No Quarter

The second most common juice used in cocktails. This citrus juice is about 6% acid; 4% from citric and 2% from malic, with small amounts of succinic acid (this is what gives it a little bloody taste). Lime juice should be used the day it is squeezed, some like it freshly squeezed and others like it a few hours old.

A citrus juice used in many cocktails, both for its sweet and tart taste and its color. Orange juice, unlike lemon and lime, can be kept fresh for days. In a blind taste test, most people liked day-old orange juice.

A tropical fruit, used in many tropical cocktails for its sweet flavor and yellow color. You can either juice a real pineapple, buy pineapple canned in juice (not syrup) or buy pineapple juice in a container.

This syrup swaps in golden-hued demerara or turbinado sugar as opposed to processed/bleached white sugar. This gives a deeper, almost caramel-like flavor with a funky molasses nose popular in tropical drinks. We always use 1:1 syrup unless otherwise noted in the recipe itself.

The general term for the Carribean-based nonalcoholic syrup. Falernum is a sweet syrup commonly used in tropical drinks and usually flavored with almond, ginger, cloves, vanilla, allspice and lime. You can make it yourself, it takes a few days. Combine 1/3 cup toasted almonds with 1/2 cup for light rum. Seal and let sit for 2 days. Add the zest of 8 limes (no pith) and 30 whole cloves, stir and let sit for another day. Juice 4 limes and strain the juice into a sauce pot. Add 2/3 cups water and 1/2 cup sugar and cook until the sugar is dissolved. Let the syrup cool then combine it with the almond/rum infusion. Stir to combine then strain all through a cheesecloth or coffee filter. Add alcohol as a preservative and turn it into Velvet Falernum.

Often referred to as silver or white, these rums are actually lightly aged (1-3 years), but have had their color removed by charcoal filtering. They are molasses based (as opposed to the cane juice-based rhum agricole, clairin, or cachaça). Flavors range from light (Bacardi, Caña Brava, Plantation 3 Star, El Dorado 3) to more flavorful (Probitas, Ten-To-One).

A tropical plant with a tart yellow fruit. Most often used in tiki cocktails and fizzes.

In cocktails, cherries are sweetened in a brine, like maraschino cherries (marr-ə-SKEE-noh) or in brandy, like brandied cherries. They are usually used as a garnish, muddled into the cocktail, or used simple for their sweetened brine.