port light

2 oz Angel's Envy Bourbon
1 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Yes Cocktail Co. Passion Fruit Syrup
1/2 oz Yes Cocktail Co. Grenadine

Whip shake with crushed ice, pour into a Tiki mug, and top with crushed ice. I garnished with a mint bouquet and freshly grated nutmeg.
Two Mondays ago, I filmed a video at the Boston Shaker Store in support of my work with Angel's Envy and in promoting the shop's offerings of syrups, tools, and drink vessels (they have been very good to me in regards to book sales!). For a recipe idea, I selected the Port Light created by Sandro Canti at the Kahiki in Columbus, Ohio, circa 1961 that was published in Beachbum Berry's Remixed. I varied from the original by upping the Bourbon by half an ounce and the grenadine by a quarter of an ounce to make a slightly stronger and better balanced drink for my palate; in addition, I previously presented the original recipe in my post on the egg white and honey Port Light crafted a few years later by Trader Vic. Here, I added a garnish to the barren recipe with a mint bouquet to complement the tropical notes and freshly grated nutmeg to work with the whiskey's inherent woody spice. Overall, the result had a delightful Bourbon backbone that came across like a Hurricane using fassionola instead of pure passion fruit syrup as the sweetener. Furthermore, the Angel Envy's port finish played nicely with these tropical notes.

I later discovered that I had already written about this Port Light two years ago. For that one, I kept the whiskey at 1 1/2 oz but I changed the sweeteners to 2/3 oz passion fruit and 1/3 oz grenadine to keep the original's flavor ratio but to upped to match the tart lemon though.