Mixology Monday: You Drank WHAT?

Good evening all. The challenge this MxMo was to “broaden your horizons.” I really liked this challenge. (Obviously, it was my challenge, I better have liked it!) It gave me an excuse to do four things I really wanted to do. First, I sort of got to play with molecular mixology, you can be the judge on that one. Second, it gave me an excuse to go for a strongly bittered cocktail – a full half ounce. Third, it allowed me to use a new ingedient. Finally, I was able to return to what I really love to do in cooking, and wanted to do in cocktails.

I have a confession to make. I have drunk Balsamic vinegar – straight. I’m pretty sure that if Balsamic vinegar had alcohol in it, that would be enough to qualify me as an alcoholic, much as my friends who drank vanilla extract certainly do. For Khanukah (Chanuka, Hanuka, whatever), I was given The New Basics Cookbook, which, incidentally, despite being published in the Eighties sticks to classic cocktails, not overly sweet contraptions. Anyway, when discussing Balsamic vinegar, the authors note that what we think of as Balsamic vinegar is merely flavoured red wine vinegar, not the authentic stuff, which, in Modena, where the reall stuff comes from, they drink it straight as a digestivo. So I tried it, and you’ll get the results on Wednesday. In the meantime, here is my entry for Mixology Monday.

Almost looks like a glass of Guinness

The Espresso Stout Cocktail

• 1 oz. – Dark Rum (Cruzan Black Strap)
• .5 oz. – Aromatic Bitters (Peychoud’s)
• .5 oz. – Curacao or Triple Sec (Gran Gala)
• .5 oz. – Balsamic Vinegar (I used a Condimento grade, a Tradizionale grade, or even a 25 year old or older would be even better.)
• .25 oz. – Simple Syrup
• To Top – Sweetened Egg White Foam

Stir together all ingredients but the egg whites. Pour into a medium height narrow glass (pouse cafe, beer tasting, vodka, etc.). Top with foam.

Adjust the simple syrup to taste. Balsamic vinegar is a tad on the tart side, so if you don’t like your cocktails bitter, up the sweetness factor. If you sip Angostura, then feel free to eliminate the syrup entirely.

In cooking, I really enjoy making things that appear to be something else: a ceviche that appears to be an oyster, sushi in the shape of a classic caviar presentation, and so on. What I was able to do here was make a cocktail that looked like a stout. When contemplating what spirit to pair with the vinegar, I realized that Balsamic vinegar is dark. I decided to go for it, and tossed in a dark rum to darken it up. By adding a foam on the top, I got what looked just like a stout. In seeking to ballance it, I deicded to go for the complexity of a heavily bittered drink, and figured that the Peychoud’s would pair nicely with the Balsamic. From there, the decision to use the Cruzan instead of either the Pusser’s or Gosling’s was pretty much made for me.

The final result is delicious. A little sweet, a little sour, a little rummy, a little molasses, and the egg white makes it all smooth as a baby’s bottom. The egg white foam wasn’t really setting up properly so I got  a bit of egg white on the bottom. I just tried to avoid drinking it and that was okay, but if you do it for yourself, and next time I do it, I’ll work harder to make sure that doesn’t happen. It might be even better with something like Benedictine instead of Gran Gala. Try one for yourself and you will see just how good it is.

In the interests of getting this up in a timely manner, I will upload a picture as soon as I find the cord for my camera.

Stay playful,
The Scribe

MxMo: You Scratch My Back…

Well, it’s been a month since our last little gathering, and two since I participated, so, to make up for it I have two cocktails for you with a total of three ingredients from scratch. First off is a little something from way back in the day when they had no choice but to make it all from scratch:

The Chinese Cocktail (After Jerry Thomas)

• 2 pt. – Jamaican Rum (Appleton V/X)
• 1 pt. – Grenadine (Homemade)
• 3 dashes – Curacao (Gran Gala)
• 1 dash – Aromatic Bitters (Angostura)

Stir to combine and serve as you like.

