The Atomic Grog 10th anniversary: Beware! Deadly Zombies ahead

The Atomic Grog 10th anniversary: Beware! Deadly Zombies ahead

Has it really been 10 years? For a humble blog focused on Tiki culture and cocktails, that’s an eternity. After a decade of existence, we continue to be humbled by the recognition and continued support from peers and supporters. Even so, we hope that the best is yet to come.
Special 10th anniversary recipe: Revenge of the Atomic Zombie Cocktail

The Atomic Grog launched in late April 2011 with coverage of Jeff “Beachbum” Berry’s “Zombie Jamboree” at The Mai-Kai, our participation in the Miami Rum Renaissance Festival’s deadly cocktail competition, our first published cocktail recipe, and lots more …

We be Jammin: Rum Renaissance Zombie fest at The Mai-Kai
We be Jammin: Rum Renaissance Zombie fest at The Mai-Kai
The kickoff party for the 2011 Rum Renaissance Festival was a Tikiphile’s dream, featuring a Jeff “Beachbum” Berry cocktail seminar followed by a deadly mixology competition.
Recipe: Wake the dead, it’s time for the Atomic Zombie Cocktail

Now, 447 posts and more than 1 million page views later, it’s time to take a quick look back and offer a big mahalo to everyone and everything that has kept us motivated and writing. That includes all the folks who posted more than 600 comments on the site, overwhelmingly positive and informative.

The first post – on April 25, 2011 – was a Zombie recipe, so it’s fitting that we celebrate the 10th anniversary of this never-say-die blog with a horde of Zombies. While the Mai Tai seems to get all the attention, 10 years later we still maintain that Tiki’s original masterpiece, created by Don the Beachcomber in the 1930s, is the most epochal tropical cocktail. Perhaps it’s apropos that the Zombie never becomes trendy and stays “underground,” but we’d like to see it get more attention.

The Atomic Grog

So in honor of our 10th anniversary, we’ll be posting 10 new Zombie recipes over the next 10 months. We’ve already kicked it off with the Hamilton Zombie, featured in the recent story on the new Zombie blend from Beachbum Berry and Hamilton Rum. It continues today with a reimagining of that first recipe. Get ready for Revenge of the Atomic Zombie Cocktail, even richer and more deadly than the original.

As usual, you’ll be treated to the recipe at the end of this post. Look for new Zombie recipes approximately every month, pushing the envelope of this classic template but remaining true to Donn’s inventive spirit. Unlike the Mai Tai, there’s no controversy in tinkering with the Zombie. We hope to prove this makes it even more enduring and classic. Lots more Zombie lore and discussion to come.

We’re digging up another popular old concept for our 10th birthday: The good old-fashioned Top 10 list. It may be a cliché of the blogosphere and something we’ve avoided for a decade, but there’s nothing wrong with a carefully crafted Top 10. We’ll start with five in this post, with more “Tiki Top 10” lists to come over the next 10 months (and maybe continuing into the future) …

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Minimalist Tiki

Cocktail recipe: Toast St. Patrick’s Day with Alloa Aloha

I’m sure they exist, but it’s rare to find an Irish-themed Tiki cocktail. While we all enjoy sipping fine Irish whiskeys and quaffing a pint of authentic (not green!) stout or ale on St. Patrick’s Day, there’s always room for a complex symphony of booze, juices, syrups and bitters. We hope this new creation hits all the right notes.

Alloa Aloha features a healthy dose of Irish whiskey with a splash of overproof rum. It also includes many staple tropical flavors that unite to form a taste-tempting treat greater than the sum of its parts. Blue curacao, not artificial coloring, gives it the perfect hue.

Alloa Aloha by The Atomic Grog, March 2021 (Photo by Hurricane Hayward)
Alloa Aloha by The Atomic Grog, March 2021 (Photo by Hurricane Hayward)

The name, like the drink, is an Irish-Polynesian mash-up. It pays tribute to John Jameson, the founder of the iconic whiskey brand, who was originally a lawyer from the town of Alloa in Scotland before he opened his first distillery in Dublin in 1780.

ALLOA ALOHA
(By Hurricane Hayward, The Atomic Grog)

* 2 ounces blended Irish whiskey (recommended: 1 ounce Jameson original, 1 ounce Jameson Black Barrel)
* 1/2 ounce overproof rum (recommended: Plantation O.F.T.D)
* 1/4 ounce blue curacao
* 1/2 ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice
* 1/2 ounce white grapefruit juice
* 1 ounce coconut cream
* 1 teaspoon vanilla syrup
* 1 dash chocolate bitters
* 1 dash absinthe

Pulse blend with a heaping cup of crushed ice. Pour into a small snifter or specialty glass, adding more ice to fill. Garnish with mint and other green things.

Flavor profile: Rich, creamy and boozy with slight anise and bitter notes to create balance and complexity. Baileys Irish Cream meets Tiki.

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