Rum Cocktails

Rum Cocktails

Classic Cocktails

Daiquiri This classic cocktail is often used to gauge a bartender’s skill. While it’s a simple cocktail on paper, it tests a bartender’s ability to balance sweet and sour elements, which are the building blocks of sour-style cocktails. If the cocktail is too sweet or too sour, the nuances from the rum will be overtaken by cloying sweetness or overly tart sourness. Ingredients: • 2 oz Rum (typically Spanish style) • ¾ oz Lime Juice • ¾ oz Simple Syrup Directions: Combine all ingredients and shake with ice. Serve in a coupe glass and garnish with a lime wheel.

Mai Tai This classic is a staple at tiki bars. It was invented in 1944 in Oakland by Victor Bergeron, more commonly known as Trader Vic. Its use of orgeat (almond syrup) and Curaçao in place of simple syrup adds an additional depth of flavor while still balancing out the sourness from the lime juice. Although it seems quite similar to a daiquiri, it is technically considered a daisy (which essentially is a daiquiri build with the addition of a liqueur. Think Margaritas). The Mai Tai is often made with multiple styles of rum. Anything from bigger, English-style rums, to funkier, grassy Agricole rhums, to light crisp Spanish-style rums will work and that’s part of the fun of making a Mai Tai. Experiment and enjoy! Ingredients: • 1½ oz White Rum • ¾ Dark Rum • 1 oz Lime • ¾ oz Orgeat • ½ oz Curaçao Directions: Shake white rum, lime, orgeat, and Curaçao with ice. Strain into rocks glass and fill with ice. Float the dark rum on top of the cocktail by pouring it onto the back of a spoon. Garnish with a halved lime husk, mint sprig, and a cherry.

Piña Colada The Piña Colada is the go-to cocktail for many on tropical vacations. It is served frozen, and its blend of tropical flavors is exactly what you want when you’re on the beach. While not traditional, many bartenders will add lime juice to balance the sweetness.

Ingredients: • 1½ oz Rum

• 4 oz Pineapple Juice • Ice

(typically Spanish style) • 1 oz Cream of Coconut

Directions: Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Serve in a tall glass and garnish with pineapple chunk, pineapple fronds, and a cherry.

Mojito The Mojito took off in popularity after the release of “James Bond - Die Another Day” in 2002. The cocktail originates in Cuba and is somewhat of a mix between a highball and a daiquiri with the addition of mint. Ingredients: • 2 oz Rum (originally Cuban rum - Spanish style) • ¾ oz Lime Juice • ¾ Simple Syrup • 4 Mint Leaves • Soda Water Directions: Add mint and simple syrup to a Collins glass and gently muddle. Add the remaining ingredients and top with crushed ice. And soda water. Stir and garnish with a mint sprig/lime wheel.

Dark & Stormy This simple mixture of dark rum and ginger beer is the national cocktail of Bermuda. Its origin dates back to 1806 and is believed to have been named by a sailor describing the drink’s appearance. Similar to the Piña Colada, more modern versions of this drink typically include lime juice to balance the sweet/sour elements. The original cocktail calls for Goslings Dark Rum but it is easily replicable with any dark rum. Ingredients: • 2 oz Dark/Black Rum (typically English style) • Ginger Beer Directions: Build in a Collins glass filled with ice. Garnish with lime wheel.

Riffs on Classic Cocktails

Rum Old Fashioned One of the easiest ways to create a riff on a classic cocktail is to swap out the base spirit. In the case of the Rum Old Fashioned, we are doing just that by replacing the whiskey with a dark rum. Ten to One Dark Rum brings the wood-aged characteristics that we are familiar with in whiskey, but with a slew of tropical notes to create something new. Ingredients: • 2 oz Ten to One Dark Rum • ¼ oz Jack Rudy Demerara Syrup • 4 dashes Aromatic Bitters • Orange Swath, for garnish Directions: In a mixing glass, measure out the Ten to One Dark Rum, Jack Rudy Demerara Syrup, and aromatic bitters. Add ice and stir until chilled and diluted. Strain into a double rocks glass over fresh ice, preferably a large cube. Express a swath of orange over the drink and drop it in for garnish.

