by Wayne Curtis
RHUM CLÉMENT [MARTINIQUE]
The range of tastes found in Clément rums is impressive. The white rum has a robust and pleasing sugarcane taste. The aged rums, such as the VSOP (aged at least four years), lend themselves to sipping neat. Clément also makes an orange-flavored liqueur called Créole Shrubb, which is traditionally served on holidays. An El Presidente cocktail made with the VSOP and Créole Shrubb is among my favorites—sophisticated without taking itself too seriously. Also look for Rhum J.M, produced at a separate island distillery but owned by Clément. The aged J.M rums are complex and intricate; the ten-year rums, bottled at cask-strength, are hard to find but worth seeking out.
EL DORADO [GUYANA]
Guyana was the original source of the dense, heavy Demerara rums that became the favored tipple among sailors, fishermen, and other disreputable sorts. El Dorado carries on the robust tradition with a rich molasses flavor, but with an unexpected depth in the older aged products that seems to call for a snifter, smoking jacket, and a faithful dog at one’s feet. This pot-still rum is produced in five, twelve, fifteen, twenty-one, and twenty-five-year variations and is sold in many markets. I almost always have a bottle or two of the five-year in my cabinet; it’s a bargain, and much of it has been sacrificed on the altar of my rum old-fashioneds.
FOURSQUARE [BARBADOS]
Foursquare has been producing rums at a modern distillery set amid sugarcane fields in Barbados for several decades, mostly for third-party bottlers. (Doorly’s and Real McCoy rums are two with which they are more directly associated.) More recently, Foursquare owner Richard Seale has been offering special blends and cask finishes, which are nearly worth a trip to the island to obtain, but some of which may be found in the United States. The Foursquare port-cask finished rum may be the easiest to find, and worth savoring neat to understand how a few months in the right barrel before bottling can enhance and deepen a rum’s appeal.
HAMILTON [WEST INDIES]
Ed Hamilton was an early chronicler of rum (he goes by the “Minister of Rum”) and published a helpful and comprehensive guide to West Indian rums before he got into the importing business. He was among the first to introduce agricole rums from Martinique to latter-day drinkers in the United States, and more recently launched his own line of rums, sourcing brawny, flavorful, high-ester rums from Jamaica, St. Lucia, and Guyana. His Jamaican Pot Still rum is pretty certain to satisfy anyone in search of hogo and that antique “rum stink.”
MOUNT GAY [BARBADOS]
Mount Gay Eclipse is a lightly aged, solid benchmark rum. It’s pleasing straight up, but also not so rare or expensive as to be wasted in mixed drinks. Mount Gay and ginger ale with a lime is hard to beat on a sultry summer day when you’re not up to mounting a more formidable attack on your home cocktail bar. Mount Gay Extra Old and its 1703 expression needs little more than a snifter and maybe a hint of fresh lime. The distillery runs both column and pot stills—a small amount of the more aromatic pot-still rum is blended with the more flavorless column-still rum before being barreled and aged.
NIESSON [MARTINIQUE]
When you order a ti’ punch in Martinique, the odds are strong that the bartender will plunk down some lime pieces, some sugar, and a squarish bottle of Niesson rhum agricole, which you then use to build the punch to your own liking. This is a common rum without much common about it. It has a strong sugarcane aroma and taste, which renders it hazardous in most cocktails—the flavor is just too overpowering to be tamed—but it’s ideal with lime and a touch of sugar. This rum comes from one of the few remaining family-owned small distilleries on the island and the only distillery that uses an extra-slow fermentation method on their sugarcane juice to broaden the flavor.
PAMPERO ANIVERSARIO [VENEZUELA]
Pampero Aniversario is a dense, slightly sweet rum filled with unexpected surprises, like a hint of orange on the first sniff and a touch of vanilla on the first taste. It’s a blend of four- to six-year-old rums—friendly and approachable while still full of the tastes of a classic dense rum. This is an ideal starter rum for those looking to appreciate the joys of sipping, and it will still bring joy to those who have years of rum experience.
PLANTATION [WEST INDIES]
Since the 1990s, Alexandre Gabriel has been traveling the Caribbean and beyond in search of casks of exceptional rum, which are sourced from fifteen different distilleries. These are then brought back to France to be rebarrelled and aged further in used cognac casks (the parent company is respected cognac house Pierre Ferrand) before being released. Of note is their O.F.T.D. (Old Fashioned Traditional Dark), an overproof product made of a blend of funky rums from Jamaica, Guyana, and Barbados selected by a rogues gallery of rum experts and bartenders. In 2017, Plantation acquired a historic distillery in Barbados, along with a share in a famed Jamaican distillery, so watch for new releases of their own in the coming years.
PRIVATEER [UNITED STATES]
This small, Massachusetts-based craft distillery offers plenty of evidence that you don’t need to have centuries of history to produce a stellar rum. Under the oversight of talented distiller Maggie Campbell, Privateer has produced a line of unaged and aged rums that could stand up to anything from legacy distillers in the Caribbean. Privateer takes special care with its barrel program, blending carefully to coax out the best of each member of its barrel family. Two limited bottlings—Navy Yard and Queen’s Share—are worth a detour to the distillery to seek out.
