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:

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

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So, the Zombie is the grandaddy of all tiki drinks. They typically have no less than 3oz of rum in them, usually a mix of different types; Most places will limit you to only having two of them, because yeah that whole over 3oz of rum each thing – and one of them will be a 151 overproof – yipes!

This is in my top five favorite tiki drinks. But boy is it powerful so be careful and show it some respect. It’s no wonder this drink got it’s name after Don The Beachcomber made one for a friend of his (or maybe three) before the friend went on a trip. When the friend returned he noted that he felt like a Zombie for the days after because of it!

Here’s the recipe that I use:

Some things to note:
What’s Falernum? Well, it’s the magic tiki elixir that is found in many of the best drinks – you’ll recognize it’s familiar smell if you have ever had a tiki drink. I have three different Falernums that I cycle through and they are all  similar but, for example, one is a little more boozy than the others – the particular one I use for this recipe has a more pronounced smell.

What is Don’s Mix? It’s one of Donn Beach’s secret ingredients which turned out to be a syrup made of grapefruit and cinnamon. I buy it pre-made.

Finally, the Overproof rum: The big thing that we all (tiki aficionados) wish we had was the ever elusive Lemon Hart 151 Demerara Rum, which is what this drink should really be using for it’s Overproof rum. While the lemon hart name looks like it was bought up by someone and it seems like they are ramping up production, I don’t know of anyone who has seen it come out to the greater U.S. yet – so in the meantime, a rum enthusiast has made their own and it’s pretty great (that’s the Hamilton Ministry of Rum brand).

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