Mango Caipirinha Perhaps we want to retain the base spirit but simply introduce an additional flavor. In the case of this Brazilian classic, we will dial back the sugar in the build to make room for a mango liqueur by Gabriel Boudier. Because the liqueur brings sweetness to the table, reducing our sugar by half will keep our sweet and sour in balance. Ingredients: • 2 oz Pitú Cachaça • ½ oz Gabriel Boudier Mango Liqueur • 1 Lime, quartered • 1 tsp White Sugar Directions: Add your quartered limes to a double rocks glass, followed by the teaspoon of sugar. Muddle until all lime juice is extracted* and the sugar is mostly dissolved. Add the measure of Pitu Cachaça and Gabriel Boudier Mango Liqueur. Add ice and mix until chilled and diluted. *The amount of juice in a lime will always vary - to keep things balanced, we are looking for ~1 oz of lime juice.

Rum Espresso Martini The wonderful world of the split-base riff. In this take on an Espresso Martini, we are adding depth by swapping in rum for vodka but adding even more complexity and flavor by splitting the 2 oz base spirit between rum and Nardini Mandorla to introduce some nuttiness and notes of cherry that complement the espresso. Ingredients:

• 1 oz Misguided Caribbean Queens Red Sky Dark Rum • 1 oz Nardini Mandorla • 1 oz St. Elder Espresso Liqueur

• 1 oz Espresso, or Cold Brew Concentrate • ½ oz Jack Rudy Demerara Syrup • Coffee Bean, for garnish

Directions: In a shaker tin, measure out all ingredients. Add ice and shake until chilled and diluted - shake hard! This will also aerate the coffee which will give us the Espresso Martini's iconic foam. Strain into a coupe or cocktail glass and garnish with a coffee bean atop the foam.

Bitter Mai Tai Want to impress a bartender? Just incorporate bitterness into a classic cocktail. Done. With this riff on the Mai Tai, we will employ a split-base tactic but using a bitter element rather than another base spirit. Ingredients: • 1 oz Probitas Blended White Rum • 1 oz Lime Juice • ¾ oz Orgeat • Lime Wheel, for garnish Directions: In a shaker tin, measure out all ingredients. Add ice and shake until chilled and diluted. Strain into a double rocks glass over fresh ice, preferably crushed ice, and garnish with a lime wheel. • 1 oz Nardini Bitter Aperitivo • ½ oz Brovo Orange Curacao

We have gone over a few different ways that you can make a riff on a classic cocktail. Can we make the ultimate riff? Is it possible? Challenge accepted.

For this next cocktail, I am going to use all of the concepts that we have gone over to make something new, while ensuring it still resembles the original. Here, I am going to take the beloved Paloma, and require that I add a new base spirit, utilize a split-base, incorporate bitterness, and add a new flavor by way of reducing sugar and adding a liqueur.

The Bitter Doubloon So, we have introduced rum and split that with mezcal to create a tropical, lightly smoky base. We are sticking with the grapefruit- forward profile of the Paloma with Pajarote Grapefruit & Rosemary liqueur and adding a new herbaceous element at the same time, while Brovo American Aperitivo brings bitterness to the table and supports those grapefruit notes further. There is a lot going on in this cocktail, but each element works harmoniously with the next and gives us something new and delicious. Ingredients:

• ¾ oz Ten to One White Rum • ¾ oz Palomo Espadin Mezcal • ½ oz Brovo American Aperitivo

• ½ oz Pajarote Grapefruit & Rosemary Ponche Liqueur • 1 oz Lime Juice • ¼ oz Agave Nectar • Soda, to top

Directions: In a shaker tin, measure out all ingredients, add ice, and shake until chilled and diluted. Strain into a Collins glass over fresh ice and top with soda. Garnish with a grapefruit wedge.