It's Cocktail Time!

Okay, this isn't, strictly speaking, a Fair relic. But it is an interesting and fun little piece of Fair history that you can re-create at home. It's the Zombie, a rum punch popularized at The Fair during its second year. In 1940 Monte Proser opened an establishment at The Fair, named after the potent potion. Which he apparently stole from the drink's creator Donn Beach. Proser also stole the "no more than two to a customer" gimmick from Beach, as well. Which would have pretty much guaranteed that folks would come back for a third.

The original recipe was long believed to be lost, until 2007 or so when mixologist Jeff "Beachbum" Berry cracked the code of what he believes to be Beach's original 1934 recipe.

So...I followed Berry's recipe almost to the letter; I couldn't get some of the brands of rum he suggested, just the Appleton Estate. I learned what FALERNUM is, and bought a bottle. I EVEN made my own grenadine and cinnamon syrup! The result of this costly and time-consuming little lesson in 1930s mixology?

I didn't like it. At all. Heavily redolent of cinnamon, it tasted more of Christmas than voodoo. And, in a personal first, I had no trouble stopping after just one!

Recipes for the libation abound on the internet, including several from the 1930s. I may just steal one of those myself and pass it off as the genuine article.

(Non-copyrighted souvenir photograph found at Tikiroom.com.)