Jet Pilot
Three kinds of rum, tart grapefruit and a touch of cinnamon and absinthe: tiki with bite and depth.
Ingredients
- Dark rum, dark Jamaican rum, ideally22.5 ml
- Overproof rum, overproof Demerara rum22.5 ml
- Gold rum, gold rum, lightly aged by preference22.5 ml
- Absinthe, absinthe or Pernode.g. Pernod6 drops
- Falernume.g. Velvet Falernum15 ml
- Lime juice, freshly squeezed15 ml
- Grapefruit juice, freshly squeezed pink grapefruit15 ml
- Cinnamon syrup15 ml
- Aromatic bitters (Angostura)e.g. Angostura2 dashes
- Mint, to garnish (optional)1 sprig
Method
- Put a double old fashioned glass in the freezer, so it is ice-cold when you serve.
- Pour all the rums, the lime and grapefruit juices, cinnamon syrup, falernum, bitters and absinthe into a blender.
- Add a small scoop of crushed ice, roughly half a cup: enough for a thick, creamy texture without watering the drink down.
- Blend on medium-high speed for 5–10 seconds, until smooth and lightly frothy.
- Pour everything, ice included, into the cold glass, and top with more crushed ice if needed.
- Garnish with a fresh sprig of mint and serve at once.
Credit Steve Crane, The Luau, Beverly Hills (1958)
About this drink
The Jet Pilot was created in the late 1950s by Steve Crane at his legendary Luau restaurant in Beverly Hills, as a bold variation on Donn Beach's classic Test Pilot. Grapefruit juice and cinnamon syrup gave it an extra facet of acidity and spice that sets it apart from its tiki forebears. It is still counted among the most complex and characterful drinks of tiki's golden age.
Questions and answers
Why does a Jet Pilot use three different rums?
Dark, overproof and gold rum each bring their own layer (depth, strength and sweetness) that no single rum can deliver alone. It is a classic tiki technique for building complexity.
Can you leave out the overproof rum in a Jet Pilot?
You can replace it with ordinary dark rum, but the drink loses some of its strength and sharpness. The overproof rum is what gives the Jet Pilot its lift and bite.
