- This is How to Drink,
the show about making cocktails and how to drink them.
I'm Greg and I have never been a professional bartender.
I've never even had a job in a bar.
I don't worry too much about precision and technique
because at the end of the day,
if the drink you like is in the glass,
you did it right.
Let's get going.
Let's do some tiki stuff.
We're gonna make a zombie.
This drink usually calls
for some straight up, over proof, 151 rum.
Frankly, I'm a human being
and that's a bit strong for my blood
so we're gonna temper that just a touch
and swap in some Smith and Cross with it,
which is Navy strength.
That's 114 proof.
Whatever, that's fine, that's strong enough for me.
Why am I still talking?
Why don't we just make the cocktail already?
Let's make the damn thing.
We're gonna need three quarters of an ounce
of fresh lime juice,
put that in my tin,
need a quarter ounce of grapefruit juice,
there it is,
in it goes.
Need a quarter ounce
of something we're gonna call cinnamon syrup.
Cinnamon syrup,
maybe you can see, I don't know,
I've got a couple of sticks of cinnamon in there.
This is just inverse simple syrup
made with Demerara sugar
and six cinnamon sticks were thrown into the pot
when I cooked it.
And then I threw a couple more into the bottle
so that I could recognize it on my rack.
We just need a quarter ounce.
Now we need a teaspoon of grenadine.
I encourage you to make your own grenadine.
I have an episode up about that.
I know that my bar spoon is a quarter teaspoon
so it's four bar spoons to make a teaspoon of grenadine.
We're gonna do half an ounce of velvet falernum.
You can make your own falernum
but Johnny Taylor's is pretty damn good
and it's very consistent.
And when I've made my own falernum
it has grown mold in a hurry.
Falernum is a rum based liquor,
incorporates a lot of spices,
kafeir lime leaves, key lime zest,
I think cardamom might play a factor in there.
Anyway, very aromatic when you smell it.
Honestly, it kind of reminds me
of cologne my grandfather wore.
But it tastes great.
We're gonna use this aged blended rum,
an ounce and a half of it.
In it goes.
We're gonna use an ounce and a half of Cuban Havana Club,
if you remember from season three.
Any column still aged rum would work fine here,
that's what this is.
In it goes.
And I'm gonna use one ounce of Smith and Cross
which is my personal favorite rum.
It's Jamaican rum.
It's pretty strong
and it's got a lot of funk in it.
What is funk?
Let's find out.
Like buttery fire
and a little bit of wheat grass
and like herbaceous vegetation.
That's what funk is.
It's funky, it's funky baby.
Anyway, one ounce of that,
I'm spilling it everywhere.
I've had two drinks already today.
And we're gonna put in two dashes
of something that is called herbstura.
It's a mixture of angostura bitters and herbsaint
or absinthe in my case,
so it's 50/50
but it's just angostura bitters and absinthe.
You could even keep them separate
and just put in a dash of each.
We're gonna put in two dashes of this, one, two.
We need some crushed ice.
Now I crush ice old fashion style
with a loose bag and a hammer
and here we go, smashy time.
Let's go.
(banging)
Give it a quick shake.
If I was working in a high volume tiki bar
and I wasn't just making this drink for myself
while my wife looks on disapprovingly,
I would probably use a drink mixer
like a Waring Pro, a Waring Pro,
warr, it's a war word, how do you pronounce that?
We're going to pour this drink without a strainer
into our glass until about there.
And now we're gonna put the strainer on
and we're gonna gate it.
What I mean is hold back the ice
and pour through the gate.
(jazz music)
And that my friend is a zombie
and I'm gonna garnish it with a couple sprigs of mint.
Give it a good smack.
Let that express some oil.
Make sure it's really kind of presentational.
As I have been told by a couple bartenders
I admire very much,
we taste first with our eyes
and then with our mouth.
And then I'm gonna use blossom of an orchid flower,
I'm just gonna dress it up a little extra
because it doesn't hurt to do so.
And there it is, a zombie,
as invented by Don the Beach Comber
most likely in 1934.
So this drink opens up
like most drinks with a strong garnish
with a very olfactory response, right.
So you get the mint and the orchid garnish right away
and then you get kind of a sweetness
that is not overpowering but very pleasant
followed immediately by rum funkiness
that goes for days.
It is very strong, even in my slightly diminutive form
where I swap out the full on 151
for Navy strength Smith and Cross,
which is why it's called a zombie.
It kind of makes you make poor choices.
I hope if you like the show,
that you're willing to subscribe.
Thanks for watching.
I'll see you guys next week with another cocktail.
Bu bye.
Did I mention that I was drunk?