Now this is obviously a riff on the “fancy cocktail” with grenadine replacing the syrup, and the orange cordial adding just a bit of complexity. I should not that in order to make my grenadine, I simply reduce pomegranate juice by a third without adding sugar, as I find most pomegranate juice quite sweet enough. But this is hardly original. Let’s try something with a bit more interest:

The Island Inferno

• 2 pt. – Dark Rum (Cruzan Blackstrap)
• 2 pt. – Medium Sherry (Taylor Golden)
• 2 pt. – Orange Juice
• 1 pt. – Falernum (Paul’s #8)
• 5 dashes – Spicy Cocktail Bitters (Scrivenal Spiced Sherry Peppers #1)
• 2 dashes – Aromatic Bitters (Angostura)

Shake it all up over ice, and serve straight up in a cinnamon rimmed glass.

Now this is something worth drinking. Of the cocktails I have invented to date, this is by far the most successful. There is something wonderful going on here. It hits notes that you don’t often see cocktails hitting, and that was quite intentional. For just about any cocktail, you have some sweet, some sour, and from time to time, some bitter. There’s nothing wrong with this, but asside from a few savoury cocktails, it’s rather predictable. Here, I made a cocktail that burns the back of the throat as it slides down, and does all sorts of other nice things, without being a blood mary. It’s just a much more complex cocktail than most of what I am exposed to.

I highly recommend that you go for the Cruzan offering here. The Blackstrap is a much fruitier rum than, say, Gosling’s, which makes it work much better in this cocktail. It combines nicely with the orange juice, which transitions nicely into the sherry. The peppers pick up the sherry, while adding island spice and heat. The spices are reinforced by the falernum, which also moderates the spiciness. I am, justly, I think, quite proud of this concoction.

Pictures to follow as soon as my camera charges back up.

Keep on scratching,
The Scribe

There Were Four Lofty Rums from Around the World Came

Oh gosh…Four rums and all of them on this side of yummy. Where to start? I guess we’ll begin with the Single Barrel, which was by far my least favorite. Next, but only a scosh behind is the Temptryst Peachwood. In first were the El Dorado and Temptryst Hickory. I know, it’s a hard decision to make, so maybe I need just one more taste, and maybe another after that…Ah, it’s too close to call. Both are wonderful.

So here’s to all the rum you’ve sunk at sea,
(Roll high, roll low, and so sailed we…)
The Scribe

A Cargo Gold

For those of you in the know, you will know that Dr. Daniel Watson of Angelsword fame has begun a distillery for the purpose, at least initially, of producing rums. These rums are not yet available, but I was lucky enough to get my hands on a bottle of two of his rums: the peachwood and the mesquite. In the interests of full disclosure, I should note that these bottles were sent to me as free review samples, and, unlike almost every other product I review here, I did not purchase the two Temptryst rums. Anyway, what Dan is doing is really quite novel. He is using the wood and the flavour of the wood to, in effect, infuse the rum. However, using the woods is supposed to lead to a more complex rum. Let’s see if it works:

Au Natural Spirits Co.: Temptryst Peachwood Rum

Tasting Conditions: I tried this rum after hearing rave reviews of the Temptryst line. After talking to its maker, I was sent a small sample for review purposes. I enjoyed it as an evening digestif after a long day at school, a hard exam, some great sailing, and an evening of relaxation. I used a Flare rum tasting glass to try it. This was the first dram out of the bottle.

Eye: This rum is a golden amber in the bottle and a dark honey in the glass with very quick forming, stubby legs. The bottle is pyramidal in shape with a non-commercial label. I have no idea what the final packaging will be.

Nose: The nose is very subtle and mostly generically “rummy.” I got just a hint of peach, as I might expect, on the finish, and touch of molasses.

Mouth: This was a very smooth rum, and quite sweet. There was definitely a distinct peachiness to it. In addition, I got some nice honey, and perhaps a bit of cloves and apple. Next I added in a bit of water. The water, surprisingly made it a bit harsher. However, we are talking shades of harshness here. It is still well within the sipper category. The water also brought out a bit of cinnamon and citrus. Lastly, and not without trepidation, I added some ice. After waiting for the ice to melt just a bit and cool the rum, I had a sip. The ice really upped the sweetness and pushed back any complexity leaving just peach and vanilla.

Conclusion: I enjoyed this rum, and it is very unique. I cannot wait until Au Natural releases it so it is available. However, given what I expect the price to be, I think it is a bit out of my price range, and, frankly a bit beyond what I think the price ought to be. This is a fine rum, make no mistake, but for me it is a bit one dimensional, which is not a bad thing in and of itself, but does make it less what I want to shell out the big bucks for.

