 1/2 oz Pot Still Rum (Newport Distilling's Thomas Tew)
1 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Falernum (Velvet)
1/2 oz Orgeat
2 dash Absinthe (1/2 bsp Kübler)

Dry shake, pour into a Tiki mug, fill with crushed ice, and garnish with mint sprigs (grapefruit twist).
Postnote 12/4/22: I found an online flashcard from a collection of NYC drinks that listed it as "1 lime, 1/2 orgeat, 3/4 falernum, 1 jamaican rum, 1/2 smith and cross, absinthe, crushed ice, mint sprig and grate nutmeg"

Two Sunday nights ago, I decided to make a drink from a Facebook video for a new libation by Sam Ross at Las Vegas' The Dorsey. The recipe was for the Tony Rocky Horror named after a character from Pulp Fiction, but the video left some gaps in the drink proportions specifically with the housemade falernum and orgeat. When I made my assumptions and posted them on Instagram, I was asked how I came to these numbers; my reply was, "I based it off of 3 things: the standard Mai Tai recipe/how much sweetener would balance 1 oz of lime juice, Sam Ross' other recipes (i.e. his spec style), and watching the pours out of the jigger [a Napier-style stepped cup] -- they were equal and about half as much as the 1 oz measure. It tasted akin to a Mai Tai -- perhaps not as sweet since Velvet Falernum isn't as sugary as curaçao/Cointreau or [probably] Sam's housemade falernum." If I did see this on paper without knowing the citrus amounts, I would have also considered the Test Pilot and made it equal half ounce parts of the two sweeteners and the citrus, but the 1 oz lime juice was not cut out of the video.
With Antwan "Tony Rocky Horror" Rockamora being half Samoan, the name is at least somewhat related to the South Pacific, even if the rest of Pulp Fiction was not. But in the glass, it was rather tropical with a grapefruit and anise aroma on the nose that led into a creamy lime sip. Next, the drink gave forth rum, nutty, lime, clove, and anise flavors on the swallow.