This comes with the territory, but I buy a lot of cocktail books. I buy a lot of books in general, but books about food and drink are especially hard on my willpower. This is especially true of new books, like the eminently enjoyable recent releases Imbibe! and Sippin’ Safari. I haven’t written about them much because I didn’t want to tread on the experience of other readers, and because the “new” in “new release” would wear thin if I were running around publishing recipes out of them.

That being said, I think we’re far enough from the drop date for Beachbum Berry’s last tome to share one of the recipes. We’ve been eyeing this drink for months, but something always gets in the way—no oranges, no pimento liqueur, we’re out of Martinique rum, don’t have enough Demerara…oh, the trials of the tiki cocktail enthusiast! A recent shopping spree replenishment mission provided all of the necessary ingredients and we were finally able to enjoy the cocktail that had been taunting us.

This drink comes from the chapter on mixologist Hank Riddle who, like many others, spent time slinging booze for Donn Beach, aka Don the Beachcomber. As my fellow nerds will know, the name is in morse code; as it happens, three dots and a dash is the code for “victory,” a word that was particularly popular during WWII when Don came up with this concoction. This recipe details the drink as made at the Las Vegas Don the Beachcomber’s circa 1965.

½ oz lime juice
½ oz orange juice
½ oz agave nectar (honey mix)
1½ oz amber Martinique rum
½ oz Demerara rum
dash Angostura
¼ oz falernum
¼ oz pimento liqueur
6 oz crushed ice (about ¾ cup)

Blend everything at high speed for no more than five seconds. Pour into a specialty glass (goblet) and garnish with three cocktail cherries speared to a pineapple stick…three dots and a dash.

Well it was definitely worth waiting for. Though the alcohol level isn’t particularly egregious, the amount of ice is perfect, creating a frothy consistency without compromising the bold flavors. There’s plenty of sweet and tart tempered by the spice of the falernum and pimento dram and the smoky notes of the Martinique, though I might bump up the sugar just a tad next time. (Agave nectar is a great sub for honey, but it doesn’t tend to be as sweet in 1:1 use.)