Mixologist Sean Norris hits the open water to share a summer-infused, premade cocktail that's as accessible as it is delicious
I will always remember the moments when the beach changed from a place that I simply lived to the place that I now proudly call home. Almost all of them were on the water, surrounded by close friends, with a cold drink in hand. Beer, wine, seltzers and the usual—simple. But naturally, my mind gravitated toward the cocktails I love. Who says it’s too much work to have a solid tipple on the bay?
If you are like me, you absolutely love mixing fantastic cocktails for your friends, but occasionally, the circumstances may not be ideal for the creation you have in mind. I recently joined some friends on their yacht for a cruise on the bay, and it was a perfect opportunity to batch some of my favorites. The conditions on the water can often make it much more difficult to mix a good drink without the stability and space of a home setting. This is where learning to properly pre-batch cocktails gives us the freedom to enjoy our favorite drink in almost any setting. If you have a boat—or like me, good friends with a boat—this is a great way to practice prepping your recipes. Your friends will thank you, too, when you surprise them with a ready-to-go bottle of their favorite cocktail while you’re on the water.
The conditions on the water can often make it much more difficult to mix a good drink without the stability and space of a home setting. This is where learning to properly pre-batch cocktails gives us the freedom to enjoy our favorite drink in almost any setting.
Let’s make a batch of one of my favorite Tiki cocktails—the Mai-Tai.
Here’s what you’ll need:
1 liter bottles (with a solid seal!)
1 liter measuring cup
Jigger
Funnel
Citrus press
Basic math skills
The single portion recipe looks like this:
2 oz Appleton Estate 12 Year Aged Rum
1/2 oz Dry Curacao or Cointreau
3/4 oz Fresh lime juice
1/2 oz Orgeat
1/4 oz Demerara Simple (2:1)
Total Volume: 4 oz
I want to emphasize the importance of basic math skills here—it removes guesswork, and most importantly, it eliminates waste. The goal is to take a single recipe that you enjoy, and scale it up into a larger portion (in this case, 1 liter).
Simple enough. But we want to scale this up to exactly 1 liter (which is about 34 ounces). What we need to do is find our conversion factor so we can simply measure out each ingredient and pour it directly into our batch bottle. This number also tells you exactly how many cocktails you will get out of one batch. The best part: the math takes less than five minutes to work out.
Instructions
Shake the bottle to mix ingredients, and then let it chill in a cooler with ice for at least an hour. Pack mint sprigs and lime wedges as garnish. When you’re ready to serve, just pull from the cooler, shake and pour over ice. You’ll also be happy to know that you can apply this formula to virtually any cocktail that you love.
Try batching out several for Fourth of July weekend and catch the fireworks on the water—that’s where I’ll be! Perhaps I’ll see you on the bay? Cheers!
Recipe Notes
• My measures for the lime juice and simple are slightly off, because I rounded. If you get a figure with a longer decimal, simply round down to the nearest quarter decimal.
• Acids tend to have a more potent effect in batches. Start with slightly less lime juice than the total and slowly add more to taste.
Here are the key steps:
Conversion Factor = 34 oz / Single Recipe Volume
The first step is to divide 34 ounces by the total volume of the single Mai-Tai recipe,
which is 4 ounces. Here’s what that looks like:
34 oz / 4 oz = 8.5. Alas, our Conversion Factor is 8.5. Now, we simply multiply each ingredient by 8.5.
Ingredients
17 oz Appleton Estate 12 Year Aged Rum
4 1/4 oz Dry Curacao or Cointreau
6 1/4 oz Fresh lime juice
4 1/4 oz Orgeat
2 oz Demerara simple (2:1)
Total Volume: 34 oz or 1 liter
Sean Norris owns and operates Limbo Mixology, specializing in boutique private events, classes, commercial bar and consultation. Limbo Mixology also provides an in-home bar consulting service, The Bar Tailor, which focuses on optimizing the home bar experience with the unique needs of each client in mind. In addition to recipes, Sean will be covering a wide variety of topics in each issue, including bar tools, mixing techniques, where to drink, bar setup and tips, current trends and much more.
Visit limbomixology.com and follow Sean on Instagram @limbomixology.