A couple of weeks back, after I documented my experiment with making my own falernum, a very kind visitor to this site who happens to also live in Seattle contacted me by e-mail and offered me the remainder of a bottle of Velvet Falernum, so I could compare the commercial product to my home-made variety. Tonight I sat down and put the falernums through their paces; here’s how it turned out.

Test #1: Falernum, neat, in snifters

I poured small amounts of each of the falernums–the homemade, in the bottle on the left, and Velvet Falernum, on the right–into snifters (well, sherry glasses really, but they’ll have to do).

The homemade version had a much more subdued smell, with the mild aroma of cloves and lime, but with a certain fresh fruitiness to it. The Velvet Falernum, on the other hand, was much brighter and aromatic, with a more assertive fruit fragrance, yet the fruitiness seemed a bit more synthetic–not as fresh as in the homemade. (I should point out two things here: first, Velvet Falernum contains lime juice, while the homemade does not (I was afraid that adding fresh juice would compromise the falernum’s shelf-life); second, Velvet Falernum lists an ABV of 11 percent; I don’t know offhand what my homemade weighs in at, but I’m pretty certain it’s less than 11 percent. The increased alcohol content could play a role in the assertiveness of the aroma).

When tasting them neat, I noticed the homemade presented it’s sweetness first, with a gentle spicy finish, and a faint hint of fresh lime at the end. Velvet Falernum was a bit more savory (while still tasting just as, if not more, sweet as the homemade). The VF was tangier, but still had a fruitiness that seemed “fake” to my palate, as compared to the fresher-tasting homemade.

Test #2: Corn ‘n Oil

I previously mentioned my first experience with Corn ‘n Oil, a drink made of equal parts rum and falernum, with a dash of bitters, stirred with ice & then strained into an ice-filled glass. The C&O seemed a good candidate to let each of these falernums demonstrate how they play with others. For both drinks, I used Mount Gay Eclipse rum and Fee Bros. Old-Fashioned Aromatic Bitters.

In the Velvet Falernum C&O, the fruity flavor was dominant–there was no trace of the Cuba Libre-like taste I’d mentioned in my initial trial with this drink. The 1:1 ratio of falernum to rum still made a very sweet drink, but there was a more pronounced spiciness, I assume brought out by the bitters. Even with a full-bodied rum like Mount Gay, the falernum was dominant in the glass.

With the homemade falernum, I detected a deeper, smoother sweetness. The taste was more complex, and the flavor of the cloves in the liqueur seemed to marry with that of the spices in the bitters more thoroughly.

Test #3: add fresh lime juice to the Corn ‘n Oil

Since my homemade version doesn’t contain lime juice, I decided to level the playing field a bit by squeezing a lime wedge into the C&O containing my stuff; after tasting them side by side, I’d then add the same amount of fresh lime to the VF version.

That was it–the fresh juice brought the C&O with homemade falernum to life. The fruitiness I’d detected in the Velvet Falernum became apparent, but brighter and fresher, as you’d expect using a fresh lime. When juice was added to the Velvet version, it improved the drink, but the commercial falernum was still dominant, and at this point, not in a good way.

Test #4: blind taste test with an unsuspecting family member

Concerned I might be biased in favor of my homemade falernum, I presented the two glasses to my wife, who had no idea what was going on. After tasting each Corn ‘n Oil, with lime juice added, she pronounced the one made with domestic stuff to have a smoother sweetness to it, while the Velvet variety was more flavorful but not as pleasant, with a bitter edge to it.

Conclusion

I’m not going out of my way to shop for Velvet Falernum. Instead, I’ll be sure to give a small squeeze of lime juice to drinks I make with my homemade, to bring out that bright freshness it lacks. And, the next batch around, I’ll also add more cloves to the mix, and maybe some grated ginger, to ramp up the spiciness angle just a bit more.

Questions?

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Tags: Falernum, Special Projects by Paul
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More fun with falernum.

To give the sweetener a test-run in as near-pure a situation as possible, one of my first drinks is the Corn ‘n Oil–recipe kindly provided by Slakethirst.

