Tiki drinks evoke the idea of rum, but that’s far from the only spirit that Tiki utilizes. As we’ve shown with other cocktails, like the Singapore Sling and the Halekulani, Tiki includes everything from gin to bourbon to even lesser known spirits like pisco as a base. Among drinks that maintain this pattern is the Saturn.
A relative latecomer to the Tiki scene, the Saturn was created by J. Galsini of the California Bartenders’ Guild. He went on to win the International Bartender’s Associations World Championship in 1967 with this glorious libation. In the midst of the space race, it’s easy to see how the ‘rings’ of Saturn in the garnish would allure to consumers of the time.
Like many of the classics, this drink has undergone several iterations, but we’ve tried to post what we believe is the closest to the original. We’ll also cover a variant in the drink notes.
Saturn
The Saturn is bright and refreshing with a beautiful mix of tropical depth and herbal gin notes. The star of the show here is really the ensemble performance that the citrus, syrups, and gin bring. The harmonious blend creates a tropical mix of flavors that doesn’t necessarily put anyone on the spot. The gin here is noticeable, but not prevalent, while the passion fruit, orgeat, falernum, and lemon cover the mid palate notes to give a richness. Overall, it’s great drink with a unique garnish.
Drink Notes & Recommendations
The Saturn is another tiki drink where the most difficult element is the garnish. To make the ‘rings’ …
- London Dry Gin – We used Beefeater here, but feel free to select your favorite gin. American gins can add spice, floral, or citrus elements to switch up the juniper dominance. With the present flavors, we feel Bluecoat and Aviation could be particularly fun.
- Lemon Juice – As always, we recommend using fresh squeezed for best results.
- Orgeat – In this application we recommend something natural like Small Hand Foods Orgeat*, but feel free to reach for something more candy almond like Ferrara Orzata Almond Syrup* (which we used here). The candied like note plays well with the bright lemon and can help balance things. If you’re finding that the Small Hand’s Food is leaving things too acidic, consider reducing lemon by ¼ or increasing your Orgeat by the same. Monin would also be a recommended substitute for the candied Orgeat.
- Falernum – We use John D. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum, which adds a tropical spice note and sweetness.
- Passionfruit Syrup – Passionfruit syrup is called for in several of the tiki classics, so it’s worth pre-planning to make it for all of them. In addition, Funkin syrup works best, and comes in a quantity you’ll want to separate and freeze (but also optimize for usage). We’ve included a link to the Amazon page as we find this is one of the best* and easiest passion fruit juices you can buy.
- How To Make Passionfruit Syrup: Create a rich simple syrup (combine 2 parts sugar to 1 part water). Heat until all sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool. Weigh the rich simple syrup to obtain the final weight. Combine with equal weight passionfruit puree. Bottle and refrigerate for up to 10 days. Leftover passionfruit puree may be frozen for later use.
- Flash Blender – We use a traditional Hamilton Beech (Amazon) flash blender here. This tool is a great investment for other drinks that include egg whites, are tiki drinks, or if you make milkshakes. The best part is they can be had at or under $50 and have common parts and a lineage as mixers.
Saturn Variant:
While most variants of the Saturn maintain a similar structure and change the glass (pilsner, collins, etc), there are also variants that call for serving the Saturn up. Smuggler’s Cove is probably the most prevalent of these. To make the Saturn up, maintain the same ratios and the same garnish setup, but shake the cocktail with ice, and strain into a coupe.
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