Zombie Cocktail

Here's another, quite frankly, amazing Tiki classic, the Zombie.

The Zombie is a cocktail that really lives up to the name. There is plenty of alcohol in the Zombie and it will probably turn you into a walking corpse. Naturally, cocktails usually have alcohol in them, so, if you dare have a Zombie on your own, we suggest drinking slowly and/or keeping it to only one or two cocktails. Alternatively, there's nothing wrong with sharing a cocktail like this with someone else. It's a bit safer and smarter!

We've looked at a few different sources for the "proper" Zombie cocktail recipe. So many of the classic Tiki cocktail recipes by Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic were closely guarded and have evolved over time, so it's hard to know what was being served when these recipes were first invented.

What we do know is that the Zombie was first served in 1933 at Don the Beachcomber. This particular recipe is Jeff "Beachbum" Berry's recipe for the Zombie cocktail and we feel it's relatively accurate, even if it's not 100% the original, which may be lost in time. Sure, this more "accurate" recipe may be a little more complicated than modern spins you can find elsewhere, but if you can get everything together, it's surely worth it!

Total Time 5

Servings 1 cocktail

Ingredients

45 mL Dark rum preferably Jamaican rum
45 mL Golden rum preferably Puerto Rican rum
30 mL Overproof rum
20 mL Lime juice
15 mL Don's mix recipe below
15 mL Falernum
1 tsp Grenadine
4 dashes Absinthe
1 dash Angostura bitters
170 grams Ice
1 sprig Mint to garnish

Instructions

Add all the rums, lime juice, Don's mix, falernum, grenadine, bitters, and ice to a blender.
Blend for 5 seconds, ensuring the ice is of a crushed consistency and not watery. It may be worthwhile crushing the ice a bit beforehand.
Pour everything into a Tiki glass.
Garnish and enjoy.

Notes

*Don's mix recipe: crush three cinnamon sticks and mix them with one cup of sugar and a cup of water. Bring all of this to a boil, making sure the sugar is dissolved. Let your mixture simmer for two minutes then let it sit until cool. Once cool, strain the mixture to remove the solids. Make a mixture of two parts grapefruit juice to one part cinnamon syrup. This will keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

As can be seen by this recipe for the Zombie, it's a strong one! Legend had it that visitors to Don the Beachcomber's bar weren't allowed more than two of these cocktails in a single sitting, which is probably a good idea. It's possible that the Zombie cocktail was first created to cure hangovers, similar to the Corpse Reviver. Although we're sure a cocktail like this would cure a hangover, we're also sure that that's because it would just make you drunk enough to no long care... oh well!

On a final note, we've already mentioned that we've tried to stay as true to the original Zombie recipe as we could find. We also appreciate that there's a lot in here that may be a bit difficult to find for the novice cocktail maker. That's OK! Treat this cocktail recipe as one to work up to. Alternatively, we encourage you to hunt down a more simplified recipe for this recipe, there are tons out there. For us, we'll stick with this bigger recipe, it's fun for people who want to make cocktails based on ingredients they have! Something to discover once they've built up their bar enough.

Our Review of the Zombie Cocktail

I’m half way through this cocktail, so apologies in advance if this review gets a little muddled. But I’m glad I made a Zombie! This is one of those cocktails that make you thankful for having a big bar at home! There are quite a few ingredients, but if you have them, maybe you’ve stumbled upon this gem through our cocktail recipe finder.

There is just so much going on here. The Don’s Mix pushes out the flavours of the rum and kind of sits in the background. The spices from the falernum does the same thing. For a cocktail recipe with so many ingredients, it’s actually surprisingly rum forward. There’s a lot in there that tastes like a Mai Tai, but perhaps I’m just enjoying all the rum funk too much. But while a Mai Tai has a smoothness to it, the Zombie has a spice to it.

As I’m writing this, I’m slowing down how quickly I’m drinking my cocktail. After all, the Zombie packs quite the punch! Usually I don’t like my cocktails too watered down, but diluting the cocktail actually does it a bit of a service. Yes, I like the rum flavours, but as it gets watered down, more of the spice and cinnamon comes out, which is a welcome change.

Basically, there’s a lot to explore within the Zombie. It keeps changing. I guess the drawback is that in order to achieve the depth of flavour in the Zombie, a lot of booze and a lot of ingredients had to be used. The Zombie tastes great and would be easy to drink for anybody of any taste or sophistication, but it’s not accessible for someone who wants to make it at home. It’s not difficult to make, but many people simply won’t have the ingredients. That’s OK. Not every cocktail needs to be easy to make. But this one is certainly easy to drink!

If you need the excuse to have multiple kinds of rum and falernum at home, the Zombie is it!

10/10

Review by Chas

Don’t stop now! There are plenty of more cocktail recipes to try!

If you liked the Zombie cocktail, we have more recipes for you to try. Maybe don’t jump to make these too quickly though, the Zombie is pretty strong…

Top rum cocktail recipes: we’ve made a list of our favourite rum cocktails so you can find the best quickly. Enjoy!

All rum cocktail recipes: if you want to browse through some great rum cocktails, we have you covered.

All Tiki cocktail recipes: if you like Tiki cocktails, we have more than a few recipes to choose from. Have a look.