Test Pilot Recipe: Donn Beach's Rum and Falernum Classic

Ingredients

1½ oz dark Jamaican rume.g. Myers's · Appleton Estate · Coruba · Hamilton
¾ oz light Puerto Rican rume.g. Bacardi · Havana Club · Plantation · Don Q · Flor de Caña
½ oz CointreauBuy on Amazon →
½ oz falernum
½ oz lime juice freshly squeezed
1 dash Angostura bittersBuy on Amazon →
6 drop pastis traditionally Pernod, or another anise spirite.g. Ricard · Pernod · Pastis 51 · Henri Bardouin

Garnish: Cocktail cherry on a pick · Ice: Crushed ice

Method

Add both rums, Cointreau, falernum, lime juice, Angostura and the drops of Pernod to a blender.
Add about 150 g crushed ice (roughly one cup).
Flash blend at high speed for about 5 seconds.
Pour everything unstrained into a double rocks glass and top with more crushed ice if needed.
Garnish with a cocktail cherry on a pick.

Watch it made

Test Pilot

Taste

Rich, spicy and citrusy with funky dark rum, clove and ginger from the falernum, orange peel notes and a faint anise lift. Strong despite the crushed ice.

History and origin

The Test Pilot is one of the classic recipes of Donn Beach, founder of Don the Beachcomber in Hollywood and the man widely regarded as the father of tiki. It dates from the 1940s, when aviation was a popular theme in American bars.

Like many of Donn's drinks, it was changed over the years, both by him and by the bars that copied his style, so several versions exist. The recipe most bartenders use today comes from the work of tiki historian Jeff Berry, who reconstructed Donn's formulas from old notebooks and interviews with former staff.

The Test Pilot also inspired a family of related drinks, the best known of which is the Jet Pilot from the Luau restaurant in Beverly Hills, a spicier version with grapefruit juice and cinnamon syrup.

Bartender tips

Blend only a few seconds; you want a cold, diluted drink, not a slushy frozen one.
No blender? Shake hard with crushed ice and pour everything into the glass unstrained.
Use a dropper for the Pernod; too much turns the drink into an anise drink.

Variations

Jet Pilot: A spicier relative with grapefruit juice and cinnamon syrup, associated with the Luau in Beverly Hills.
Shaken Test Pilot: Shake with crushed ice instead of blending for a slightly coarser texture.