“In the past, I didn’t have much experience making cocktails. Ryan forced us, because he liked making us do things we didn’t like to do. This one started out of a small love affair that Ryan and I have with a local distiller named Maggie Campbell. She is Head Distiller–Vice President at Privateer, a rum distillery in Ipswich. A couple of years ago, Privateer came out with a gin—a tiki gin actually. It’s infused with a lot of tropical fruit notes along with gin botanicals. It’s a really unique product, really bold. So, I wanted to use that in my cocktail.
“The cocktail is called ‘I’iwi. It’s actually the Hawaiian word for a native bird known as the honeycreeper. I’m part Hawaiian, so I wanted to use this to recognize some of my culture. I was imagining this beautiful tropical bird when I made this cocktail.”
*Individually crafted cocktail brought to Bar Mezzana from previous location.
