Written for Thirsty Magazine, September 2019
Cocktail recipe by Jon Lewis DeMarquez

For a minute there, a few of us thought blue cocktails were a thing of the past… or at least something you only enjoyed while at an all-inclusive resort with cheap booze. But now skilled bartenders everywhere are dusting off their neglected bottles of blue curaçao, and crafting some well-balanced & truly delicious drinks.

Portland-area bartender, Jon Lewis DeMarquez, has been hard at work mixing up colorful and unique cocktails for the last several years. He manages the bar at Paadee, and its reservation-only sister restaurant Langbaan, both of which serve up a variety of delicious and elevated Thai dishes.

One of his latest cocktails is the Hawaii 5-0, an upgraded and balanced version of the oft-reviled Blue Hawaiian cocktail of the ’90s. It’s a lot of ingredients in order to recreate it at home, but it’s well worth the effort for this sweet tropical escape.

Hawaii 5-0 cocktail — ingredients:

¾ oz. light rum
½ oz. blanco tequila
¼ oz. Combier orange
½ oz. Combier blue
½ oz. lemon juice
¼ oz. lime juice
1 oz pineapple juice
¼ oz. coconut cream
4 dashes Combier planchette absinthe
4 dashes saline solution

instructions:

Combine ingredients & shake with ice. Strain into collins glass over fresh ice. Garnish with orchids, maraschino cherries & tiki umbrella.

Cocktail recipe by Jon Lewis DeMarquez

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