Montego Bay
- 1½ oz dark Jamaican rum (Plantation Original Dark)
- 1/2 oz (1:1) honey syrup
- 1/2 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
- 1/2 oz fresh squeezed grapefruit juice
- 1/4 tsp (1.25 ml) pimento liqueur (St Elizabeth Allspice Dram)
- 1/8 tsp (0.6 ml) anise liqueur (Pernod, Herbsaint)
- 1 dash Angostura bitters
Blend at high speed for five seconds with 3 oz crushed ice. Alternatively, shake with ice and strain into a double old-fashioned glass filled with crushed ice.
We discovered this drink through the Classic Thirty List in Matt Pietrek & Carrie Smith's Minimalist Tiki book. It is a classic exotic drink by Don the Beachcomber, probably appearing in the late 1930s, but certainly by 1941 where it is listed in this menu from his Hollywood and Chicago restaurants. The recipe comes to us via Jeff Berry's relentless detective work into tropical drink recipes.
We visited Beachbum Berry's restaurant Latitude 29 in the French Quarter, New Orleans and were delighted to meet the Beachbum himself. I highly recommend his tiki restaurant, not just for the drinks, but the food we ordered was excellent.
The drink is a gentle tiki rum punch. Jeff Berry's recipe calls for a dark Jamaican rum. We use Plantation Original Dark—with darker (black) rums we find that the fruit is overwhelmed by the molasses flavor from the rum. The recipe as given is a little short. We will probably increase the amounts given by a third to give a slightly longer drink.