Finding a high-quality banana liqueur is no easy feat – so when we finally got our mitts on a bottle of Giffard’s Banane du Brésil, we were over the moon. We tested tons of cocktails as an excuse to get more of that rich, sweet, banana-bread flavor. The Monkey Man is our favorite of the bunch by far, with its lovely vanilla-cinnamon-oak flavors.
The Monkey Man was created in response to a challenge from Imbibe magazine. Jim Kearns at The Happiest Hour bar in New York was tasked with inventing a drink based on Monkey Man by Toots and the Maytals, one of his favorite reggae songs. He chose a Tennessee whiskey, George Dickel #12, for its banana-tinged undertones, but it’s still quite good with a more oak-and-vanilla bourbon like Maker’s Mark.
