Someone’s been tampering with my lock!

The world is slowly coming out of lock down, at least in some parts of the world, so it seems that a few people may have found the solution to the world’s lock puzzle. Perhaps, inside a refrigerated vial? After a pandemic of global proportions, these little lock puzzles ought to be child’s play.

It’s been a minute since we visited our old friend the locksmith so it’s high time we hail him again. Masquerading by day as Kent’s own master locksmith (when he isn’t a master carpenter), this English entrepreneur has the key to your every locked away desire. His name says it all, really, meaning “strong and healthy”, “free from defect, disease or infirmity”, and “exceptionally vigorous”, especially in reference to the elderly. It could be in his genes, but I suspect it’s the scotch.

Shane Hales has produced a few brilliant wooden puzzles and a series of brilliant puzzle locks over the years, in between his business and day job. In 2017 he produced not one but TWO locks in bulk for his friends as puzzle exchange gifts for that year’s International Puzzle Party. These were Haleslock 3 and 4, both unique and clever creations. Because he learned his lesson well, he then agreed to produce another lock … nope, TWO more locks … the very next year as exchange puzzles for the 2018 event. He is, after all, “exceptionally vigorous”. Shane sourced the two aluminum Keyprint locks, which were themed in gold and silver versions, with help from a friend, and modified them in very clever ways. They certainly created a lot of buzz during the exchange, as would any mention of a new Hale’s lock that suddenly appears somewhere. These were particularly shiny, too, so of course anyone who got one, would want the other. For completeness sake, of course. No other reason.

In fact, Shane had been thinking of making something similar for quite a while. His original idea involved swapped keys. The key that came with, let’s say, your lock, would in fact need to go with someone else’s lock entirely. There would be a tag, with a code of sorts, to guide you to the proper key holder of your lock. This was an idea that he got from Wil Strijbos’s Angel Box, so as devious and dirty as that sounds, rest assured, it’s been done already. Although, Wil left a way in, requiring pure systematic grit. Shane abandoned the idea after a well know puzzler from Barnt Green threw away the “useless” tag on a prototype. But a puzzle exchange, with two puzzles involved, where everyone participating would automatically receive both puzzles as a matter of course, would open up new possibilities while retaining some subterfuge. This had also been done before, by the Sandfield brothers, who famously each exchanged a salt shaker and a pepper shaker, but separately, as “independent” puzzles. Some prior Haleslocks had been too large, and some had been too small! But this set of Goldi and Silver locks were juuuuuust right.

The toast to the Goldilock couldn’t be too sweet, or too bitter. No, it had to be just right. It actually evolved from a cocktail competition which asked participants to create a “stirred tiki” cocktail. Tiki can be hard to define but typically and historically includes rum, fruit juices, and exotic flavors like almond and allspice. Classically these types of drinks are shaken, so to create a stirred version would likely require excluding the actual juice while retaining the flavors somehow. This drink actually popped into my head while I was enjoying a Whole Foods White chocolate ginger and turmeric candy cup. I thought, whoa, this is would make a delicious Old Fashioned, and it’s tiki.

The basic template for an Old Fashioned is 2 ounces of bourbon or other whiskey and a little sweetener. I split the boozy base with bourbon and a pineapple rum, and then relied on the syrup to bring all those other flavors into the mix. The “Golden Tiki” syrup takes some work but is so delicious. Feel free to be like Goldielocks and add just a little less, or a little more syrup, until your drink is just right. Cheers!

Golden Oldie

1 bourbon

1 oz Plantation pineapple rum

½ oz clarified Golden Tiki syrup

2 dashes chocolate bitters

Golden Tiki syrup: mix 3:1 Golden syrup (see below) with almond orgeat; strain through a cheesecloth or milk bag

Golden syrup: add ½ cup ginger juice plus ½ cup turbinado sugar to a sauce pan with a cinnamon stick, 8 black peppercorns, and ¼ tsp turmeric and heat to combine. Simmer a few minutes then cool, strain and bottle.

Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a glass that’s just right. Garnish with a lime peel palm tree. Cheers!

For more from Shane Hales: