tonga pup

1 oz Barbancourt 4 Year Rum (Diplomatico Añejo)
1 oz Cynar
2/3 oz Smith & Cross Rum
1/2 oz Fernet Branca
1 oz Pineapple Juice
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Falernum (Velvet)
2 dash Angostura Bitters
1 dash Jerry Thomas Decanter Bitters

Shake with ice, strain into a Collins glass with ice, top with ginger beer (2 1/2 oz Reed's), and garnish with a lime wheel.

To follow up the previous night's Tiki, I decided to make a recipe from BarNotes that I had bookmarked months ago called the Tonga Pup. The recipe was crafted by T. Reed Richard then of Tulsa's The Valkyrie as his first amaro-Tiki offering. For a name, he dubbed this one after the failed Tiki fast food chain that never came into existence; I first heard of that restaurant concept in Wayne Curtis' And a Bottle of Rum, so I was familiar with the name.
The Tonga Pup offered up minty, menthol, and lime aromas to the nose. Next, a carbonated caramel and lime sip gave way to funky rum and Fernet's menthol on the swallow with pineapple and Cynar's vegetal funk on the finish.