A Jigger of Blog

I recently bought a bottle of Trader Tiki’s Vanilla Syrup. If you’re not familiar, Trader Tiki’s line of syrups are hand-crafted with an eye towards enabling both bartenders and home enthusiasts who don’t have the time or ability to make some of the critical ingredients for classic and modern Tiki drinks. Each syrup includes on its label a recipe that features the syrup, which is a great way to immediately have a use for your newly-procured ingredient. The recipe that accompanies the Vanilla Syrup is for Tropic Lightning.

Tropic Lightning

1.5 oz light Jamaican rum
0.5 oz Trader Tiki’s Vanilla Syrup
0.5 oz lime juice

Shake briefly with ice and strain into a champagne flute, top with 3 oz Champagne, garnish with a lemon peel.

First, this is just an awesome, awesome cocktail. The vanilla Daiquiri base becomes light and even more refreshing with the addition of Champagne.

But more importantly, this is going to be a cocktail that I remember and drink happily for the rest of my life because it’s what I made for my girlfriend Lori while I asked her to marry me and what we continued to drink after she said “Yes,” and we shared the good news with family and friends.

Trader Tiki’s Vanilla Syrup & the Tropic Lightning: Helping cocktail bloggers get hitched since 2011.