RON ZACAPA CENTENARIO [GUATEMALA]
Ron Zacapa is a gateway rum—a smooth sipping rum often used to persuade people who “don’t like rum” that, actually, they do. The product has altered somewhat in the years since it was acquired by Diageo (and since the first edition of this book). It no longer claims to be aged twenty-three years, but still goes down with remarkable ease. Some find it overly syrupy and sweet—tiki drink expert Jeff Berry says he “can’t imagine drinking it in anything other than a sno-cone”—but it’s won many rum-tasting competitions, appealing to a range of judges who admire its complexity, richness, and depth.
SANTA TERESA 1796 RON ANTIGUO DE SOLERA [VENEZUELA]
This high-end sipping rum is distilled at a Venezuela hacienda dating back to 1796 (hence the name), where rum has been produced since 1857. This region has long been noted for producing an outsized, full-flavored rum, and Santa Teresa adds an intriguing complexity (the rum is aged fifteen years in French Limousin oak), with notes of cherry and apricot. This rum should be enjoyed straight.
[ When It’s Cocktail Time ]
Life would be extravagantly uninteresting if we were limited to just the ten cocktails around which I built this book. What follows is a wholly subjective selection of rum drinks I like. I tend to prefer drinks that skew tart or astringent over sweet, so those who like their libations somewhat sweeter might want to adjust sugar and liqueurs accordingly.
CLASSIC PUNCH
The proto-punch recipe calls for one part sour (lemon or lime juice), two parts sweet (simple syrup), three parts strong (rum, usually), and four parts weak (water or tea, or these days, ginger ale or club soda). This is a catchy recipe and easy to remember; unfortunately it dates from a time when colonials couldn’t get enough sugar. It thus is too sweet for most drinkers today. The more sensible recipe, as advocated by antique cocktail authority David Wondrich is 1:1:4:6. I often use tea as the weak. Lapsang souchong gives it an appealing smokiness; many other teas work just as well. If you opt for ginger ale or another sweetened soda, cut back on the sugar. The following recipe will fill a small bowl (about one and a half gallons) for an intimate party.
2 cups sugar (see Note)
2 cups freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice, or 1 cup of each
8 cups rum (should be medium- to heavy-bodied; does not need to be your best)
12 cups tea
Orange or lemon slices, for garnish
Beat together the sugar and the le
mon juice in a medium bowl until the sugar is mostly dissolved, then combine with the remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Stir until well incorporated. Add a block of ice for cooling, and garnish with orange or lemon slices, or what have you.
Note: For extra depth, make an oleo saccharum: Peel all the lemons before squeezing, and place the peels in a large, tightly sealed jar with the sugar. Let it sit overnight, picking it up and shaking it from time to time. The sugar draws out the oils in the peel, making it extra lemony. The peels can be strained out when making the punch, or just left to float about.
FISH HOUSE PUNCH
Perhaps the most famous “secret” rum drink recipe, made since the eighteenth century at an august Philadelphia fishing club.
2 ounces rum
1 ounce cognac
1 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon peach brandy
Water or club soda
Ripe peaches, sliced, for garnish
Mix together all the ingredients in an ice-filled tall glass and top with water or club soda. Garnish with a few peach slices.
HOT BUTTERED RUM
This recipe is sized for parties. The mixture can also be prepared at first frost and kept in the freezer, providing the base for delicious and easy hot rum drinks throughout a long winter.
1½ ounces rum (heavy-bodied preferred)
1 pound butter, at room temperature
1 pound brown sugar
1 pound granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 quart good-quality vanilla ice cream, slightly softened
In a large bowl, mix together all the ingredients except the ice cream. Then add the ice cream and mix well. Place the mixture in the freezer. To make drinks by the mug, add the rum, 1 tablespoon of the ice cream mix, and fill with boiling water.
PINEAPPLE SYLLABUB
This is a modern variant of a colonial-era drink, using pineapple, the symbol of hospitality.
1½ ounces pineapple rum (recipe follows)
⅛ teaspoon grated lemon zest
½ ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 ounce half & half
¼ ounce honey syrup (mix equal portions of honey and warm water and stir until dissolved)
Grated nutmeg, for garnish
Add all the ingredients to an ice-filled cocktail shaker and shake hard and long until well mixed and frothy. Strain and serve in an old-fashioned glass. Garnish with nutmeg.
PINEAPPLE RUM
½ pineapple, peeled, cored, and cubed
1 liter aged medium-bodied rum, such as Cruzan or Mount Gay
Add the pineapple to the rum in a lidded glass jar or other container, and seal and let sit at room temperature for 3 or 4 days. Strain and bottle.
MEDFORD RUM PUNCH
This punch recipe appears in the 1887 edition of Jerry Thomas’s How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant’s Companion, the first bartender’s manual. Thomas calls specifically for “Medford rum,” suggesting the persistence of this Boston-area rum. Substitute any full-bodied rum.
