This month’s theme for Mixology Monday is Flores de Mayo – Floral Cocktails. A big mahalo to Dave at The Barman Cometh for hosting this month’s MxMo.

Our beloved singer bartender, Cory Nomura, invented this simple cocktail that features Kai Vodka’s newest flavor, Coconut Pandan. Pandan is one of my favorite scents, which can be found flavoring all those tasty green South-east Asian desserts. Also known as screwpine, it has a characteristic grassy aroma with floral and nutty overtones. It perfectly compliments coconut and coconut milk.

King Coconut:

• 1 oz Kai Coconut Pandan vodka
• 1 oz Crown Royal Canadian Whiskey
• Splash of Sprite

Serve over ice on rocks glass

We’ve already gone through a whole bottle of Kai’s Coconut Pandan Vodka at Wang Chung’s. The coconut pandan infused vodka leaves a unique floral and nutty aftertaste, as it softens the bite of the woodsy whiskey with a flavor reminiscent of Amaretto without the heavy sweetness.

Last week we started an infusion of vodka with five pounds of fresh longan from Hilo. Longan = dragon’s eye in Chinese. So when people ask is that a jar of eyeballs, we can say yes, it’s a jar of tasty dragon’s eyes!

Now that the infusion is ready, we sampled it out to our ever-so-willing alcoholic test subjects beloved patrons and the consensus is: we liked the taste but couldn’t get over the smell. The longan taste is very subtle, with hints of honey and peeled grape. But despite my two hours of peeling and deseeding the five pounds of fresh fruit, the infusion retained an unpopular muskiness, that one patron said smelled like feet.

So we proudly present a fresh, new cocktail, for the adventurous podophiliacs out there.

Dragon Feet Cocktail:

• 2 oz Dragon’s Eye Infused Vodka
• 1/2 oz Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur
• 1/2 oz Cointreau
• Splash of Sprite
• Splash of Fresh Orange Juice
• Topped with a fresh mint leaf
• Shaken and served over ice

Perhaps my next attempt will be with dried longan.

@mouseymike just couldn’t get enough of the Dragon Feet cocktail this past Saturday!