Category Archives: Rhum

French-style rum

Cherry Heering, Lime Juice, Orange Juice, Pomegranate Juice, Rhum Agricole, Tiki No comments

Lalau Cocktail – A messed up Aloha Cocktail

I basically made this cocktail by mistake, when trying to decide between making a Donga Punch or an Aloha Cocktail. The former is a cocktail from Dick Santiago’s personal notebook used whilst working at Don The Beachcombers in Hollywood and the latter is by Hank Riddle, 1970, who worked as a bartender at Don The Beachcomber in Palm Springs. Basically, I unintentionally mixed the two recipes and added fresh pink grapefruit juice to the Aloha cocktail. In a second attempt, I replaced the light white rum with the Martinique rhum agricole blanc used in the Donga Punch recipe. So try it and see if you like it. I’ve called it the Lalau, which means error or mistake in Hawaiian, using the Negroni Sbagliato (messed up or mistaken Negroni) as example.

½ oz 15 ml Clément Rhum Agricole Blanc, 50% ABV
½ oz 15 ml El Dorado Superior Overproof Demerara Rum 151, 75.5% ABV
½ oz 15 ml Fresh lime juice
½ oz 15 ml Fresh grapefruit juice
½ oz 15 ml Fresh orange juice
½ oz 15 ml Fresh pomegranate juice
½ oz 15 ml Sugar syrup
¼ oz 7.5 ml Cherry Heering Liqueur, 24% ABV
2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Shake the ingredients with ice cubes and then strain into a flute champagne glass.

Cocktails, Cointreau, Cranberry Juice, Rhum Agricole, Rum No comments

Cosmopolitan malgache

I have recently been reading Tristan Stephenson’s “The Curious Bartender: The Artistry and Alchemy of Creating the Perfect Cocktail” (ISBN 978-1-84975-437-8) and was intrigued by his discussion regarding the cosmopolitan. Unfortunately, I did not have any citrus vodka to actually try out the cocktail, but I had given my partner a bottle of Dzama Rhum Cuvèe Blanc, a rum from Madagascar, for her birthday in February and this rum certainly had a citrus note to it. So this gave me the idea to try a cosmopolitan by substituting the citrus vodka with the Dzama rhum. And yes, well, it was a revelation! Really, a  very delicious cocktail! Try it at your pleasure. The colour is also something to savour.

So here is my recipe. Try it if you can.

2 oz 6 cl Dzama Rhum Cuvée Blanche Prestige, 40% ABV
1 oz 3 cl Fresh lime juice
1 oz 3 cl Cointreau, 40% ABV
1 oz 3 cl Cranberry juice

Add the lime juice, rhum, and Cointreau to a shaker. Add ice and shake. Double strain into a Martini glass. Add a zest of orange as garnish. Enjoy.

Dale DeGroff Pimento Bitters, Jamaican Rum, Lime Juice, Orgeat, Rhum Agricole, Rich Syrup, Tiki, Triple Sec No comments

Mai Tai

My exploration of Tiki drinks continues with the Mai Tai.

My first attempt used the following recipe, which is based on Trader Vic’s original 1944 recipe, replacing the 17-year-old J. Wray & Nephews Jamaican rum with equal parts dark Jamaican rum and Martinique aged rum (Rhum Vieux Agricole) as recommended by Jeff ‘Beachbum’ Berry:

1 oz 30 ml Smith & Cross Traditional Jamaica Rum
1 oz 30 ml Clément Rhum Vieux Agricole VSOP
½ oz 15 ml Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao Triple Sec
½ oz 15 ml Monin Sirop d’Orgeat (almond syrup)
1 oz 30 ml Fresh lime juice
1 tsp 5 ml Bar syrup

The Smith & Cross and the orgeat over-dominated. IMHO the Jamaican rum and orgeat needed toning down a little.

Reducing the orgeat to ¼ oz and replacing the rum with Myer’s Rum Original Dark produced a more balanced cocktail, resulting in the following formula:

1 oz 30 ml Myer’s Original Dark Jamaican Rum
1 oz 30 ml Clément Rhum Vieux Agricole VSOP
½ oz 15 ml Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao Triple Sec
¼ oz 7.5 ml Monin Sirop d’Orgeat (almond syrup)
1 oz 30 ml Fresh lime juice
¼ oz 7.5 ml Bar syrup

Shake together with crushed ice and pour contents including ice into a Tiki mug, garnish and serve.

