Grog is the dilution of rum with water, with lime and sugar added. In the Monkey Island series, grog is not only the drink of choice, but a useful inventory item. There is also a non-alcoholic version called near-grog.
Name
The drink is often attributed to British Admiral Edward Vernon who ordered his ship's rum rations diluted with water and often wore a coarse grogram coat, hence the name.[1]
Ingredients
According to the Pirate Leaders, the mixture for grog is secret, but may contain one or more of the following:
- kerosene
- propylene glycol
- artificial sweeteners
- sulphuric acid
- rum
- acetone
- red dye no. 2
- scumm
- axle grease
- battery acid
- pepperoni
Products
- Grog
- Near-Grog, with much less by way of volatile ingredients
- Breathmaster Grog-O-Mint
- Groggacchino
- "Lite" Grog, with half the calories and a much worse taste
- Grogatini
- Moldy Grog, sprinkled with just a hint of sea spray and shattered dreams (mentioned only)
- Diet Grog
- Cherry Grog, Guybrush's second-favourite flavour
- Purple Grog, Guybrush's favourite flavour (mentioned only)
- Grog XD, an energy drink
- Banang ("It's like grog for monkeys. And a leading cause of simian diabetes.")
Role in Games
- Grog is used to dissolve the lock on Otis's jail cell in The Secret of Monkey Island.
- In Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Guybrush and Rum Rogers, Jr. have a drinking contest. The only way to win is to switch the grog with Captain Kate Capsize's near-grog.
- In The Curse of Monkey Island, there is a poster for grog in the Goodsoup Hotel.
- Charles L. Charles uses "Good Times and Free Grog" to get a leg-up in his gubernatorial campaign in Escape from Monkey Island.
- A can of grog poured into the system operating the sushi-boat canal in the Lua Bar will shut it down temporarily.
- StarBuccaneers offers grog-flavoured coffee drinks, while the Micro-Groggery has a selection of other tourist-friendly grog-like beverages.
- Guybrush mixes the root of Chuck the Plant (from Maniac Mansion) and breath mints with Elaine's lite grog to create "root grog" in place of the root beer he has lost due to LeChuck's actions in an attempt to enhance the Cursed Cutlass of Kaflu in the first chapter of Tales of Monkey Island, "Launch of the Screaming Narwhal".
- Later on in the same chapter, when Guybrush (after escaping from the Marquis De Singe's "laboratorium") asks the Voodoo Lady why she didn't tell him that grog (as an anesthetic that De Singe had used on Guybrush's Poxed hand) can be used to stave off the Pox of LeChuck, she becomes surprised and warns him in prediction that his hand "may seem fine now, but when it wakes up, it'll be even nastier than ever," a premonition that may come true when he and Winslow escape from Flotsam Island on the Screaming Narwhal.
- Guybrush later uses a bottle of grog to represent "liquid courage" in a voodoo spell in the game's final chapter, "Rise of the Pirate God". He later describes in Club 41 that if grog is "not carefully stored, it will go skunky. Not that anyone would taste the difference."
- In the PS3 version of "The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood", if Guybrush asks Morgan LeFlay what she's drinking in Club 41 and then asks W.P. Grindstump for a grogatini, a grog and Blood Island Volcano Shots prior to finding three recipes and giving them to him during the Ladies' Night swordfight, the player is rewarded with a "What Do You Do With a Drunken Guybrush?" bronze trophy (in reference to the song "Drunken Sailor") in the "PlayStation Network Trophy Achievements". In "Rise of the Pirate God", if Guybrush uses a whole eight in the Grog Machine and tries pushing different grog-labeled buttons prior to pressing the button for a bottle of grog, the reward is a "Grog, Grog, Grog!" bronze trophy. Having him examine the barrel of Banang (which is like "grog for monkeys") eight times in Club 41 will net the player a "Dance, Monkey, Dance!" bronze trophy.
Except for The Curse of Monkey Island, the Grog Machine appears in all of the games.