Featured Cocktail: Missionary’s Downfall
This episode’s featured cocktail is the Missionary’s Downfall. We decided to feature this drink because many modern recipes for it include light or gold rum, which is something we’ll spend a good amount of time on during the interview, and because there are a number of ways you can go about preparing it. To make the Missionary’s Downfall, you’ll need
-
1 oz Light Rum (we, of course, recommend tracking down a bottle of Equiano Light Rum)
-
1 oz Honey Syrup
-
1/2 Peach Brandy
-
1/2 Lime Juice
-
1/4 cup Diced Fresh Pineapple
-
1/4 cup Mint Leaves
-
3/4 cup Crushed Ice
This build is for the historically faithful version of the drink developed by none other than Donn Beach, and it does require a blender because we’ve got some solids in here that need to be dealt with. But the nice thing about going this route is that you can just chuck all your ingredients in there, blend on high for about 15-20 seconds, then pour into a large coupe glass, and enjoy.
Now, let’s talk about some of the problems with the Missionary’s Downfall. First, peach brandy. Who’s got that sort of thing lying around? Not many people. So if we imagine ourselves into the inevitable substitution game most of us will have to play, we’d recommend swapping out 1:1 with any sort of stone fruit eau de vie – that’s an un-aged, unsweetened fruit distillate – or you can cut your honey syrup in half and use something sweetened like a peach schnapps.
The other problem, of course, is if you like the flavors in this drink but don’t own or want to clean a blender. In this case, everything so far applies, but you can substitute your diced pineapple for 1-2 oz of pineapple juice, maybe take down your honey syrup a little bit so that the drink doesn’t come out too sweet, and then proceed like this is a shaken cocktail. Muddle the mint in the bottom of the shaker, then add your liquid ingredients, shake, and enjoy in a highball glass with a straw.
The key color in the Missionary’s Downfall is green. The blended version comes out a verdant hue from the blender, and whether you’re pursuing the blended or the shaken version, we’d recommend garnishing with a pineapple frond and a sprig of mint.
