Tiki Drink Focus: Three Dots and a Dash

This has to be just about my favorite tiki drink. There are a lot of flavors here that come together to make a really fantastic tasting beverage. Created by Don the Beachcomber after WWII, Three Dots and a Dash (in Morse Code this is a ‘V’ which would be in reference to ‘Victory’ in this case) is a wonderful blend of Martinique and the always flavorful Demerara rum along with Honey and Pimento/All Spice that creates so many really great flavors in one package that you won’t forget.

I first had the Three Dots and a Dash at a tiki bar of the same name in Chicago (which is in my top five favorite tiki bars, btw) and I was completely caught by surprise by what all is going on in this thing. I have had many different tiki beverages over the past few years and I would consider this, and a mai tai, to be my home base drink when I’m not sure what it is that I may want to have. It’s always a good opener as it isn’t too sweet or heavy. This is especially important if you are planning on having more than one tasty beverage in a session. The pimento and honey flavors together are what really define the beverage. This is another case of Don finding those right rums to blend together to make something unexpected.

The Three Dots and a Dash is a little hard to pull some of the ingredients together for though; But then that’s really what makes a great tiki drink, in my opinion. The more care and layered flavors you can pull together, the more rewarding and tasty the beverage!  Honey mix, falernum, pimento/all-spice dram, and both of the rums are things you most likely will not find in your local grocery store (but if you do, then that’s a pretty great store!); You will most likely have to go to a specialty store to find most of these ingredients. Honey mix technically is easy to make, equal parts honey and water heated up in a pan and mixed together, but I find it even easier to just buy honey sweetener. Maybe I should re-title this site Badgersan’s Lazy Tiki…

…anyway, if you can find the ingredients for this classic 40’s era beverage, you will not be disappointed by what you will have made!

The recipe:

Three Dots and a Dash

½ oz lime juice (Nellie & Joe’s Famous Key West)
½ oz orange juice
¼ oz falernum
½ oz honey mix (Monin Honey Sweetener)
1 ½ oz amber martinique rum (Clément VSOP)
½ oz demerara rum (El Dorado 8 Year)
1 dash Angostura bitters
¼ oz pimento dram (The Bitter Truth)

Add all the ingredients including about ¾ cup of ice to a blender and then blend for under 5 seconds. Garnish with three cherries and a pineapple wedge. If using Honey Sweetener, keep the honey mix just under measurement as it’s quite concentrated.

Now as a little test I thought that I would include a little video I made explaining the recipe again along with the process.

Tags:

Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.