Pa’avaetuli
A few weeks ago, my friend David of the Oregon Bartender’s Guild hosted the bar for a charity event. A woman in Camas, WA was very suddenly struck by an infectious disease that took one of her legs and almost took her life, and here friends had hired him to help them raise funds with a bar and original cocktail menu. He put a call out on the OBG message boards for any donations, raffle giveaways, et cet. When I asked what I could give, all he asked for was a recipe, and so I set out to make something extra special for the event.
Inspiration finally came at 4:30am on a blurry Wednesday morning two weeks before the event. I had just bottled a batch of Falernum the night prior and, came up with this little dazzler of a syrup for something a bit different.
 |
Pa’avaetuli Syrup
- 2 cups Unsweetened Pineapple Juice
- 1 1/2 cups White Cane Sugar
- 2 Tblsp Rum-soaked Falernum Spices (lime zest, allspice, clove, toasted almonds, ginger)
- 1 crushed Ceylon Cinnamon stick
- 2 Horns Star Anise (the seed pods, not the whole star)
Place juice and spices in a pot and bring to a rolling boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for 20 minutes. Strain out spices. Add Sugar to Juice and bring to gently heat to a rolling boil while agitating. Syrup is done when spoon comes out smooth.
Note here the use of Rum-Soaked Falernum spices. Which, yes, means used spices. There’s still plenty of flavor in those suckers, and the Rum they’ve been soaking in just adds a bit of zip to it.
Here is the cocktail, as was on the menu at the Charity event.
Pa’avaetuli Cocktail
- 1 1/2 oz Light Puerto Rican
- 3/4 oz Lime
- 3/4 oz Pa’avaetuli Syrup
- 3 drops Bridgetown Bitters (sub. Bittermens Tiki Bitters)
Shake and strain into cocktail glass
The event was apparently a smashing success, and it was reported that my drink sold until there was no syrup left! Good thing I’ve got a few bottles to spare, and a big batch of Falernum about to be finished.
Oh, and the name? It means… whatever you think it means. Tell you what. I’ll send a bottle of Pa’avaetuli to the first person who can figure out the inspiration for the name, and post it in the comments section of this post. Good luck!
Another drink that stood out for me was the Buck and Breck, a drink named for th 15th American President James Buchanan and his vice president, John C. Breckenridge. Besides the drink being a lovely mix of Champagne and Cognac, and me being a sucker for the bubbly, this drink had great presentation with its sugar-frosted glass. The glass is wetted, coated with sugar, and dried, for a lovely frosted effect.