CORRECTION: In this post, I suggested that the price was a bit beyond what I thought it should be. After talking to Dr. Watson, I was informed that the expected commercial price for this rum should be under $20, which is between half and two thirds what I had guessed. At $20, this will have a permanent place on my shelf.

So here’s to you and rum as a long time ago,
The Scribe

I’d Load Her With Guyana Rum

Next up on our round the world in a bottle of really tasty rum is the rum bottle that is currently my most prized bottle. This rum is considered one of the better Demerara rums. What is a Demerara rum, you might ask. I would respond that rum started, as best we can tell, in Barbados, and is still fairly similar to modern Bajan rum. It then spread around the Spanish Main. From there each nation developed its distinctive style. The British style is typified by Jamaican rum, the French by the rhum agricole of Martinique, the Spanish by Cuban rum. But then you get oddballs, and the Demerara Valley in Guyana is one of those. The sugar produced there is special and while it is similar to other bold, big bodied British-style rums, the Demerara sugar from which it is made as well as a longer aging gives it a wonderful rich fullness. And with that, I give you:

Demerara Distillers Ltd.: El Dorado 15 Year Old Special Reserve Finest Demerara Rum

Two glasses, and both for me!

Tasting Conditions: In addition to reviewing this fine dram, I am also reviewing Spirit Sipper’s The Flare rum glass. I drank this fine aged rum after my last day at work for the summer, after an excellent dinner of Southwestern risotto. I compared a Spirit Sipper’s rum tasting glass and a Ministry of Rum London dock style tasting glass. I tasted straight from the bottle, which according to notes on the bottle was bottled just after noon on September 21st, 2006.

Eye: This rum presents beautifully in a box, though it is cardboard not wood, which would be even nicer. The bottle is squat with a long bubble neck. It is a very traditional bottle style, and I can easily see a pirate swigging directly from it. The label is elegant with its trilingual description of the contents and it’s drawing of a sailing ship. The rum it self is a gorgeous honey amber with legs that formed quickly and needle-thing in The Flare, and much slower and thicker in the dock glass.

Nose: In the Flare, this was very smooth nosing with hints of honey, lime, and oak. The dock glass produced a noticeably harsher aroma with a more caramelized nose, and what had been citrus tended more towards banana, and I completely missed the oak, though I think it showed up as the burn odor.

Mouth: In the mouth this was quite nice with citrus notes on the front and transitioned to toffee and then on the finish blossomed into honey. The dock glass was slightly sweeter on the front but on the finish continued in the same lines as the Flare. I also got some good vanilla notes. The rum was smoother than the aroma of the dock glass would have suggested, but a bit rougher than the utter smoothness of the Flare. Adding water seriously upped the sweetness of the front in what I believe are the characteristic demerara notes. The taste in the dock glass was identical. I added ice to the dock glass after pouring the majority over to the Flare to finish sipping after the review. After waiting a minute for the rum to cool, I tasted it. The ice revealed more spice notes that had previously been hiding and a lot spicy cinnamon on the finish. In fact, I would say the most flavour emerged when a bit of ice pushed the sweetness back a bit.

Conclusion: I was very pleased with this rum. While this will never be an everyday for me, this may be my staple for fine rum. I am definitely a fan of this. If only the price would come down by ten bucks this would be something like a daily sipper.

So here’s to you, my bullies,
The Scribe

It’s There We’ll Sit and Take Our Ease

Now we are into the creme de la creme, the ultra-premium sippers. I have four lined up for you: Cruzan Single Barrel, El Dorado 15, and two offerings from Au Natural’s Temptryst line. I’m pretty excited. Now in the rum world, one major course of debate is whether so called “single barrel” offerings are really worth anything. Marketing people will tell you that it is your only chance to “taste what the master blender tastes.” Of course, if I had the tasting ability of a master blender, that might be special indeed. On the other hand, what a master blender does is combine a variety of barrels with slightly different qualities to round out the weaknesses in each. You will have to make your own decision, but I will give you this to think about while you decide:

One Glass, One Barrel

Cruzan Rum Distillery Co.: Single Barrel Estate Rum (Barrel #86499)

Tasting Conditions: I cracked open Cruzan’s single barrel after a relaxing day of running errands, seeing friends, and just a little work at the end. I had an absolutely delightful dinner, and came back a few hours later for a digestif. The bottle was freshly opened and I used a Ministry of Rum tasting glass of approximately six ounces.

