Florida #2 – Embury – Recipe from David Embury’s ‘The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks’

1 part Sugar Syrup 

2 parts Lime Juice 

2 parts Pineapple Juice 

8 parts White Label Rum

1 dash Green Creme de Menthe to each drink 

Shake. Decorate with a sprig of mint. 

The Orange Blossom is also sometimes called the Florida.

Its actually just Embury’s Florida, not a Florida #2, although its vastly different from the one I found in the Waldorf Guide from late June so I thought I’d make this as well, that was just equal parts orange juice and red vermouth, delicious, and works in wonderfully with the Florida oranges theme, but a little plain.

This one has a lot more going on.

For years when looking for inspiration for cocktails I’d buy cook books and head straight for the dessert section, I figured chefs had probably been experimenting with sweeter flavours going back a lot further and some of the combinations were great. One I always remember was a recipe using brown sugar, chunks of fresh pineapple and torn fresh mint for a sweet summer salad. From that point on I’ve always paired pineapple and mint together, the flavours work beautifully together. Knowing there’s a lot of pineapple-based drinks in Embury I finally bought home some juice and am working my way through the drinks now.

This was the first to catch my eye and is a great little summers drink. I tweaked the recipe a little, putting in 5ml of menthe, and this made it a little too sweet, mint bitters would work better in this drink, or maybe even absinthe, either way this is well worth a try.