Dark Magic

In 2006, I visited The Hukilau in Florida and attended a seminar put on by Jeff ‘Beachbum’ Berry named “Our Father Donn,” which further inspired me on my own cocktail studies. I had been making drinks from Jeff’s “Grog Log,” “Intoxica,” and “Taboo Table” books since I got my grubby hands on them. I also had been poring over classic cocktail instructional manuals as well as more modern books put out by Chronicle. It didn’t really click in an abstract as it did during this seminar.

During the seminar, Jeff’s example cocktail was inspired by the Mai Kai’s “Mutiny” and “Black Magic” cocktails. Named after the co-founder of the Hukilau, Christie “Tiki Kiliki” White; it was the “Kiliki Cooler.” We then went to the Mai Kai where these drinks would blow me away. When I returned to Portland, I tried my own method and ingredients to the flavors Jeff used in the Kiliki Cooler, I came up with the “Dark Magic.” It was the closest at the time I could come to a Mai Kai Black Magic and a decent drink even now.

This drink would go on to be served at Thatch (which would become Hale Pele) where I worked as well as served at Tiki Kon, which I organized at the time. I even have an older post on this blog. Here it is now as I currently make it in my own home basement Shangri-la, The Monkey Hut.

Dark Magic
1 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz unsweetened pineapple juice
½ oz Coffee Syrup
¼ oz Passion Fruit Syrup
¼ oz Vanilla Syrup
2 oz Coruba Dark Jamaica Rum
a few dashes Aromatic Bitters
8 drops (1/8th oz) Herbsaint
Flash blend with 6oz of crushed ice and pour into small footed snifter. Fill with crushed ice and garnish with lime peel twist.