Eye: The bottle that the single barrel comes with is similar to the other bottles bottled under the “estate rum” label, yet it is quite distinct. The neck is taller which makes the bottle more distinguished. While both bear the Cruzan barque logo embossed on the bottle, the single barrel also has a date – 1760 – the date of the founding of the distillery. The bottle also has a pebbled or hand-beaten texture, and of course, is capped by a cork, not a screw cap. Overall, it is simply a more elegant presentation as befits the top of Cruzan’s line. My bottle was number 446449 and the contents came from barrel number 86499. In the glass, the rum was an amber color with stubby, reasonably quick forming legs.

Nose: The nose was fairly smooth, and had notes of caramel, oak, and some sort of fruit.

Mouth: The rum is quite sweet in the mouth with the caramel from the nose coming through quite clearly in the mouth, as well as molasses, and cloves. It was quite smooth, as such a rum should be. This is clearly a sipper. Next up, a bit of water to try and help the rum open up. There isn’t much of a change in taste, except that the spice comes through perhaps a bit more strongly and the bitter end of the molasses comes through a bit. As I roll another sip around in my mouth, I am also getting quite distinct citrus notes. They are a cross between orange and a bit of grapefruit pith. After liquid water, I added solid water: a small ice cube. I waited for a bit to allow the rum to cool, and the ice to melt a little. The ice really pushed the bitterness and sweetness back. I got some nice spice notes, as well as citrus, and the clove really took the spotlight.

Conclusion: At no time was this rum ever bad. However, I expected a real knock out rum, and I got a rum that was good, but never really crossed the threshold to great. I don’t particularly plan to mix with this rum, but it is not going to make the cut for my nightly inbibment. I guess what I am trying to say is that for it’s price, I really expected something a bit nicer, a bit more multi dimensional. Unfortunately, as the other dimensions opened up, they weren’t particularly good dimensions.

I’ll see you ‘ round the corner,
The Scribe

Oh A Drop of Nelson’s Blood Wouldn’t Do Us Any Harm

The story goes that after the Battle of Trafalgar, instead of burying him at sea, as was their tradition, the sailors who had fought wanted Nelson, who had fallen in the battle, to be brought home to England to be buried. In order to preserve the body for the journey home, it was placed in a barrel of spirits. I have been told most often that the spirits were rum, but I have also heard brandy. Regardless, the legend is that when the barrel was opened in Gibralter, Nelson’s pickled body was inside, but none of the spirits. To this day, rum and brandy are referred to as Nelson’s blood. That same rum was served daily on the ships of the Royal Navy until 1970. After Black Tot Day, when the Royal Navy stopped the rum ration, it was thought that navy rum was lost forever, and it was, until Pusser’s bought the rights to the recipe, and started producing rum. This rum is faithful to the very same stuff that Nelson was pickled in.

The Sailor's Dram

Pussers Rum Ltd.: Original Navy Rum

Tasting Conditions: I cracked this fine rum open fresh from the store as my Sunday evening digestif. I tasted it in a Ministry of Rum tasting glass.

Eye: The eye is a gorgeous amber in the glass. A swirl shows very slow forming legs of medium thickness. The bottle is a squat, thick glassed affair. It is liberally coated with fouled anchors. I counted four: one embossed on the cork, on embossed on the shoulder of the bottle, and one on each label. There is also a Royal Navy Jack. They are quite proud of the fact that it is Royal Navy-style rum. I feel the bottle is quite nice, and very evocative of an old-style rum bottle from the age of sail.

Nose: The first impression of the rum I got was that it was fairly rough. Behind the roughness I got a bit of toffee and oak. The smell is surprisingly simple, but hopefully there will be more in the mouth.

Mouth: Tasted neat, this spirit sneaks up on you with caramelly sweetness only to ambush you with as the rum reaches the back of your mouth to burn all the way down. Taken a bit more carefully, the caramel blends to toffee, and fades to honey on the finish. It is quite a sweet rum, but there are also a wide variety of pleasant spice notes, mostly cloves and cinnamon. Adding a bit of water smoothes this out as well and bringing nutty notes up. It also highlights the clove taste, and brings a bit of nutmeg to the very first sip. The sweetness, in the meantime, is pushed back. Far from being repelled as I initially was in the first neat sip, with just a bit of water, this becomes quite exceptional. I am almost afraid to add the ice, since I do not think it can possibly get better. After waiting for the ice to cool the dram, a sip proves my fears unfounded. The ice really brings the cinnamon and other spice notes to the fore, as well as adding molasses into the mix. With that bit of ice, this rum truly sings. All of the gorgeous elements that had been barely glimpsed before rise harmoniously to make a wondrous symphony of rummy goodness. The buttery texture of the rum combines with molasses, spice, vanilla, and oak notes to make an epic rum.

