Rum

Doctor Funk's Son

Name: Doctor Funk's Son
Yield: 1 servings

Glass: Highball

Trader Vic's son-of recipe to the Doctor Funk family, the absinthe is dropped and a Demerara overproof float steps in for the medicinal bite.

rum tiki jamaican shaken lime mid-century

Ingredients

fresh lemon juice (0.5 oz)
fresh lime juice (0.5 oz)
demerara syrup (0.5 oz)
grenadine (0.25 oz)
black-blended overproof rum (0.5 oz)
black pot still unaged Jamaican rum (2 oz)
crushed ice (1 cup)
soda water (1 oz)
mint sprig (1)
lime shell (1)

The Doctor Funk family descends from Dr. Bernard Funk's medicinal limeade in late-19th-century Samoa, repopularized stateside by Donn Beach c. 1937 with absinthe and grenadine.¹ Vic's "Doctor Funk's Son" is the absinthe-free variant, Vic disliked the anise note, and substitutes a black-blended overproof rum for part of the dark Jamaican base, restoring proof and bite the missing absinthe leaves behind.² Berry's research situates this as one of several mid-1940s Vic adaptations of Donn-era classics.³

Brand recommendations. Best: Hamilton Jamaican Pot Still Black for the unaged pot-still rum, Smith & Cross or Coruba Dark for the black-blended overproof, BG Reynolds or Small Hand Foods grenadine, BG Reynolds Demerara syrup. Economical: Myers's Original Dark for the pot-still, Coruba 73 for the overproof, homemade pomegranate-molasses grenadine, demerara simple from raw demerara sugar.

Instructions

In a shaker combine fresh lemon juice, fresh lime juice, demerara syrup, grenadine, black-blended overproof rum, and black pot still unaged Jamaican rum.
Add crushed ice and shake hard until chilled.
Pour unstrained into a highball and top with soda water.
Garnish with a mint sprig and the spent lime shell.

Sources

Berry, Sippin' Safari (2017 ed.), Doctor Funk chapter, documents the Samoan medicinal-limeade origin (Dr. Bernard Funk, R.L. Stevenson's physician) and Donn Beach's c. 1937 cocktail-bar formulation with absinthe and grenadine. ↩
Bergeron, Trader Vic's Bartender's Guide, Revised (1972), p. 152, Doctor Funk's Son entry, immediately following the Doctor Funk entry. Vic's head-note here states "This is the drink that I originated, and I think that it's better than Doctor Funk." The 1972 spec uses Ron Rico purple-label 151-proof rum for the half-ounce overproof. ↩
Cate & Cate, Smuggler's Cove (2016), Doctor Funk entry (p. 266), situates Doctor Funk's Son as a 1946-era Vic adaptation; the source for this file's reconstruction. ↩