Tiki Blinders at Test Pilot
Winter’s Don’t-Miss Drink
At Test Pilot in Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone, citrus is key. So are tropical fruits, Guyanese rum and absinthe foam. Owner Brandon Ristaino, who also owns The Good Lion, is intent on supplying high-quality, delicious and interesting drinks to the neighborhood, complete with house-made ingredients and perfect garnishes.
He’s also intent on buying local, and reusing as much produce as he can. “We buy all our citrus from Mud Creek Ranch for both locations, and we reuse every citrus twist.” All twists are saved, pressed and combined with juice for cocktails or old-fashioned shrubs. Lime halves are also saved, scooped out and then filled with absinthe foam for the bar’s signature Test Pilot.
To get to 90% local produce across both bars, Ristaino sources from Carpinteria for tropical fruit and Harvest Santa Barbara, a local farm-produce delivery service, for the winter pears in this slushy, winter spice concoction. The pears are first made into a cordial, which is a fruitbased fortified syrup that’s concentrated and used as an ingredient in various drinks.
To make a pear cordial, Ristaino juices fresh Bartlett pears with the skin on, then strains the juice. He adds 1 part organic sugar to 1 part pear juice, and ¾ ounce over-proof vodka (or any neutral, clear spirit over 80 proof) and stores in a fridge for up to 3 weeks.
To make the Tiki Blinders, he pours VSOP Cognac, rum and pear cordial into a shaker. He adds vintage or tawny port, lemon juice, a dash of aromatic bitters, a dash of cherry bark vanilla bitters and 3 dashes of absinthe. Test Pilot adds this to their slushy machine, but it could be equally delicious served straight up or frozen and blended.
