The Mary Pickford appears in the Sloppy Joe’s books–a mix of rum, grenadine, pineapple, and maraschino liqueur. I took that inspiration, subbed crème de cacao in for the maraschino, added lime for acid, and a small measure of Cognac for vanilla and dried fruit notes. Pickford was a movie star, director and producer; I named this after her little sister, Charlotte, who was also an actor.

For this month’s theme, I took a look at the food menus at Borscht Belt resorts–drink menus are generally more ephemeral or nonexistent and hard to find–and even though the words “melon delight” didn’t appear, I thought they’d fit right in. This drink’s kind of an oddball as far as its construction, but it works and is exceedingly refreshing.

I noticed this description under a Hawaiian Room drink called the Okoolehao Sling–“A zingy sling of gin and juice in a real coconut”–and took it as a prompt. I wanted to create a fruity coconutty flash-blended drink with a gin base and I couldn’t be happier with the results! Though it does appear in tiki drinks, I see coconut as belonging more to the non-tiki tropical canon we’re (mostly) focusing on this month.

The Garibaldi–a simple but sublime mixture of fluffy orange juice and Campari–has skyrocketed to fame in recent years as part of the aperitivo craze. I was inspired to use pineapple juice by my friend Ned King’s Charles de Gaulle, which combines it with Suze, Amaro Alta Verde, and a little salt. Here, I fortified the mixture of the carciofo Cynar and pineapple with overproof bourbon for a very easy-drinking take on the template.

Ned King helped me immensely in planning this month, including bringing this post-WWII Zombie to my attention. Though different from the 1930s Zombie, this version reads as a direct descendent of Planter’s Punch. I’ve made a couple of changes to Ned’s spec based on what we have on hand this month.