On my list of things I ignored blogging about in 2009 was this: Drinking Lessons at the Sorrento.

That’s too bad; this is a great series of events for Seattle-area cocktail people, and the session I attended in November – with Alex Day and Toby Cecchini – was not only wonderfully done, but resulted in me enjoying some of the better drinks I’ve had in a while, from a Blood and Sand made with Highland Park to Toby’s father’s take on the gin and tonic, which was probably the best version of this drink I’ve ever had.

Here’s another that’s been stuck in my mind for a couple of months, and has been turning up in my cocktail shaker from time to time: the Boukman Daiquiri.

Alex introduced this drink as a sort of hybrid between the world of classic punches, and the more contemporary world of tiki-style drinks. Served at the Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co. in Philadelphia, the Boukman Daiquiri takes the classic daiquiri recipe and tweaks it in a couple of ways that have a huge bearing on its outcome.

First, the standard base of white rum (Alex recommends Flor de Cana, for a damn good reason) is pruned back to an ounce and a half, and the rest is replaced with cognac (Hine is recommended, but fat chance finding that in Washington state; I used Remy VSOP), which puts the drink in that classic brandy / rum combo set of drinks that includes some of the horse-and-buggy era punches, as well as rich wintery things like Tom & Jerry, eggnog and the like.

The second tweak has to do with the sweetener; instead of standard sugar or simple syrup, the drink uses cinnamon syrup, which likewise is in the tradition of using spice in classic punches, but is perhaps closer to the use of cinnamon in tiki-style drinks from the 1930s and onward. I’ve been making my own cinnamon syrup based on the recipe in Sippin’ Safari (briefly: mix one cup each sugar and water over medium heat until dissolved, crunch up a few cinnamon sticks and simmer for a couple of minutes, then let it steep, covered, for three hours before filtering), but tonight I tried the drink with my brand-new bottle of Trader Tiki Cinnamon Syrup, which is assertively rich with cinnamon, but also heavier in sweetness, so you may wish to tip the syrup level back a notch if you’re using Blair’s stuff.

A classic daiquiri is crisp and light, and while these changes add richness and complexity, the drink still has that bright snap to it that makes it really appealing.

Boukman Daiquiri

• 1 1/2 ounces white rum (use one with some flavor, like Flor de Cana)
• 1/2 ounce cognac
• 3/4 ounce lime juice
• 1/2 ounce cinnamon syrup

Shake well with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a small lime wedge if so inclined.

Tags: Brandy, Drinks, Rum by Paul
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I’m on pretty good terms with most drinks in the canon of classical mixology. Things that used to freak me out, like the in-your-face herbaceousness of Chartreuse or the sharp bitter bite of Campari, have long since become things I crave, and even weird and funky stuff like Batavia arrack or a skunky rum are things I can get into when I’m in the proper mood.

But there are a few drinks that never really grabbed me, and until very recently one of those was the Hot Buttered Rum. While I like each of the components on their own or in combination with other things — I mean, rum, spices, butter, sugar; c’mon! — the idea of a hot mug of booze speckled with glistening polka-dots of milkfat just didn’t appeal to me in any way.

As I wrote recently for Serious Eats, I finally made peace with Hot Buttered Rum around the holidays, when — after an early December cold snap that made me rekindle my relationship with hot toddies — I was in the mood for something wintery, but that was out of my usual rotation. After snagging bits of recipe advice from a number of blogs & books, I took the elements of each that appealed to me and came to terms with the Hot Buttered Rum.

Mostly, that is. While the flavor is pleasant and soothing, and the texture is silky and luxurious, the sheen of fat that’s coating my lips by the time I’m halfway through the drink is still kind of a turnoff for me. But what to do? How do you get the flavor and aromatics from the butter into the drink, without the accompanying oil slick? Fortunately, there’s fat-washing.

Yes, I know, how very 2008 of me. But I’ve actually been hanging on to this recipe for more than a year, ever since I saw it in the NY Times, flagged it as “try this” and then, um, forgot about it. But last month, while relaxing in my detente with the Hot Buttered Rum, I came across it again and thought it might fit the bill.

Created by my pal Jim Meehan at PDT in New York, the Butter Cup sidesteps the oily booze problem by essentially infusing the butter in the rum, then simply chilling and separating the fat, leaving behind a mixture that has some of butter’s pleasing properties but without the accompanying greasiness. To enhance the butter’s subtle taste, Meehan recommends browning it with vanilla seeds, which gives the rum a rich, nutty perfume and an extra layer of flavor.

When sweetened with Demerara sugar and mixed with hot tea*, the result is an interesting take on the classic Hot Buttered Rum. The butter is more assertively present in the aroma, though it gives a light richness to the flavor along with a trace of salinity in the finish. Meehan calls for English Breakfast tea in the mix; I realized too late that I was out, so I tried the Butter Cup with a nice Assam tea that we had on hand, which didn’t do the drink any harm. The recipe from the Times makes a big batch of rum for a bar (or a party); I’ve scaled down my recipe below, but I can see putting together a batch of this during a cold snap to last through a series of chilly evenings.

