El Raja Key

The other day, I was browsing Yelp reviews of restaurants in Astoria looking for some place to have lunch. (We ended up at the Sparrow Tavern. It was very good.) I happened across a restaurant, Central Lounge, which offered something called a Gummy Bear Martini. It involved triple sec, sour mix, and other gross things. But the concept seemed interesting, so I thought I'd fool around with it.

The El Raja Key is undoubtedly much tarter than the original version. This is balanced out by quite a lot of sweetness from the Chambord and the rum, but it ended up being tarter than I wanted. Additionally, the flavors didn't marry as well as I'd normally like. The main flavors are raspberry and orange, but you tend to taste them separately. It reminded me of something, but I'm not sure what. Possibly Superman ice cream. Not the best drink I've ever made, but not bad, and I think it'll be good with a bit of work. Recipe after the jump.


El Raja Key
1.5 oz rum
.5 oz Chambord
3 kumquats, muddled
juice, 1/4 lime
juice, 1/4 lemon
splash, ginger simple syrup
hopped grapefruit bitters
Shaken and served in coupe glasses.

It should be possible to use orange juice instead of the muddled kumquats. Next time, I'll probably add soda and put it in a highball glass instead of a coupe. I'll probably also either increase the amount of the ginger simple syrup or leave it out. I'll probably try Peychaud's instead of the hopped grapefruit bitters too.