The Cocktail Barrel #5

While I took my time, I managed to create a few rummy concoctions in time for the summer! For more recipes visit The Cocktail Barrel and for any questions or recipes just get in touch with me. You can follow all the recipes as they come out one at a time on my socials on Facebook and/or Instagram.

Since it has been a while since I made something at home and I was really craving something fairly strong.

I grabbed my bottle of Dram Mor Diamond Distillery and made something Manhattan-ish using Umeshu.

Dram Mor are an independent bottler from Scotland that deal mainly with whiskies but delved into rums as well.

Their Diamond Distillery is a single cask rum distilled in the wooden pot still, the Port Mourant, and aged for 10 years with 5 months being a finish in first fill Buffalo Trace casks.

Here is:

Devil Fruit (yes, anime reference)

Dram Mor Diamond Distillery – 50ml
Choya Extra Years Umeshu – 25ml
Discarded Sweet Cascara Vermouth – 15ml
Absinthe – 5ml
Cucumber water – 5ml
Walnut Bitters – 2 dashes

Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass and stir until chilled. Strain into a coupe glads and pop an ume fruit in it.

A great blend of bright and dark playing well with the rich, yet floral profile of the Port Mourant distillate.

There’s a a touch of bitterness as well that makes you crave for more. Not sure if it will offer you superpowers though.

Sustainability is one of the big subjects in the modern world and there are some beverage companies out there that are doing their best to offset the damage to the environment.

One of those companies is Discarded Spirits who make a range of products using produce that would be otherwise thrown away – or discarded, eh?

Discarded Banana Peel Rum is made with rum used to season casks for single malt finishes and is infused with banana peels – you know, the stuff nobody (I think) eats.

The drink I chose to make is a riff on one of my favourite cocktails, the Jungle Bird and uses both their Banana Peel Rum and their Cascara Vermouth.

Here is:

Left Ain’t Right (leftovers are not right!)

Lime Juice – 10ml
Organic Maple Syrup – 10ml
Campari – 10ml
Smith & Cross – 10ml
Discarded Cascara Sweet Vermouth – 20ml
Discarded Banana Peel Rum – 30ml
Franklin & Sons Pineapple Mixer With Almonds – Top

Add all the ingredients to a shaker except the pineapple mixer, shake and strain into a highball over cubed ice. Top with the pineapple almond mixer and garnish with pineapple leaves, dry lime & and dry pineapple on a pick pointing left.

Sweet and bitter, but not as heavy as a Jungle Bird, this turns more into kind of an aperitif drink thanks to the Cascara Vermouth.

Coffee, pineapple, banana and bitterness, it’s a great mix. Added the Smith & Cross for a bit of oomph.

This was when I just purchased some Oloroso sherry and I was looking to make a refreshing drink by pairing it with rum.

And what better rum than Doorly’s XO? This blend of pot and column stills distillates from Foursquare Distillates have been aged in ex-Bourbon barrels and finished in former Oloroso barrels – makes it a pretty obvious choice, right?

I was craving a long, fizzy drink and I am quite happy with the result:

Doorly’s XO-loroso Highball

Lime Juice – 15ml
John D. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum – 25ml
Lustau Oloroso Sherry – 25ml
Doorly’s XO – 30ml
Franklin & Sons Pineapple Almond Mixer – Top (75ml)

Add all the ingredients except the mixer to a highball, fill with cubed ice, top with the mixer and give it a quick stir. Garnish with a lime peel and some lime leaves for the aroma.

Rum, Falernum and Sherry? A winner combo!

Exactly what I needed, a long, tropical-y cocktail with nutty layers – not to mention it’s dangerously easy to make!

It’s not the first time I adapt a drink I made for a whisky cocktail competition into a concoction that uses rum.

The idea was simply to make a “girly” looking drink that does pack a punch (the original used cask strength whisky) in order to throw off all those people whose fragile masculinity doesn’t allow them to enjoy a cocktail out of a Nick & Nora glass, especially with a strawberry on top.

Now that the rant is over, for the rum I chose Smith & Cross, a lovely blend of Jamaican rums that is intense both in flavour and alcohol level.

I give you:

Straw & Cross

Lime Juice – 15ml
Strawberry Sorrel Mix* – 15ml
Briottet Creme De Banane – 15ml
Reagans’ Orange Bitters – 4 drops
Smith & Cross – 35ml

Add all the ingredients to a tin, shake vigorously, double strain into a Nick & Nora glass and garnish with a strawberry fan on the rim and icing sugar.

The sorrel mix, which is a blend of spices, strawberries and sugar, pairs perfectly with funky, tropical profile of the Smith & Cross while the banana liqueur accentuates the funk and the lime and orange bitters just give the drink a bit of an edge.

*Message me for the recipe.