It’s Morse code for “victory”, or it was back in WWII. This is another historic tiki creation by Don the Beachcomber that’s not exactly easy to execute, but if you can pull it off, Three Dots and a Dash is worth your effort, especially if you like tiki cocktails. And while it will appeal to anyone interested in the genre, it’s not an over-the-top tropical fruit bomb. This one focuses on spiced flavors with just enough rum to let you enjoy a second round. The flavors are intense, but it won’t knock you on your ass like a Zombie. It is nicely balanced, has an exotic taste (with a twist), and it’s fun to make. Pull out your favorite tiki mug and let’s start mixing!

But wait—there are eight ingredients, or ten if you include the garnish. There is going to be some prep, like honey syrup, and yes, you should carve up some fresh pineapple for that signature garnish. Do you need to make falernum, or maybe you need to run out and grab a few bottles of rum? You might be second-guessing this drink now—typical tiki with so many steps, and steps before the steps. Look, we’ll admit it, this one is not difficult, but it is fiddly, and like a lot of good tiki drinks, you need just the right stuff, because once you start subbing this or that you are making something else which is why you don’t see folks just throwing these together on a whim. You have to be deliberate with tiki. It certainly took us long enough to make one of these at home. We had some leftover honey syrup from something a while back, and we recently bought a pineapple, so everything else was either in the refrigerator or collecting dust in the liquor cabinet. Shall we continue?

Three Dots and a Dash
1.5 oz amber Martinique rhum
.5 oz Demerara rum
.5 oz orange juice
.5 oz lime juice
.5 oz honey mix (1:1)
.25 oz falernum
.25 oz allspice dram
1 dash Angostura bitters
6 oz crushed ice

Put all ingredients into a shaker (or mixing tin) and shake to chill (or flash blend for 5 seconds). Pour everything into a tiki Mug and garnish with three cherries skewered with chunk of pineapple.

In typical Beachcomber fashion, the recipe calls for multiple rums to build a unique spirit flavor profile. We don’t often have Martinique rhum in the cabinet, but a local distiller called Just Rum makes their product using cane juice similar to a rhum agricole, and we have their 3-year aged expression, so we are calling it good. The Demerara is a little easier. We have some Lemon Hart 80-proof, but short of that, we will sometimes dilute the 151 (or Hamilton’s)—the flavor of overproof Demerara is potent enough to stand up to a little water when the high ABV is not needed.

The mix of citrus in this recipe helps balance the sweet ingredients without upstaging their flavor dominance. Orange juice falls flat in many cocktails and here it is actually just taming the lime’s flavor a little. On the sweet side you would think honey is doing the balancing work, but at only half an ounce it needs help. It does bring a floral aspect to the drink that bolsters all of the spices making it a much more interesting choice than simple syrup. The other half of the sugar comes from the falernum (house recipe) which is providing all of the spices. We are talking about almond, ginger, clove, nutmeg and allspice—lots of allspice—thanks to the additional quarter ounce of allspice liqueur. This stuff is intense. Finally, the dash of Angostura for good measure brings it all together.

The recipe calls for crushed ice. This is going to chill very quickly as it mixes, shedding water and providing tons of aeration. We recently restored a 100-year-old Hamilton Beach drink mixer which is perfect for this kind of thing, but you don’t need equipment to make this. Shake it hard until the tin gets cold and frosty, or if you have a blender, flash mix it for 5 seconds or so to mix and chill. Modern blenders work fast, so adjust timing or pulse blend according to what you have. You don’t want a smoothie!

The traditional garnish is three cocktail cherries (the dots) skewered with a piece of pineapple (the dash). We threw in a pineapple leaf which completes the picture. Any time we bring home a fresh pineapple we immediately pluck the best leaves, wash and dry them and throw them into the freezer in a ziploc bag. Frozen leaves are not as good as fresh off the fruit, but they still work fine and are convenient.

How does it taste? Well, this is the crazy part. It tastes a lot like apple pie! We are not kidding. We know it mostly comes from the allspice layered with some nutmeg, but the mild tartness from the lime helps your brain think of good green apples. The aromas from the rum evoke sugar-coated caramelized butter crust. It’s really an odd sensation. If nobody mentions apple pie, you probably just taste a ginger lime spiced beverage, but now that you read this, you won’t be able to think about anything else as you sip. It’s definitely a delicious drink and one we hope to make a little more often.