328 Bitters, RedBull and Selvarey, Oh my!
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Continuing our love affair with Selvarey Rum, we are still sipping this one and mixing as well. Sunshine is dead set on crafting a few outstanding cocktails using the Selvarey Cacoa and the fine silver as well. If you haven't tried this entry from Panama, we recommend you pick it up at your local liquor barn and sip it neat first. Then try using it in your favorite drinks like mojitos, old fashions, cola and more. We will be serving a fine cocktail using Selvarey at our Tiki Caliente 7 kick off party this May 14th.
In response to a listener question we chat about bitters and why and how they make cocktails more appealing. Sunshine recommends that every home bar have the standard Angostura Bitters and then from there you can branch out to one of the many craft bitters that are flooding the market. We like Scrappy's Bitters because they come in some nice sampler packs that let you try many kinds for less $$$. And, if you become a bitters hoarder like Sunshine, you won't be left with so many bottlers you don't use because these are small and convenient for travel.
Our fans sometimes ask us questions that stray off the tiki path but we are generally happy to discuss. One such question came from Ben. Ben asked if there were any energy drinks that we like that can also be mixed in a tiki drink. Well, the truth is that a purist would say NO. But as the craft cocktail movmeent grows we believe that there is room for trying just about anything within reason. Red Bull Yellow Edition has a very mango/papaya flavor and little to no trace of that usual energy drink funk. But, it does have all the energizing effects as proved by Sunshine and Starshine on this podcast. We found that this mixes really well with drinks that have a citrus base (many tiki drinks) as long as the drink is also more on the sour side. The extra sweetness that this energy drink will add needs to be balanced with a sour cocktail. The salty dog worked well. Colonel Beachs Plantation Punch also works well, substitute the ginger beer for this Red Bull.