Conclusion: It seems recently that every new spirit I try is my new favorite. Before I wondered how people could be willing to shell out thousands of dollars for a fifth of old Royal Navy rum. I still don’t think I would ever do it, but now I can see the draw. I can see a bottle of Pusser’s on my shelf for a long time to come, and I may even need to find their better aged Red Label.

So enjoy your blood, and perhaps a bowl of Irish stew,
The Scribe

From France We Do Get Brandy, From Jamaica Comes Rum

Ask anyone about rum, and odds are, they’ll mention pirates and the Royal Navy. And both of those things have one major commonality: Jamaica. Now from Jamaica, we get two major marques of rum: Wray & Nephew Overproof, and their line of premium rums produced at the Appleton Estate. While the rum I am about to review is on the lower end of their line, it is still quite good for what it is. So, I give you:

A Straight Dram

J. Wray & Nephew Ltd.: Appleton Estate V/X Rum

Tasting Conditions: I bought this bottle and opened it in celebration of a new contract. I used an official Ministry of Rum rum tasting glass which is a stemmed tulip glass of approximately six to eight ounces capacity. The glass is similar to an old white wine glass. The bottle was fresh, and had only been in stock at the store for a brief time before being sold.

Eye: In the glass, the rum is a glorious pale amber, while it is a golden amber in the bottle. The bottle is shaped with pleasant curves that Count Silvio from Refined Vices called “feminine.” While I find the bottle a bit stout for a supermodel, the term is apt. The label is elegant, but not particularly subtle, displaying a picture of the Appleton Estate from which the rum hails. A swirl reveals slender, ladylike legs.

Nose: The nose is quite sweet, redolent of apple and vanilla notes, as well as honey, or maybe caramel. In the back, there is also a bit of wood. The nose is remarkably smooth. It is, perhaps the smoothest nosing rum I have had the pleasure of sniffing. Now, this is probably a comment more on how many rums I have tasted in detail than the rum, but it has barely the slightest hint of alcoholic burn.

Mouth: The rum is just as smooth and sweet as the aroma suggests it will be, with honey flavours dominating. On top of the honey is a bit of vanilla for a toffee sensation. Despite searching, I could not find the apple though I had just a hint of citrus, and a noticeable oaky note on the finish. The nest step was to add water. The water smoothed it out considerably, and really brought out caramel notes which quite dominated. The oak was suppressed, and replaced by a bit of nuttiness. The last step was to add the ice. After a minute to allow it to further cool the rum, and a swirl, I found the ice removed even the slightest hint of burn, while forcing all the flavors back a bit. I found the oak again, along with the nuttiness. The sweetness was noticeably toned down, and the vanilla notes were almost absent.

Conclusion: For me, this rum is best just below room temperature with just a splash of cold water. As far as keeping it around, it’s quite good, without a doubt, and at under $20 for a sipper, it’s an extraordinary bargain. However, for me, it was a bit sweet, simple, and, well, one dimensional. I guess I get what I paid for. For me, I am not sure this is a keeper, at least as a sipper. Its price point does make it a high end mixer, however, so I may use it in that capacity. However, it made me very interested in the Appleton Special. Depending on how these two rums compare, I may be using the Special as a regular mixer

So here’s to rum and the depths of the sea,
The Scribe

Mixology Monday: And It’s All For Me Grog

Good day internet cocktailians the world over. Welcome to Rum Month at the Dram. The subject for this month’s Mixology Monday is “19th Century Cocktails.” While the drinks I present today aren’t necessarily cocktails per say, they are certainly mixed drinks that were popular at some level in the 19th Century and early 20th Century. Today I am playing with three or four ingredients: lime juice, sugar, rum, water, and the occaisional addition of lemon juice, mint, or triple sec.

