Daisy de Santiago

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Tonight I decided to give the Daisy de Santiago a spin, to see if it would do for my next Tiki Thursday, which is rapidly approaching. I was hoping that the Yellow Chartreuse would give this rum-based drink a nice herbaceous tang that would be a good contrast to the sweeter Twelve Mile Limit I'm planning on serving. Alas, that was not the case. This one really didn't do it to me; my first sip tasted a bit watery and flat and while it developed a bit more over the course of my drinking it, it never wowed me.

There might be a number of reasons for this; I poured in a bit too much rum (about 1/4 oz more than the recipe called for) but, if anything, that should have made this drink taste stronger. It could be that my SodaStream carbonated water is no substitute for a good store-bought seltzer. It could be that I had no mint for the garnish. It could be that I decided to be lazy and use cubed ice instead of crushed ice. (It could be that my palate was a little fatigued from this afternoon's Martini drinking.) I used the recipe from Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki, which calls for the mixing of all of the ingredients together. Checking Baker's The Gentleman's Companion, I see that he called for the Yellow Chartreuse to be floated on the top of the drink; maybe I'll try that next time.

In any case, I'm not going to serve this one at August's Tiki Thursday and the search for that elusive third drink continues. I'll continue my search (or maybe just default to the Jungle Bird if I don't find anything by the end of Sunday.)

Recipe

As mentioned, this one comes from Martin Cate's excellent Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki. If you don't have a copy of this book, you should get one. And if I haven't mentioned it, my product links are Amazon Affiliate links so if you click through here and buy the book (or anything) from Amazon, it will help me out. On the the recipe!

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 oz. rum (Appleton Estate Signature Blend)
  • 1/2 oz Yellow Chartreuse 
  • 1 oz. soda water
  • 1 oz fresh lime juice
  • 1 1/2 tsp. Demerara Syrup

Directions

 

  1. Combine ingredients in a shaker, add some ice, and shake for about 15 seconds
  2. Strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice
  3. Garnish with a sprig of mint

As mentioned above, you might try floating the Chartreuse on the top and see if that floats your boat. Enjoy!