Having been making this recipe for a while, I have been experimenting to see if I could add a little more flare and finally settled on a dash of Dale DeGroff’s Pimento Bitters, which in my opinion, improves the recipe and drinking experience without distracting from what the Mai Tai is all about or its colour. So, here is Mixelero’s recommended formula:

1 oz 30 ml Myer’s Original Dark Jamaican Rum
1 oz 30 ml Clément Rhum Vieux Agricole VSOP
½ oz 15 ml Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao Triple Sec
¼ oz 7.5 ml Monin Sirop d’Orgeat (almond syrup)
1 oz 30 ml Fresh lime juice
¼ oz 7.5 ml Bar syrup
1 dash 1 dash Dale DeGroff’s Pimento Aromatic Bitters

Shake together with crushed ice and pour contents including ice into a Tiki mug or double Old Fashioned glass and garnish with a slice of pineapple sandwiched between 2 Luxardo Maraschino cherries.

Cachaça, Cocktails, Lime Juice, Rhum Agricole No comments

The Caipirinha and variations thereof

The Caipirinha was one of the first cocktails that I ever got serious with. I was first introduced to the Caipirinha during a visit to Brazil in 2005 (where else?). I have tried different ratios of lime juice and sugar to the cachaça and have finally settled on the following recipe. I generally reduce the sugar by a third for those who like their Caipirinhas a little less sugary. I prefer to have some sugar left undissolved in the glass which I can suck up through the straw. In many cases when you order Caipirinhas in bars, I find they often use less lime juice. I think a full lime brings out the best of the Caipirinha.

2 oz 60 ml Cachaça
1
(~ 1 oz)		 1
(~30 ml)		 Medium lime
1 ½ tsp 7.5 ml Cane sugar
Crushed Ice

This cocktail is built in the glass, preferably a Caipirinha glass (or double old fashioned glass would also suffice). Cut the lime into quarters, then cut each quarter into 3 roughly equally sized pieces and toss into the glass. Cover the lime pieces with the sugar and muddle the sugar into the lime. Do not over do the muddling, otherwise the lime juice may become slightly bitter. Fill the glass with crushed ice and then add the cachaça over the ice. Insert a cocktail spool, which is a spoon with a built-in straw. Serve with a smile.
As an alternative to using cachaça, I have also tried using rhum agricole from the French Caribbean islands (Guadeloupe and Martinique) with great effect. Maybe because rhum agricole is made from sugar cane juice rather then from molasses as other rum types are. Since this version of the Caipirinha uses rhum agricole from the Caribbean, I initially called it the Caipirinha Caribe, but later corrupting it to the Caribinha.

2 oz 60 ml Damoiseau Rhum Agricole Blanc 50%
or
Clément Rhum Agricole Blanc 50%
1
(~ 1 oz)		 1
(~30 ml)		 Medium lime
1 ½ tsp 7.5 ml Cane sugar
Crushed Ice

Made exactly the same way as the traditional Caipirinha described above, replacing the cachaça with rhum agricole. I found using a rhum agricole with 50% ABV* produces the best results.
*ABV – Alcohol By Volume

Amargo Chuncho, Egg Whites, Gomme Syrup, Lime Juice, Rhum Agricole, Sours No comments

Karukera Sour

As I was experimenting with the Pisco Sour, see previous post, we were also working our way through a Rum Advent Calendar – maybe a separate post later – where one of the 24 rums included was the KARUKERA Rhum blanc agricole 50% from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, which particularly took my fancy. I thought it might work instead of Pisco, so I tried it. It certainly wasn’t bad. Here’s the recipe which is based on my Pisco Sour recipe:

2 oz 6 cl KARUKERA Rhum blanc agricole 50%
1 oz 3 cl Fresh lime juice (~1 lime)
2/3 oz 2 cl CHUNCHO Jarabe de Goma (Gomme Syrup)
2/3 oz 2 cl Egg White (optional)
2-3 drops 2-3 drops CHUNCHO Amargo Bitters
Alternative: Angostura Bitters

When using egg white always use fresh eggs and always ask first, whether your drinkers are okay with egg white in their drinks.

If using egg whites, first dry shake* the rhum agricole, lime juice, gomme syrup and egg white. Then add ice and shake again. Strain into a coupé glass and drop the bitters onto the froth.

*Shake without ice.