The first drink up on our tour of rum sours is one of the most traditional, and, arguably, the origin of many modern sours, at least those on the English islands. The origin of this drink is the Royal Navy. Of course sailors could not be expected to sail their ships sober, so the Admiralty began issuing a pint of rum every day in two installments. To cut down the taste of strong navy rum, and also to prevent sailors from hoarding it, they added a lot of water. The story goes that Admiral Vernon added citrus juice to the stagnant, foul water that was common on naval ships of the era to try and make the combination of foul rum and foul water more palatable. Sailors would then add whatever they cold to sweeten the drink. Vernon was known as Old Grog variously because of his grogram coat or because he was “groggy” or crazy in the parlance of the time, and gave his name to this concoction:

Royal Navy Grog (Traditional)

• 1 gill (4 oz.) – Rum
• 1 quart (16 oz.) – Water
• 1 oz. – Lime Juice
• To taste – Whatever sweetener is on hand. (Honey, molasses, etc. but not refined sugar)

Mix together in whatever drinking vessel is available and serve at room temperature. The traditional method of drinking is to slam the whole concoction. You want a garnish? You’re on a ship of war. Don’t be rediculous.

It’s a bit unrefined, and, to my palate at least, the lime clashes a bit with the dark rum. So why not try a white rum, you ask. Ah, now we get into a bit of a debate: How do you juice the lime? What ratio of lime to sugar do you use? What sort of sugar do you use and in what form? What type of white rum do you use? The answers to these questions give you a wide variety of basic rum sours. Let’s start with the most classic, at least in America. We juice our limes careful to avoid pulp or oils, and use white granulated sugar in a syrup:

The Daiquiri (Classic)

• 2 parts (2 oz.) – White Rum (Cruzan Estate Light is my preference, but a Cuban style would be more tradional)
• 1 part (1 oz.) – Lime Juice
• 1 part (1 oz.) – Simple or Invert Syrup

Shake with ice and serve either over crushed ice in a tall bar glass or straight up in a stemmed cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wedge.

Instead of using simple syrup, we could use boiled down cane juice, and replace a Cuban rum with a rhum agricole from the French islands and we would be left with:

‘Ti Punch

• 1 bottle – White Rhum Agricole (A cachaca is better than plain white rum, but even white rum will work)
• 1 bowl – Lime Wedges
• 1 small pitcher – Cane Syrup (Simple, brown, or unprocessed sugar syrup will work as would some other subtly flavoured syrup like agave. This is not the time for maple syrup. If you are using brown sugar syrup, cut it 50/50 with simple.)
• 1 bowl – Ice

Place small tumblers out with the above fixings, and let guests mix their own after the tradition chacun prépere se sprote mort (“each prepares his own death”). The traditional portions would be a dash of the syrup, a wedge of the lime an a generous pour of the booze. Ice is optional.

Of course, you could replace the white unaged rhum agricole with with an aged version to get a Punch Vieux. If you like it bitter, though, what better way then to get some of that good lime oil in with the drink. How do you do that, you may ask. Why not muddle some lime wedges? And while you’re at it, let’s use cachaca instead of something from the Caribbean. And, you know what? I’m not feeling the syrup. If we’re muddling the lime, I think we should be using some plain old syrup to get the abrasiveness, and it’s a bit more rustic. Guess what! We just made a…:

A Caipirinha

Caipirinha

• 1.5-2 oz. – Cachaca (Not having any, I used Cruzan Estate Light)
• 3-4 – Halved Lime Wedges (about half a lime)
• 1 Tbsp – Granulated Sugar (a raw sugar is better, but white is fine)

Muddle the sugar with the lime wedges in a tumbler, and then add ice and the rum. Stir briefly to cool and garnish with a lime wedge.

What? You want to muddle some mint in with your caipirinha? And then you want to add some seltzer water? And use a Cuban rum? Well, you could do all that, and call it a Mojito. Oh, you meant aged Cuban rum. And you’re out of seltzer so you are going with Champagne? That’s silly. But if you insist, I guess we could toss in a dash of Angostura and call it an Old Cuban. What? You want a more Anglophonic rum sour? I thought the grog at the top would have been good enough, but no. There’s just no satisfying some people. I guess that means we should go with:

Rum Punch

• 3 parts – Gold Rum (Mount Gay Eclipse)
• 2 parts – Sugar
• 2 parts – Water
• 1 part – Lime Juice

Mix the sugar, water and lime juice into a cold syrup. Add in the rum and shake with ice. Serve over ice in a tumbler. Note that the shaking and the ice in the tumbler make up the remaining two parts ice to give you one part sour, two parts sweet, three parts strong, and four parts sweet. Use .5 oz. as one part for a decent cocktail. You may want to back off the sugar a bit though, as I find this a bit on the sweet side.

