The Zombie: Not Just The Walking Dead

Normally, I wouldn’t go for a drink so well known.  You may or may not have noticed I like to revive antiquated recipes, no longer common in the eye of the public.  However, very recently, the Zombie was involved in a night out that a few of my downTown peeps happened to be at.  Consequently, I am inspired to write about it.  Also, it’s the sort of drink that gets you drunk.  Not ha-ha drunk.  Fall down trying to fight the ground drunk.  And, well, that’s how I like it.

The Zombie, according to legend, was created in the late 1930’s, by one Ernest Raymond Beaumont-Gannt, known in popular culture as “Donn Beach”.  The story goes that he put one of these together for a friend of his before he took of for San Francisco. The friend proceeded to pound three of them, and, upon his return, stated he felt like a zombie his entire trip.  And a star is born.

The zombie really hit it’s stride during the days of the American Tiki craze.  Several variants of the original cocktail appeared, as Donn Beach was terribly secretive about his cocktail creations.  After the death of Tiki in popular culture, one of the only ways to find this drink was to guzzle as many as you could get your hands on during Mardi Gras.  These days it’s a little easier, especially if you live in our neck of the woods.  Eastern Standard is known to have the Zombie on it’s menu, with a strict limit of two per customer.  Take a look at the ingredient list and you’ll see why.

2 oz dark rum
2 oz light rum
1 oz 151 (or any over-proof rum)
1 oz triple sec
1 teaspoon Pernod
1 oz lime juice
1 oz orange juice
1 oz pineapple juice
1 oz guava nectar
1 tablespoon Grenadine
1 tablespoon Orgeat (almond) syrup

You can serve this one of two ways, depending on how you like your drinks.  The first method involves tossing all the ingredients into a blender with a bunch of cracked ice and blending until smooth.  Pour your slurry into a Collins glass and garnish with a pineapple spear and a cherry and you’re ready to get rocked.

If you’re not into blender drinks, simply substitute a shaker for the blender and leave out the 151.  Give the concoction a good shake and pour that into a glass.  Float the 151 on top and garnish.  The cool part is that if you’re up to it, you can always light the 151 on fire and serve it that way.  I’m more of a blender guy, but Lupec loves it when I mix up some flaming drinks, and with the ladies I aim to please.

You can find any number of alternate ways to mix this up online, so go nuts. Seriously though, this is going to get you smashed, so be careful.  If you’re not careful though, send me an email with your horror story.  I would love to hear them.

-Out.

Tags: drink recipes, grenadine, pernod, rum, triple sec
Category: Cocktail Recipes | Comments (1)