Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails – Boston

*LUPEC Boston’s latest ruminations, in case you missed ‘em in this week’s Dig.

The LUPEC Boston Tiki Bash is this Saturday! To gear up for the big event, we’ve been introducing readers to the fabulous and exotic tiki cocktails they’ll have a chance to sample at our shindig. Guests will have a chance to try the Mai Tai and the Fogcutter, two cocktails that date back to the early days of tiki in the 1940s. We’ll also be serving drinks from the opposite end of the tiki cocktail spectrum, like the Painkiller, which was invented in the 1970s.

As many cocktail aficionados will agree, the ’70s were a pretty bleak time for the American bar. The favored cocktails of the era were little more than spirit, juice and maybe a little liqueur served on the rocks. This was also the era of powdered sour mix and preservative-filled, pre-fab mixers, meaning that many of the delicious tiki drinks invented in earlier decades were declining in quality. But somewhere in the West Indies, a tiny bar accessible only by boat was mixing up a cocktail with a high-test brand of Navy rum called Pusser’s that was particularly popular with sailors, dubbed the “Painkiller.”

The Painkiller was invented by a British gal named Daphne Henderson, who owned the Soggy Dollar Bar, so named because guests had to swim ashore to it, inevitably drenching the contents of their wallets on the way. The bar offered a clothesline on which guests could hang their dollars as they knocked back cocktails. Daphne’s drink was wildly popular, but she was very secretive about the recipe, even to her close friend, a sailor and entrepreneur named Charles Tobias. Frustrated by her secrecy, Tobias took matters into his own hands one fateful Sunday afternoon, and stole away with a drink—through the surf, to his boat and back to his home kitchen on the island of Tortola, where he eventually figured out the recipe.

About a decade later, Tobias obtained the rights and all the blending information, and sought to resurrect the Pusser’s brand. Once issued daily to members of the British Royal Navy, a decree from the Admiralty Board abolished the practice in 1970, leaving the brand dormant until Tobias breathed new life into it in 1980.

You can try LUPEC’s take on this delicious coconut concoction at the Tiki Bash this Saturday. Or give it a run-through at home with Tobias’ recipe.

PAINKILLER

2 oz Pusser’s rum

1 oz Coco Lopez

4 oz pineapple juice

1 oz orange juice

Shake ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Strain over ice into a tall glass. Garnish with nutmeg.

CIN-CIN!

PURCHASE TICKETS TO THE LUPEC BOSTON TIKI BASH ONLINE AT THEBOSTONSHAKER.COM, GRAND IN SOMERVILLE, TORO IN THE SOUTH END, DRINK IN FORT POINT, TRINA’S STARLITE LOUNGE IN SOMERVILLE, OR BUCKAROO’S MERCANTILE IN CAMBRIDGE. VISIT LUPECBOSTON.COM FOR MORE DETAILS.

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