Cocktail & Other Recipes By Spirit Rum Cocktails

Flying Elvis

A short glass with the word “Patriots” on it and the Patriots logo sits on a wooden surface. The drink within is dark brown with a white foam head, garnished with stripes of bitters making the Patriots’ three stripes.
Tim Nusog

When it comes to football fans, it’s hard to beat the pure zeal of those New Englanders decked out in red, white and navy blue. Patriots fans are a hardcore bunch, and so it takes little convincing for a bartender like Vikram Hegde to put together a cocktail in reverence to the team. Hegde created the Flying Elvis while working at Cambridge, Massachusetts, tapas restaurant Little Donkey. The name comes from the team’s 1990s logo of a Revolutionary War soldier wearing a hat, dubbed “The Flying Elvis.” The drink itself: a potent and complex rum drink not too far removed from a Daiquiri.

“This cocktail is a little taste of humble pie, with the strength and resolve of some local navy-strength rum providing structure,” says Hegde. The Flying Elvis begins with Privateer Navy Yard rum—appropriately, it comes out of New England, just up the road from Boston in Ipswich, Massachusetts. At 110 proof, it’s lower than some overproof rums, but still packs quite a wallop; a few Flying Elvises and the next morning you might feel like you were tackled by Andre Tippett. You can always switch it out for another high-proof rum if you can’t get your hands on Privateer’s, or even a lower proof aged rum if desired.

In addition to the rum, the cocktail also includes Amaro di Angostura for herbal complexity, lime juice for acidity and Giffard Banane du Brésil liqueur standing in for sweetness. Hegde says its gets “a little taste of the unexpected from the Amaro di Angostura and egg white, just like the Pats playbook.” The egg whites also give the drink a solid foam head on which to float a few dashes of Angostura bitters. If you can, the bitters are best when striped into long strips, like the embellishment of the Flying Elvis logo.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 ounces Privateer Navy Yard rum
  • 1/2 ounce Amaro di Angostura
  • 1/2 ounce Giffard Banane du Brésil liqueur
  • 1/2 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed
  • 1 egg white
  • Garnish: Angostura bitters

Steps

  1. Add the Privateer Navy Yard rum, Amaro di Angostura, Giffard Banane du Brésil liqueur, lime juice and egg white to a shaker, and dry shake (without ice) vigorously.

  2. Add ice and shake again until well-chilled.

  3. Double-strain into a lowball glass without ice.

  4. Garnish with a few dots of Angostura bitters in the shape of the Patriots’ Flying Elvis logo (to the best of your artistic ability).

RAW EGG WARNING

Consuming raw and lightly cooked eggs poses a risk of food-borne illness.