Friday, January 29, 2016

The Yellow Bird Disco Era Cocktail

     The latest in projected cocktail trends is bringing back cocktails of the "Disco" era.  Are 1970'S-Style cocktails replacing tiki drinks as the guilty pleasure du jour? A growing number of bars and restaurants are indeed offering revamped editions of post-Watergate libations. Unlike the austerely bitter tipples favored in recent years by the neo-speakeasy set, these throwbacks skew sweet, fruity, even creamy.”  The era was the beginning of so many flavorful cocktails from the Caribbean, like frozen Daiquiri, Pina Collada, Yellow Bird, and Grasshopper, and many more.

     I took some time to look back at the era and started looking at some of the cocktails from the era and I'm ready to go to work on some of them to make them "Rumilicious".   The Yellow Bird was a drink that has its origins in the Caribbean and is a rum based cocktail to start with, but maybe a bit of modernizing.


Yellow Bird
  • 1 oz.  Matusalem Platino Rum
  • 1 oz.  Yolo Gold 10 Year Rum
  • ½ oz.  Galliano
  • ½ oz. Bahama Bob's Banana Rum Liqueur
  • 2 oz.  Orange juice
  • 2 oz.  Pineapple juice


Combine ingredients in a shaker with crushed ice. Shake to incorporate. Pour into a tiki mug and top with more crushed ice, if needed. Grate nutmeg over ice and garnish with an orange wheel and black cherry.

Bahama Bob's Banana Rum Liqueur

  • 3 Bananas (peeled and sliced)
  • 2 1/4 Cups Don Q Crystal Rum
  • 3/4 Cup Purified Water
  • 3/4 Cup Sugar in the Raw Turbinado


          Place the banana slices and the rum in a glass jar.   Seal and shake the mixture in the jar.   Let mixture steep for a a couple of days at room temperature in a dark cabinet.   strain off the rum from the fruit  into your final container, then press the fruit mixture through two layers of cheese cloth.  Pressing down on it to extract the liquid from the pulp.  Filter it through a fine strainer to get any debris that may have gotten through the cheese cloth.   Put the rum and the liquid from the bananas. back together
combine Sugar in the Raw Turbinado and the water with banana mixture. Seal in bottle or jar, then shake to mix. Let rest for a day or two, then pass it through a sieve one more time to get the last of the debris out and store in the refrigerator.  It is good for up to two months.