Drink This Cocktail: The Bora Bora

Adam at The Drink on iced rum, taking shots, and why bros secretly love punch.

By Danielle Gibson

Adam, Owner

The Drink
228 Manhattan Ave, Brooklyn  

Tell me a little bit about this drink.
We just made the Bora Bora, which is our freshest punch right now. It rivals The Mutiny, which was our champion for awhile and was very sought after. It's a blend of fresh pineapple, fresh lime, fine rum, house-made cinnamon syrup, and mole bitters.  

You just took an awfully big swig of it. You clearly think it's the one cocktail we should all be drinking this weekend.
It's like, health food that helps you relax. Super-fantastic fresh pineapple, and by volume it has twice as much pineapple juice as booze. So you're not going to drink a glass of this and get the cold sweats.  

Can you tell when someone's waiting for a first date?
Yes! They order glasses of water. Or sometimes, a couple of shots. The ones who order shots usually find out we aren't a "couple of shots" bar. We're a "nice pours in a nice glass" bar.  

Speaking of glasses, I love these, but do you ever get any bros who come in here and can't handle the daintiness?
Strangely, bros really bro-down on the punch. We get guys who look like they played for a college football team for the past five years and they order a dainty drink with a dainty name and that pinky comes right up. We also serve beer in small glasses, which at the beginning caused some friction for some people, but small pours equal cold beers, and by ounce, our beers are cheaper.  

You have a bunch of rum. How many ways can you do a daiquiri?
We have eighteen different rums to make a daiquiri with. You don't really want to mess with the recipe of a daiquiri itself, because it's a classic.  

What do you think about Malibu? I remember drinking Malibu.
So do I, in ninth grade. Malibu with Coke, right? I don't know why I did that to myself. 

Has anyone ever come in and demanded Malibu?
No, we've had the Budweiser request and the Jack Daniels request, and they quickly learn we don't have those things here. We want to provide something that people can't get elsewhere.  

Say I'm here on a date and I want to get this big bowl of Bora Bora. Would you advise that for a date? I'm trying to be less drunk, just in general.
I think the punch bowl is definitely a good thing to order on a date. It's a social way to drink, a conversation starter. Maybe on a first date you aren't going to ask someone to try their drink, but with a bowl of punch, you're sharing. It starts strong and finishes soft. As punch sits for two to forty minutes, the ice will soften up the drink a little bit. It's a nice way to spend some time and not get completely annihilated.  

Has anyone ever tried to share a punch bowl with you? By that I mean, do ladies try to take you home?
My wife.  

What's your drink when you're not bartending here?
Whiskey. But owning a bar and planning on owning more bars leaves me with little time to go to other bars. Whiskey is my winter thing though. Rum on ice is my summer thing. I would like to say the Gosling's Family Reserve Old Rum is my rum, but it's twenty-four dollars a glass.  

Don't you give yourself a sweet discount?
I would, but tearing through a bottle that's twenty-four dollars a glass is not good business. In the meantime I like Pyrat quite a bit, because it's a beautiful citrus-y sherry-ish rum with some spice.  

What's a drink someone can order that will really impress you?
The way to impress someone is not to come in here posturing about what drink you're ordering. You can talk about whether you want something sweet or something citrus-y. It's a lower-stress ordering scenario.  

What's the worst thing someone can order?
We've actually sat around trying to figure how one would make a less shabby Long Island Iced Tea. But we are diametrically opposed to the use of vodka, in all shapes and forms. We have vodka, so if someone really requires it we have some options. But we mainly like things that have a taste. We don't want to just sling poison.  

Thanks for your service to humanity.

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The punch recipe is top secret.