When I was around fourteen, I discovered the Marx Brothers. There was a Saturday Night double feature on our PBS station and I remember watching Monkey Business and laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. The penultimate scene of the movie took place in a barn and Groucho Marx hiding from mobsters in a haystack and making sarcastic quips to a cow seemed to my fourteen year-old sensibilities like the funniest thing I'd ever heard.
I've carried a soft spot in my heart for the Marx Brothers ever since.
That's why the name of the first rum drink in the Mr. Boston guide strikes me as auspicious. "A Day at the Beach" sounds very much like a movie the Marx Brothers should have made - A Day at the Races, A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Beach...
[Can't you see it? Groucho as J. Levenworth Cheesewright is chasing Margaret Dumont for her money and accidentally falls in with Chico and Harpo - Rigatoni and The Pharmacist - and hilarity ensues. Ultimately, mobsters are defeated, Zeppo gets the girl and the other brothers methodically destroy Margaret Dumont's beach cottage.]
Anyway, the A Day at the Beach cocktail calls for coconut rum, amaretto and orange juice, shaken, served in a highball glass over ice, with grenadine floated on top. The Marx Brothers knew that for best effect, their wackiness had to happen in a very dignified setting - a mansion, the Metropolitan Opera, Parliment... - so I've followed their lead here and saved the tiki glasses for another occasion.
I've carried a soft spot in my heart for the Marx Brothers ever since.
That's why the name of the first rum drink in the Mr. Boston guide strikes me as auspicious. "A Day at the Beach" sounds very much like a movie the Marx Brothers should have made - A Day at the Races, A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Beach...
[Can't you see it? Groucho as J. Levenworth Cheesewright is chasing Margaret Dumont for her money and accidentally falls in with Chico and Harpo - Rigatoni and The Pharmacist - and hilarity ensues. Ultimately, mobsters are defeated, Zeppo gets the girl and the other brothers methodically destroy Margaret Dumont's beach cottage.]
Anyway, the A Day at the Beach cocktail calls for coconut rum, amaretto and orange juice, shaken, served in a highball glass over ice, with grenadine floated on top. The Marx Brothers knew that for best effect, their wackiness had to happen in a very dignified setting - a mansion, the Metropolitan Opera, Parliment... - so I've followed their lead here and saved the tiki glasses for another occasion.
A Day at the Beach
Tasting Notes: Really delicious, if a bit sweet. Because it uses semi-substantial amounts of low-proof liquor, it doesn't pack much of a punch, but it would not take too many of these at a party for me to make a pass at the coat-rack.
Perhaps a little less grenadine.
Overall Grade - A minus
Tasting Notes: Really delicious, if a bit sweet. Because it uses semi-substantial amounts of low-proof liquor, it doesn't pack much of a punch, but it would not take too many of these at a party for me to make a pass at the coat-rack.
Perhaps a little less grenadine.
Overall Grade - A minus