Test Pilot Recipe

By
Maggie Hoffman
Maggie Hoffman is a contributing writer at Serious Eats.
Maggie Hoffman
Maggie Hoffman is a writer and editor focusing on cocktails and food. She was the managing editor for Serious Eats until 2016 and is the digital director for Epicurious.
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Updated Aug. 30, 2018
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. Jessica Leibowitz

This Don the Beachcomber classic was created around 1941. As Paul Clarke notes on his blog, Cocktail Chronicles, the key is the combination of Angostura bitters and Pernod:

Both are used in minute doses, so you don't actually taste their flavor up front, but Angostura does its deep, spicy thing in the glass while the Pernod takes its mildly sweet anise-ey flavor and spreads it out to the far corners of the drink, so you don't actually taste anise, but you know something is in there that's rounding the edges of all the other flavors. I'd go even further and say that Don's use of this bitters-pastis one-two punch is the missing link between the old-school classic cocktails of the Gilded Age and beyond, and the mid-century Tiki movement that Don helped launch.

You're looking for a drink that's mixed but not totally blended into a smoothie. It's ok if the ice has a little texture; this isn't a Slurpee.

Recipe Details

Test Pilot Recipe

Active 3 mins
Total 3 mins
Serves 1 serving

Ingredients

  • 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice

  • 1/2 ounce falernum

  • 1 tablespoon Cointreau

  • 1 1/2 ounces dark Jamaican rum

  • 3/4 ounce light Puerto Rican rum

  • 1 dash Angostura bitters

  • 6 drops Pernod

  • 1 cup crushed ice

Directions

  1. Put all ingredients in a blender and blend at high speed for 5 seconds. Pour unstrained into a double old-fashioned glass, adding more crushed ice to fill. Garnish as desired.

Special equipment

Blender

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
599 Calories
8g Fat
66g Carbs
3g Protein
Show Full Nutrition Label Hide Full Nutrition Label
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 1
Amount per serving
Calories 599
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 8g 10%
Saturated Fat 1g 3%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 132mg 6%
Total Carbohydrate 66g 24%
Dietary Fiber 2g 6%
Total Sugars 39g
Protein 3g
Vitamin C 5mg 23%
Calcium 51mg 4%
Iron 1mg 4%
Potassium 127mg 3%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)