There. That’s a pretty thorough overview of the rum lime sour. I hope you’re happy. You’re not? There’s just no pleasing some people. How about something from the old school. Maybe something from the Professor? How about a:

Santa Cruz Sour

• 2 oz. – Santa Cruz Rum (Appleton V/X)
• 1 oz. – Water
• 1 Tbsp – Sugar (white, granulated is fine)
• .25 oz. – Lemon Juice
• .25 oz. – Lime Juice
• 1 dash – Triple Sec (Jaquin’s)

Mix the water, sugar, and juices into a syrup. Add the triple sec and rum and shake with ice to combine. Serve either in a cocktail glass or in a tumbler over ice. Garnish with either a lemon or lime wedge.

Is that good? Can I go home now? No? You want more? But you’re bored of the basic sour? Jeesh. What do you want? It’s not like I get anything out of writing this blog. I should just quit and go do work. Oh fine. I’ll give you one more:

The Bajan Legend

• 2 oz. – Gold Rum (Mount Gay Eclipse)
• 2 oz. – Falernum

Build in a tumbler with ice and garnish with a lime wedge.

Yup. That’s a sour. After all, what is falernum but a sour mix with more rum and some spices added? Ha! You still want more? But not from the 19th Century? You know the theme is 19th Century cocktails, right? Okay, I’ll give you one inspired by a daiquiri.

The St. Germain Daiquiri by Charles Joy

• 2 oz. – Bacardi 8
• .5 oz. – Lime Juice
• .5 oz. – Orange Juice
• .5 oz. – Simple Syrup
• .25 oz. – St. Germain
• 2 drops – Orange flower water
• 1 – Egg white

Shake everything but the flower water together without ice to combine. Add ice and shake it to wake it up. Serve in a cocktail glass, top with flower water and garnish with a candied flower.

These are the quantities as best I can guess from the seminar where it was presented. I hope you all are happy. I pulled together a round dozen rum sours, almost all of which date to the 19th Century.

Pictures will slowly migrate up as I finish making and getting pictures of the final few cocktails and get them off my camera.

And so, in the spirit Monday, I offer a toast to those at sea, who drink their grog,
The Scribe

Me Jolly Jolly Grog

If you read Jeffery Morgenthaller, he asserts that rum can replace gin as the clear spirit in just about any application. Since I have lots of rum, and only low quality gin, I have been making use of that wisdom. One application is:

The Bees Knees

• 2 oz. – Gin (Cruzan Estate Light Rum)
• 1 oz. – Lemon Juice
• .5 oz. – Water
• .5 oz. – Honey

Shake all the ingredients together with ice and serve in a stemmed cocktail glass. Note that you can use 1 oz. honey syrup in place of the water and honey together. Garnish with a lemon wedge.

This is really quite a simple take on a gin or rum lemon sour. While it is not bad, it also has no real outstanding characteristic to it. Perhaps if you used an interesting honey, like buckwheat or something strongly flavoured, you might get some interest out of it, but simple clover honey doesn’t have enough flavour to be really noticeable. Hmm…The outstanding taste in buckwheat honey is molasses. So what about:

The Knees of Cari-bee

• 2 oz. – Dark Rum (Gosling’s Black Seal, Pusser’s could be good)
• 1 oz. – Lime Juice
• .5 oz. – Sweet Molasses
• .5 oz. – Brown Sugar Syrup (Or a raw sugar syrup would be even better)

Shake with ice and serve either over ice in a rocks glass or straight up in a stemmed cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wedge or perhaps some candied ginger.

Now this is interesting. The first iteration was not particularly palattable since I used a full ounce of molasses, but by cutting it with syrup, the molasses taste did not overpower everything. You may want to cut it further still, but that is a matter of taste. Make sure you are using a sweet or light mollasses or you may need to sweeten your mollasses with sugar. I also shook the drink a little extra to get some extra melt in to loosen up the molasses. You will need to either dry shake the drink first to combine the molasses or just shake it quite hard. If you don’t, the molasses might seize and fail to integrate. Unfortunately, I could not find my camera while I was drinking these, so we are without pictures.

Here’s to your grog,
The Scribe