bad juju

1 oz Planteray OFTD Rum
1/2 oz Brugal 1888 Rum (Privateer New England Reserve)
1/2 oz Monkey Shoulder Scotch (3/8 oz Cutty Sark Prohibition + 1/8 oz Laphroaig)
1/2 oz Borghetti Coffee Liqueur
1/2 oz Pineapple Juice
1 oz Coco Lopez

Whip shake, pour into a glass (coconut mug), top with crushed ice, and garnish with 2 pineapple fronds, a banana chip, and freshly grated coffee bean.

Two Wednesdays ago, I opened up the Spec recipe app, and in the Bardtenders podcast's collection, I found the Bad Juju as a Piña Colada riff created by one of the podcast's hosts, Jon Mateer. Jon runs the bar program at TPC Sawgrass golf course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, and perhaps the name refers to one of the cursed holes. One article described, "The phrase 'bad juju' at TPC Sawgrass most famously relates to the notorious water-logged history of the iconic par-3 17th island green, where PGA Tour groups have occasionally suffered collective meltdowns by hitting their tee shots straight into the water." I thought that I had tried a coffee-tinged Piña Colada before, but alas, I had not; the closest was Chad Austin's pineapple-less Aztec Warrior, so the Bad Juju was indeed a first. Once prepared, the Bad Juju offered up coffee and a hint of smoke on the nose. Next, a creamy sip with roast notes slid into burly rum, hint of smoky Scotch, coconut, pineapple, and coffee flavors on the swallow. Jon commented on my Instagram post, "Love the addition of splitting the Scotch here! That 1/8 of Laphroaig is money," to which I explained that the last of "my Cutty Sark bottle ran short, so I figured to fill the gap with flavor instead of a more neutral blended whisky."