Unsurprisingly, for our wedding we wanted to share our passion for cocktails with our family. While I love bourbon and rye, my wife has a penchant for tequilas, rum, and Tiki inspired drinks (even after the wedding, we went to Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room and Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto). As such, we wanted something with a bit of tropical feel, that would scratch that Tiki itch, while also giving us a nod toward the wedding day. What emerged, was a crowd favorite, our Something Blue.
Something Blue
Our Something Blue is smooth, bright, and laced with vanilla, citrus, spice, and coconut notes. While the combination of Siete Leguas Blanco and Malibu Coconut might seem strange, the coconut works as a modifier giving an underlying base for the Siete’s vanilla like notes to play off of. The brightness of the lime pops these flavors, and combined with the spice and nuttiness of the orgeat and falernum opens the drink up to a complex symphony of easy going flavors. The club helps elongate the drink to not only help guests enjoy it longer, but to settle some of the intensity. Overall, the drink is as beautiful as my bride.
Drink Notes & Recommendations
There are a lot of ingredients in this cocktail, and while we urge you to use the original ingredients, we recognize it’s hard to match one for one. We’ll give you recommendations where we can, and note a small change for when trying to batch this drink for large events (which is the inclusion of super juice!).
- Tequila – We like a vanilla forward Blanco here, which is why we chose Siete Leguas. If you can’t find it, Casamigos can make a good substitute, and our house Olmeca Altos Plata won’t hurt either.
- Coconut Rum – We honestly use Malibu in place of Kalani Coconut Liqueur. The flavors are reasonably close, and Malibu sells for a fraction of the price of Kalani. If somehow you can’t find Malibu, we recommend using Kalani here.
- Lime Juice – For best results, use fresh squeezed. For batching, consider using super juice to avoid oxidation, as detailed below.
- Blue Curacao – while there are plenty of brands, our go to for all drinks is Giffard Curacao Bleu. This brand has a slight vanillin note in our experience, which gives a nice lift to certain drinks.
- Orgeat – In this application we recommend something natural like Small Hand Foods Orgeat*, as it adds nuttiness, but not unneeded candied flavors. From what we’ve heard from fellow enthusiasts, Liber + Co might also work as a substitute. If you can’t find it, or don’t want to pay the premium, feel free to reach for something more candy almond like Ferrara Orzata Almond Syrup* (which will change the character of this drink). As such, we may recommend you even cut the amount in half to a bar spoon. Monin may also work in this reduced amount.
- Falernum – We use John D. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum, which adds a tropical spice note and sweetness. Feel free to use your favorite, and adjust upward if you find you’re lacking sweetness after the switch.
- Club Soda – Your local grocery store generic will work just fine here. Club soda will contain minerality notes, where seltzer will not.
Lime Super Juice
So what should you do if you need to prep this drink later, and you can’t be bothered to squeeze limes the day of? The best answer we’ve found is to use super juice. This acid stabilized juice contains the same acids as a lime, but with less lime juice (which oxidizes after squeezing). The result is a juice that can remain fresh and unoxidized in your fridge for up to a month, and reduces waste of fruit. Be aware, due to the strength of the juice, and the acid correction, we recommend using ½ oz of Lime super juice (compared to ¾ oz fresh squeezed)
To calculate the exact amount you will need, we recommend using Kevin Kos’ Super Juice calculator, and follow his recipe as shown below:
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