(* In case you were wondering what this had to do with Mixology Monday, this month’s theme is Tea, as selected by our host, Frederic at Cocktail Virgin Slut.)

Butter Cup
created by Jim Meehan

Base:

• one-half stick unsalted butter
• 8 ounces rum (Meehan calls for Zacapa, which works great; I can also see this with one of the dark El Dorado rums, or go crazy and try it with one of the older agricoles from Rhum JM)
• 1 vanilla bean

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Split the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds into the butter; stir and continue cooking until the butter lightly browns and the whole thing smells nutty and insanely good. Remove from heat and let cool just enough so it’s not sizzling hot. Pour the rum into a container (no plastic, for god’s sake!) and add the butter. Stir and let it sit to cool for a few minutes, then cover and refrigerate for a day. About an hour or so before you’re ready to strain it, stick the container in the freezer to firm up the layer of butter. Strain the rum through a fine-mesh strainer, and again through a coffee filter to remove the last bits of butter. Keep refrigerated.

For each drink:

• heaping 1/2 teaspoon loose English Breakfast tea
• 4 ounces boiling water, left to cool for a minute
• 1 teaspoon demerara sugar
• 1 1/2 ounces rum mixture
• nutmeg, for garnish

Prepare the tea,  steeping the tea leaves for two minutes before straining. Add the rum mixture to a toddy mug and top with 4 ounces of tea. Stir in the sugar, and garnish with nutmeg.

That’s my drink for this round of Mixology Monday — head on over to Cocktail Virgin Slut to see what other folks got up to this month.

Tags: Drinks, Mixology Monday, Rum by Paul
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No, it’s not the Dark & Stormy.

Though you could be forgiven for thinking that, based on the headline and on that notation on the calendar that today is Mixology Monday, which happens to be hosted this month by RumDood, who has chosen Ginger for this month’s theme. So, ginger plus rum (minus the dood), plus some boilerplate meteorological bally-hoo in the introduction? Surely I’m leading up to Gosling’s & Barritt’s, right? The classic Dark & Stormy? Or some close approximation, correct?

Eh….maybe. I came across this drink a little over a year ago, while working on the cover feature for the July/August 2008 issue of Imbibe, about liqueurs. One of the products I was covering was the relatively new (or newly reformulated, depending on how you look at it) Domain de Canton ginger liqueur. Desperate for a new and, above all, tasty use of the liqueur, I sent a feeler e-mail out to my good friend Jim Meehan at PDT in New York. Jim pointed me to a colleague of his, Tona Palomino, who was managing the bar at WD-50, and Tona unleashed this drink on me.

Noting that the Stormy Weather is a spin-off of the classic Dark & Stormy, Palomino told me how he swapped Domain de Canton for the ginger beer in that drink, matching it against a good, rich, vanilla-heavy rum like Angostura 1919. For complexity and a peculiar alchemical property, he added a hearty dose of Carpano Antica vermouth, which contributes a firm foundation of flavor but also interacts with the ginger notes in the liqueur. With a touch of effervescence from a splash of soda water, the Stormy Weather is somewhat like a mature version of the Dark & Stormy, though as I’ve continued to enjoy these over the past year I’ve come to view the Stormy Weather as something like a worldly Cuba Libre, due to that interaction of ingredients that produces a flavor I can only describe as cola-like.

Here’s Palomino’s recipe, which I included in my Imbibe piece last summer. One note: as listed, this makes a fairly large drink. You can easily scale it back by nudging the rum back to 1 1/2 ounces and the vermouth and liqueur to 3/4 ounce; scale back the bubble water accordingly, but don’t skip the lime twist — those bitter oils provide another layer of complexity to an already blammo drink.

Stormy Weather

• 2 ounces amber rum (Palomino recommends Angostura 1919; I typically use Bacardi 8 to good effect)
• 1 ounce Carpano Antica vermouth
• 1 ounce Domain de Canton ginger liqueur
• 1/2 ounce soda water

Combine first three ingredients in a mixing glass and stir well with ice. Strain into a double old-fashioned glass filled with fresh ice. Cut a thin piece of lime peel and twist over the drink; discard. Add club soda and lightly stir.

I keep coming back to this one, especially during the warm months. To see what other kinds of ginger goodness folks are mixing up this Mixology Monday, head over to RumDood‘s place for his roundup post.

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Tags: Drinks, Mixology Monday, Rum, Vermouth by Paul
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Told you there’d be another Charles H. Baker drink before this whole 30/30 things was over….

Baker describes this daiquiri-with-benefits as “a Lovely Thing Introduced to Us through the Gracious Offices of the Late Facuno Bacardi, of Lamented Memory”, and says that “along with the immortal Daiquiri, this is the best Bacardi drink on record.”