Corn ‘n Oil

• 1 ounce rum
• 1 ounce falernum
• 1 dash angostura bitters

Stir with ice & strain into old-fashioned glass filled with crushed ice.

Slakethirst compared the flavor of this drink to a Cuba Libre; I confess I was at first skeptical of this description. But after mixing one with Mount Gay Extra (I remember reading somewhere that falernum is a Barbados thing) and Fee Bros. Aromatic Bitters, I took a sip and immediately saw how apt the comparison is. The cloves in the falernum paired with the spiciness of the bitters creates a very cola-like flavor, without the syrupy intrusion of high-fructose corn syrup. Though, as mentioned previously, this batch of falernum is really on the sweet side, so the next time around I’ll up the rum to 1.5 ounces and scale back the falernum a bit, but hopefully I won’t lose that lively interplay of flavors. Stay tuned.

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Tags: Drinks, Falernum, Rum by Paul
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The first drink I made with my new batch of falernum. I was looking for something that would make me hear steel drum music every time I took a sip. Didn’t quite get there, but it’s a nice drink nonetheless.

Rum Swizzle
Build in a highball glass:

• 2 ounces white rum
• juice 1/2 lime
• 1/2 ounce falernum
• dash Angostura bitters

Add ice; stir until glass frosts.

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Tags: Drinks, Falernum, Rum by Paul
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Right off the bat, a disclaimer: I have never been to the Caribbean. The closest I’ve come is a quick overnight in Key West, so quick in fact that I didn’t even have a chance to hit a single bar. With this in mind, perhaps it’s forgivable that I’ve never tasted falernum. But, inspired by recent postings over at Slakethirst, and motivated by a desire to make new tasty things I can mix with booze and drink, I recently embarked on a falernum-making project, with no clear idea what my finished product should taste like.

First, the details: Falernum is a lightly alcoholic sweetener typically used in rum-based tropical drinks. Little is known of its origins, but commercial versions–made in Barbados and the U.S. (the latter sold as Velvet Falernum; both are sadly unavailable in Seattle)–are described as having the taste of lime, cloves, ginger, vanilla, and/or allspice. Non-alcoholic versions are available, including a bottling by Da Vinci Gourmet, made less than two miles from my home (but I’ll be damned if I can find a bottle anywhere, and principle keeps me from paying a $5 shipping fee for a $7.50 bottle of something produced within walking distance of my house).

Fortunately, recipes exist. For my batch of falernum, I turned to the guide posted by Rachel Perlow on eGullet (though I did cut this recipe in half, so as not to have my kitchen overwhelmed by a sweetener I’ve never tasted).
First, I used my trusty microplane to zest 1 1/2 limes, which I then placed in a 1/2 cup of light rum (I used Bacardi, for basic unimposing flavor / thriftiness sake) along with three cloves and a few drops of almond extract. I let the mixture steep for about 24 hours, then strained it through cheesecloth and mixed it with simple syrup–2 cups each of water and sugar (I used ordinary white cane sugar, so the flavor of demerara or turbinado wouldn’t take over the taste of the finished product.)

Results? Sweet! No, really, it’s pretty damn sweet, much moreso than I’d anticipated. Though, most drink recipes I see that call for falernum only use it in drips and drabs, much like other syrups and liqueurs, so it’ll take a few test drives to really assess the quality.

Initial runs seem promising. A first trial in a Rum Swizzle–essentially just a daiquiri with falernum used instead of sugar–produced a drink with the charming base character of the daiquiri, but with a little more depth and mystery to it, like a daiquiri’s charming cousin just in town from Havana. Additional trials in various rum punches–the kind where I start with the idea of a Planter’s Punch, then knock in some falernum or orgeat just to make things interesting–also produce pleasing results.

If I were to make this again–which will be a while, considering I have about 750ml of the stuff to work my way through–I’d probably do a couple of things different. First, I’d introduce a bit of ginger to the mix, to give it a little more zing, and maybe a couple more cloves, for general spiciness sake. Second, the sugar’s gotta be toned way down–I enjoy falernum as a sweetener, but in drinks where it’s more prominent (like the Corn ‘n Oil), the sweetness verges into toothache territory.

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Tags: Falernum, Special Projects by Paul
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