Navy Grog Cocktail Recipe

The Navy Grog is a mixture of rum, honey syrup, grapefruit juice, lime juice, and membership soda that hearkens again to the times when sailors within the British Royal Navy got a each day ration of rum.

Within the 18th century, the time period “grog” referred to a easy combination of rum and water that was generally served on naval vessels. Fortunately, the drink has modified considerably since then. The model from which the fashionable Navy Grog advanced was created by the tropical-kitsch godfather Donn Seaside for his Hollywood bar and restaurant, Don the Beachcomber. His rival, Victor “Dealer Vic” Bergeron, additionally developed a model of the Navy Grog for his chain.

Initially served over a cone of ice surrounding the straw, this potent cocktail grew to become a fast hit with some very well-known followers. In Martin Cate’s e book Smuggler’s Cove, he notes that the Navy Grog was a favourite of naval veteran and former President Richard Nixon, who would allegedly sneak out to the Dealer Vic’s in Washington, D.C. in the course of the Watergate scandal, the place he would take pleasure in a cocktail after the bar was closed to the general public.

What makes the Navy Grog work

This model of a Navy Grog is a Donn Seaside concoction and relies on the basic bitter method of distilled spirit, citrus juice, and sugar. Very like different cocktails he created, the Navy Grog requires a mixture of rums — on this case, a Jamaican, demerara, and white Spanish-style rum. The mix of funky Jamaican rum, molasses-like demerara rum, and frivolously aged and filtered white rum offers a balanced, but advanced profile that’s not often present in a single rum.

One full ounce of sweetener is quite a bit for a cocktail, however the honey syrup on this drink is doing plenty of work. This recipe calls for 3 full ounces of rum, which may simply overpower a drink if not correctly balanced. 

The mix of lime and grapefruit juice offers an acidic counterweight to the rum and honey syrup within the Navy Grog. Lime and grapefruit are generally paired in cocktails just like the Hemingway Daiquiri or Donn Seaside’s most well-known creation, the Zombie. Grapefruit provides a slight bitterness that additional balances the excessive quantity of rum and syrup on this drink.

A splash of membership soda, together with a mint sprig and lime wheel garnish, offers the Navy Grog a much-needed pop of freshness. The tip result’s a timeless tropical basic.