RotLC Apricot Brandy, Honi Honi
Finally, my first entry into Raiders of the Lost Cocktail. First it was Strega, I didn’t have any. Then it was Benedictine… damn, had just run out. Finally, something I actually have a few recipes for, and stock in the bar, Apricot Brandy!
Resurrected from my treasured signed First Edition of Trader Vic’ Book of Food and Drink (1946), this drink, in name only, is served at Trader Vic’s restaurants as a Mai Tai with Bourbon, as I mentioned in the MxMo Variations entry. This is noted as a Trader Vic’s original recipe, and he has this to say about it.
Cute name and a dandy drink. Forget it’s a cocktail. In fact double it, put it in a larger glass with a hunk of ice, and you’ve got a pretty good around-the-clock drink.
Honi Honi*
- 1/2 ounce lemon juice
- 1/2 ounce apricot brandy
- 1 ounce Puerto Rican Rum (Ron Merito, Boca Chica, or Brugal)
Shake well with ice; strain into chilled cocktail glass.
*- Means kisses in Hawaiian
See those two glasses in the picture above? It’s valentines day. I figure a touch of romance never hurt noone no how. Sadly, my true romance is a few blocks away working her tail off so I can work from home and drink. Damn blessed is a man with a good woman, and I don’t know many as blessed as myself. But, in her absence, I’ve taken the old salt’s advice and threw this into a tumbler with a nice hefty chunk of ice, and I must say, when the man is right, he’s right. It’s a nifty drink, with nice crisp rum, the little tartness from the lemon, and the sweet, fruity flavors in the Apricot Brandy. It’s fine as a cocktail, and I’m sure it wouldn’t mind a bit of charged water in the summer.
So drink up, and share a few Honi Honi with the one you love, even it that kiss is only with the rim of a cocktail glass.
