New Tiki Classics: the Marlin

While much of the tiki canon was created around the middle of the 20th century, that hasn't stopped people from innovating, especially over the last decade. This one comes from Clancy Carroll via Beachbum Berry Remixed and is presented with only a few minor tweaks.

Marlin
1 oz amber rhum agricole
1 oz light rum
0.5 oz lime juice
0.5 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz orange liqueur
0.5 oz orgeat
0.25 oz simple syrup

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled rocks glass rinsed with Maraschino liqueur.

This is a riff on the classic mai tai made brighter, both literally and figuratively. The original calls for blue curaçao, giving the drink an almost sky blue hue. I don't have any around, so I went with my standard orange-kumquat liqueur. The original is also spiced up with a hefty dose of Maraschino liqueur. I find that it all too easily overwhelms a drink, so I went with a smaller rinse and added back in sweetness with simple syrup. The light rum is intended to be Puerto Rican, but I think this cocktail works fantastically with a dose of Banks 5 Island to compliment the agricole funkiness.

The smell is dominated by the Batavia arrack in the Banks 5 Island rum. Poking around it is the spicy notes of the Maraschino. The sip leads off with the rum's funkiness, leading into sweet & sour from the citrus and syrups, finishing up on the peculiar notes of the Maraschino liqueur. Slipping through everything is the orange liqueur and orgeat, which help to smooth things out. Overall this is a really tasty drink and a great way to tame the strong flavors of rhum agricole. With that said, you'll want something robust to punch through all of the other strong flavors in this drink.