1 ounce Medford rum
1 ounce medium-bodied rum
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Seasonal berries, for garnish
Lime wedge, for garnish
Shake all the ingredients in an ice-filled cocktail shaker, then pour into a tumbler. Garnish with seasonal berries and the lime wedge, and serve with a straw.
STONE FENCE
The Stone Fence was an early North American drink with roots likely dating to the colonial era. The Oxford English Dictionary notes that it was first mentioned in print in 1808 by American writer Washington Irving. At its most basic, the drink is made of roughly equal portions of spirits (often whiskey) and cider, which was often alcoholic but sometimes not. Rum was substituted where whiskey was in short supply, and I can see no reason not to start with rum—something aged and flavorful that has a bit more gumption. The drink was occasionally garnished with a lemon peel or an orange peel adorned with whole cloves.
2 ounces dark rum
2 ounces cider (either hard or sweet)
Put the rum and 2 or 3 ice cubes in a tall glass. Top with the cider and stir.
RUM TODDY
From the The Stork Club Bar Book (1946).
1½ ounces Jamaican rum
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cloves
Pinch of cinnamon
Lemon slice, for garnish
Put all the ingredients in an old-fashioned glass, add boiling water, and stir. Garnish with the lemon slice.
EGG NOG
Egg nog is a feral drink that somehow escaped alive from the eighteenth century and continues to crop up around holidays when the citizenry revives ancient and obscure yuletide traditions. Many of us grew up menaced by store-bought eggnog, explaining a justifiable aversion to the stuff, which some describe as “phlegmy.” Yet made right, it’s ambrosial. This recipe is adapted from Arnaud’s French 75 in New Orleans, where head barman Chris Hannah prefers to make it with bourbon and cognac. No one will hate you if you make it with a big rum, like Appleton or Doorly’s.
Also, no one makes egg nog by the single glass. You make enough for a punch bowl and serve it to friends; this recipe makes just shy of a gallon, or about 14 cups.
12 pasteurized eggs
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
3 pints whole milk
3 cups heavy cream
12 ounces rum (with character)
5 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
In a large bowl, separate the egg yolks from the egg whites (reserving the whites in a separate bowl), and beat the yolks with an electric mixer for a minute or so. Add the 1 cup sugar and blend until dissolved. Add the milk, cream, rum, and nutmeg (reserving 1 teaspoon nutmeg for garnish) and stir until well mixed. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, then add the remaining 3 tablespoons sugar and continue beating until stiff. Blend the beaten whites into the nog with a whisk and garnish with the remaining nutmeg.
TI’ PUNCH
Short for “petit punch,” this popular drink is served throughout much of the French-speaking West Indies. It’s also extolled by Ed “Minister of Rum” Hamilton. You’ll need to seek out rhum agricole to make this properly (white preferred over aged), and if you can find a bottle of Martinique cane syrup, use that. If not, make a simple syrup using equal parts heated water and unprocessed Demerara sugar.
Small lime wedge (no bigger than a gum drop)
2 ounces rhum agricole blanc (100 proof, if available)
½ to 1 teaspoon sugarcane syrup (“sirop de canne”)
Squeeze the lime wedge into a short glass and add the rum, syrup, and 1 ice cube. Stir briefly, then allow the drink to sit several moments to chill and dilute before drinking.
RUM MILK PUNCH
Milk punch is a New Orleans brunch staple. It’s more typically made with bourbon (or sometimes bourbon and rum), but it’s also delicious when made with a dense, flavorful rum.
2 ounces heavy-bodied rum
2 ounces milk or half & half
½ ounce vanilla extract
½ ounce simple syrup
Grated nutmeg, for garnish
Add all the ingredients to an ice-filled cocktail shaker and shake like you mean it for 30 to 45 seconds. Strain into a rocks glass and garnish with a few scrapes of nutmeg.
RUM OLD-FASHIONED
The bourbon or rye old-fashioned is a late-nineteenth-century classic. The rum old-fashioned I find even more agreeable. A richly aromatic rum like El Dorado or App
leton works best.
1 strip orange peel
1½ ounces rum
¼ ounce simple syrup or bar sugar
2 dashes orange bitters (see Note)
Orange slice and maraschino cherry, for garnish
In a cocktail shaker, lightly muddle the orange peel with the rum and the simple syrup. Remove the peel. Add the bitters and ice and stir until chilled. Pour over fresh ice in an old-fashioned glass and garnish with the orange slice and cherry.
Note: Orange bitters makes a simple rum seem even more regal, but if you don’t have this at hand, Angostura bitters is a perfectly fine substitute.
DAIQUIRI
The classic. This is a simple three-ingredient drink, but getting the balance right requires practice. The sweetness can vary depending on the sugar used, as well as on the tartness of the lime (which can differ seasonally) and the assertiveness of the rum you choose. Start with these proportions and adjust accordingly.