That’s a tall claim, and one that might well stand up if Baker’s preparation instructions are slightly tinkered with. Baker says to serve the rum-lime-simple syrup combo over shaved ice in a large goblet, and then to float a half-jigger of yellow Chartreuse on top before adding a squirt of soda water, and garnishing with mint, fruit and whatnot.

I made a few adjustments to Baker’s recipe, and it could use one or two more; having almost always been disappointed by drinks constructed with shaved ice, I went the crushed route, in a double old-fashioned glass. And since the soda water would seem to disrupt the float, I added the bubbles first, and then attempted to float the Chartreuse, only to be reminded of how much heavier the liqueur was as compared to everything else in the drink as it quickly dribbled down through the ice and settled on the bottom of the glass in a hazy yellow cloud that was actually quite pretty, as you would be able to see if I’d bothered to photograph it.

Lacking specifics from Baker, I chose to go the white rum route with the Daisy de Santiago; next time, I’m going the aged route, and I imagine Bacardi 8 should serve quite nicely. I also skipped the garnish, which was foolish in a way, as the mint would have provided aromatics that this drink could certainly use.

The Daisy de Santiago has enough life in it to have earned a cocktail menu position at places including The Violet Hour in Chicago and Clover Club in Brooklyn; I’m curious to know how they make theirs, as it has the promise of being an absolutely lovely drink, but a little tweaking of the preparation is needed to really make it shine.

Here’s how I prepared it, with the suggested modifications I mentioned; let me know if you have details on how you or bartenders you’ve seen go about the same drink:

Daisy de Santiago

• 2 ounces rum (I used the white rum from Appleton; go aged next time)
• juice of 1 lime (about 1 ounce)
• dash simple syrup
• 3/4 ounce yellow Chartreuse

Shake the rum, lime and simple with ice and strain into double old-fashioned glass filled with crushed ice. Add about 1 ounce of soda water, and gently pour Chartreuse over top of drink. Garnish with a good sprig o’ mint — I’d say this is essential, for the aroma — and fresh fruit as desired.

This drink is part of 30/30, a series of 30 drinks in 30 days — or as much as I can keep up before collapsing in a weary, booze-addled heap.

Tags: Drinks, Rum, Thirty in 30 by Paul
3 Comments »

Another drink from the works of Charles H. Baker, Jr., in this case The South American Gentleman’s Companion. I frequently return to Baker, both for reading enjoyment and for mixological inspiration (and I may still hit him up for one more drink before this 30/30 thing is over), and at the risk of repeating myself by noting that many of his recipes range from slightly off to completely bizarre, Baker remains one of the most original writers to have ever typed with one hand while shaking a drink with the other.

Baker notes that the Cora Middleton “is really a cocktail, not a lady; although somewhere in the dim and distant past it probably was named for some female of consequence to some good mixing-man. Actually it impressed us as being a Clover Club’s 1/2-sister, only done with good amber rum instead of gin.”

So, a Clover Club, which I adore, made with rum, which ditto, and Baker, who I’ve already gushed over enough. Baker suggests using Myers’ Mona rum, which Stephen Remsberg led me to understand is one of the most highly sought-after rums from the mid-20th century, so I probably won’t be shopping around for a bottle to make this drink; instead, I’ll follow Baker’s instructions to use Carta de Oro Bacardi, or in this case, the Bacardi 8, which no matter what you think of the company’s other products, is a very good rum and pretty much indispensable in my home bar. Then, lime juice (or lemon), raspberry syrup, an egg white and a dash of Angostura — about as straightforward yet happy-go-lucky as they come.

I’ve taken to mixing my Clover Clubs with raspberry syrup instead of grenadine, since the raspberry kicks way more proverbial ass in drinks of this sort than even a top-notch homemade grenadine can. Substituting the mild, vanilla-toned richness of the rum for the crisp backbone of gin, and with the nod of Angostura for depth and complexity, the Cora Middleton is a rich, sly gal, with that silky lusciousness from the egg white but enough kick and sharpness to keep you from getting grabby or anything. A keeper.

Cora Middleton Cocktail

• 2 ounces rum – use an amber Jamaican or Cuban (-style)
• 3/4 ounce lime juice
• 1/2 ounce raspberry syrup
• 2 tsp fresh egg white
• 1 dash Angostura bitters

Combine in a shaker and shake, without ice, until frothy. Add ice and shake again for at least 10 seconds, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. No garnish, but if you get fancy with a drop or two of bitters on the foam then I’m sure Baker wouldn’t hold too much of a grudge.

This drink is part of 30/30, a series of 30 drinks in 30 days — or as much as I can keep up before collapsing in a weary, booze-addled heap.

Tags: Drinks, Rum, Thirty in 30 by Paul
3 Comments »