HAMILTON BEACHBUM BERRY’S ZOMBIE RUM BLEND

In 2005, Beachbum Berry unearthed the original “lost” Zombie recipe, which called for three different Caribbean rums. Fourteen years later, Ed Hamilton — the swashbuckling Caribbean trader turned crusading “pure rum” importer and blender — was drinking with the Bum at Latitude 29 when our talk turned to the challenge of recreating the complicated exotic cocktails of the last century.

Over the next two years we experimented with umpteen rum mixes trying to create a one-bottle blend that could reanimate your Zombie, fuel your Jet Pilot, and punch up your favorite Tiki Classics without having to inventory three different rums.

This blend had to be more than a high-octane slug of rum, but rather bring balance to the final drink through a subtle marriage of multiple distillates. The end result of our collaboration: Hamilton Beachbum Berry’s Zombie Blend Rum.

Purists may point out that the original 1934 Zombie recipe of 1 1/2 oz Puerto Rican rum, 1 1/2 oz Jamaican rum and 1 oz of Demerara 151 adds up to twice the amount of rum as our Zombie recipe below, which calls for a mere 2 oz of our 118-proof rum — and they’d be right! So what’s missing? Basically, more water in the rum bottle. The less water, the more concentrated the rum, and the more intense the rum flavors.

With the high ABV of the Beachbum Zombie Blend, you get that flavor at half the volume. And at a fraction of the time, trouble and cost of mixing a Zombie with three different bottles.

But while crafted specifically for Zombies, this blend is no one-trick pony. As suggested below, you can deploy it in a variety of classics. Not to mention your own original concoctions!

SUGGESTED RECIPES:

HAMILTON-BEACHBUM ZOMBIE

This recipe hews very closely to the “lost” original 1934 version, with some minor adjustments for the high ABV of our Zombie Blend, which we blended so that you only need 2 oz of rum instead of 4. (If you’re pouring 4 oz per drink from a bottle, that bottle isn’t going to last very long, and you probably won’t either. On the other hand, when the Zombie calls your name it’s nice to be able to enjoy a second round without turning into a zombie yourself.)

2 oz Beachbum Berry’s Zombie Rum Blend
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz white grapefruit juice
1/2 oz Latitude 29 Formula Falernum
1/2 oz cinnamon syrup
1/8 teaspoon (8 drops) grenadine
1/8 teaspoon (8 drops) Pernod or Herbsaint
1 dash Angostura bitters
3/4 cup (6 oz) crushed ice

Blend everything at high speed for no more than 5 seconds. Pour into a Beachbum Berry Zombie Glass. Add ice to fill. Garnish with mint.

HAMILTON-BEACHBUM JET PILOT

Since the Beverly Hills Luau restaurant’s classic 1958 Jet Pilot is essentially a Zombie without grenadine, our Zombie Blend subs quite nicely for the original’s three separate rums:

2 oz Beachbum Berry’s Zombie Rum Blend
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz white grapefruit juice
1/2 oz Latitude 29 Formula Falernum
1/2 oz cinnamon syrup
1 dash Angostura bitters
1/8 teaspoon (8 drops) Pernod
1/2 cup (4 oz) crushed ice

Blend everything at high speed for no more than 5 seconds. Pour into a Mai Tai glass. Add ice to fill. Garnish with a cinnamon stick.

HAMILTON-BEACHBUM COBRA’S FANG

Here’s an example of how the Zombie Blend can work in other Don The Beachcomber classics (this one from 1937) that call for multiple rums:

2 oz Beachbum Berry’s Zombie Rum Blend
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
3/4 oz orange juice
3/4 oz passion fruit syrup
1/2 oz Latitude 29 Formula Falernum
1 dash Angostura bitters
1/8 teaspoon (8 drops) Pernod
1/2 cup (4 oz) crushed ice

Blend everything at high speed for no more than 5 seconds. Pour into a tall glass. Add ice to fill. Garnish with mint.

HAMILTON-BEACHBUM TORTUGA

This drink was Trader Vic’s answer to the Zombie. “Served with either crutches or a wheelchair,” said Vic’s 1940 menu of the Tortuga, which like the Zombie had a limit of two to a customer. The 123-proof Cuban rum that Vic mixed with 151 Demerara rum to put customers in that wheelchair is long extinct, but our Zombie Blend comes to the rescue:

2 oz Beachbum Berry’s Zombie Rum Blend
1 oz Italian (red) vermouth
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz orange juice
1/2 oz white creme de cacao
1/2 oz orange curacao
1/2 oz grenadine

Shake with ice cubes. Strain into a tall glass. Add ice to fill. Drop in spent lime shell. Garnish with mint.

AVAILABILITY INFORMATION