Three rums — dark Jamaican, aged, and overproof demerara — stack over lime and grapefruit, while falernum and cinnamon syrup lay down warm spice and a dash of bitters and a few drops of absinthe thread anise through the top. Flash-blended over crushed ice, it lands bright, spiced, and potent — a Test Pilot with the throttle open, carrying more rum, more citrus, and cinnamon in the engine.
Garnish: Mint Sprig
Blended · Double Old Fashioned · Crushed
add
Combine all three rums, lime juice, grapefruit juice, cinnamon syrup, falernum, aromatic bitters, and absinthe in a blender.
blend
Add about 4 oz crushed ice and flash-blend at high speed for under 5 seconds (or short-shake with crushed ice no more than 10 seconds).
strain
Pour unstrained, ice and all, into a double old fashioned glass; add fresh crushed ice if needed to fill.
garnish
Garnish with a fresh mint sprig.
Its roots run to the Test Pilot, which Donn Beach introduced in 1941, and several rivals of the Beachcomber and Trader Vic later adopted the Jet Pilot name for their own stronger takes, the Mai-Kai among them. The most repeated story places the canonical version at Stephen Crane's Luau in Beverly Hills in the 1950s, where the formula was kept secret, though no single inventor can be pinned down. Beachbum Berry later recovered the recipe and printed it in Sippin' Safari in 2007, rescuing the drink from obscurity.