Gardenia Mix | Classic Pearl Diver Ingredient

DIY Gardenia Recipe

A Google search for gardenia mix will yield a few recipes and most are variations of Jeff Berry’s recipe. Jeff Berry’s recipe is:

• 1 oz honey
• 1 oz unsalted butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla syrup
• 1 tsp cinnamon syrup
• 1/2 tsp allspice dram

You then heat it up a little, just enough to melt the butter and then blend it all together. Easy enough. Personally I don’t have cinnamon or vanilla syrup around all the time or feel like making it so a recipe without those would be:

• 2 oz honey
• 2 oz unsalted butter
• 2 dash vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice

I also doubled the volumes as the normal recipe makes too little batter. There are other variations for emulsifying the butter fats better so they don’t clump, and others just to be different and \”improve\” the recipe.

Don The Beachcomber’s Gardenia Mix

The issue for everyone alive today wanting to make Pearl Divers is Donn Beach never published his recipes and went to great lengths to make sure no one ever knew them. Hell he even named it gardenia mix, even though the mix has nothing to do with real gardenia’s. It was all just to throw people off. There is also the high likely hood he even slightly changed his recipes several times during his career and he ultimately took those recipes to the grave with him in 1989. (read my general tiki description for more information) During the mid 90s, Jeff Berry met with former bartenders, gathered what information he could and tested recipes with people familiar how the cocktails tasted and were constructed. All that hard work ultimately paid off in giving us the Donn the Beachcomber recipes we have today.

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Gardenia Mix | Classic Pearl Diver Ingredient

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Course: DrinksCuisine: American

Servings

4

servings

Calories

150

kcal

Total time

15

minutes

Make gardenia mix for a classic pearl diver.

Ingredients

• 2 oz Honey

• 2 oz Unsalted Butter

• 2 dash Vanilla Extract

• 1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp Ground Allspice

Directions

• On very low heat or using a double boiler, just melt the butter and then turn off the heat. Don’t cook and separate the butter, just melt it.
• Next simply add all the other ingredients to the melted butter.
• Stir till the honey has fully mixed in. Cover gardenia mix and refrigerate to store it. Let it come room temperature before you use it.

Cocktails That Use Gardenia Mix

Pearl Diver – Classic Don the Beachcomber Cocktail Recipe

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