Rum is the most diverse spirit in the world and exploring this mammoth category, while at times challenging, is something I’m really passionate about. There’s such a plethora of rum styles available in the world and consequently there are a mind-boggling number of flavours to choose from.
I love experimenting with rum in various cocktails and given its assortment of profiles it only makes sense that it can be used in cocktail classics that would normally call for a different spirit. See for example the Wordsmith that uses Smith & Cross to substitute for the gin in The Last Word, or the Kingston Negroni which also replaces the gin for a Jamaican rum, or simply a Palmetto which is basically a Sweet Manhattan made with aged rum.
Swapping a spirit for another in a set recipe is not new practice and I won’t pretend I’m breaking new grounds, some of the drinks in this list will be very obvious for anyone that loves a tot of rum while others will use less known classics’ recipes. The reason I’m doing this is to maybe inspire both rum and cocktail lovers to try something new – and I also had a lot of fun doing it, so why not! The classics in here use recipes that are as close to the originals as possible with a few tweaks for balance or just to make them easier to make at home.
Now get your jiggers ready and let’s do this!
1. Rum Old Fashioned
Yes, I know, this might not be a revelation for many, but I still meet plenty of people that raise an eyebrow at me when I recommend them to use rum for their Old Fashioneds.
Old Fashioneds, while very heavily associated with American whiskey, is more of a style of a drink that calls for sugar, spirit, bitters and water (dilution). In fact that exact combination of ingredients is what it was considered a true cocktail according to “The Balance and Columbian Repository”, a New York newspaper who published the definition on the 13th of May 1806. While “cocktails” were made with all kinds of spirits, in America, due to the popularity of the whiskey, The Whiskey Cocktail was very popular by the late 1700s – this concoction was served straight up as opposed to the Old Fashioneds nowadays.
As it happens with famous drinks, many twists for this “Whisky Cocktail” arose using various modifiers and liqueurs such as Chartreuse, absinthe and maraschino. In order to avoid these tweaked versions, some people would just ask for the “Old Fashioned Whisky Cocktail” and so the name stuck. The drink evolved into being served over ice with a lemon or orange peel or even muddled with various fruits such as cherries or pineapple (that was Post Prohibition, most likely to mask the taste of poorly made bootleg whiskey).
Nowadays an Old Fashioned is usually made with bourbon, a lump of sugar, a touch of water and Angostura bitters which are stirred down with an orange peel. Some use sugar already dissolved in the form of syrup to fasten the process, which is fine, just please, do not muddle any fruits inside. My Rum Old Fashioned asks for syrup as well along with orange bitters for consistency.
Almost any aged rum can be used for this recipe, although I would recommend avoiding really high ester, funky ones as they might become unbalanced with the addition of bitters. I went for the Mount Gay XO, a Barbadian rum with both bourbon and cognac influences that would turn almost any whisky drinker around.
Recipe:
Mount Gay XO – 50ml
Sugar Syrup (2:1) – 5-7ml (by taste)
Angostura Bitters – 2-3 dashes (by taste)
Orange Bitters – 1-2 dashes (by taste)
Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass and stir down with cubed ice while periodically tasting it for its level of dilution and potential tweaking. Strain in a chilled tumbler glass and pack it with cubed ice. Garnish with an orange peel after expressing its oils on top of the drink.
Alternative rum recommendations: Doorly’s XO, Doorly’s 12 & 14 Year Old, R.L. Seale 10 Year Old, Mount Gay Black Barrel, Appleton 8 to 21 Year Old, El Dorado 8 Year Old, Black Tot Finest Caribbean, Havana 7 Year Old, Real McCoy 10 & 12 Year Old, Chairman’s Forgotten Cask, Chairman’s Legacy, Santiago 8 to 12 Year Old, Montanya Exclusiva, Montanya Valentia.
Alternative name: Rumfashioned – something I heard many people calling it, and honestly , it has a nice ring to it.
Additional notes: Difford’s Guide has a Rum Old Fashioned recipe that asks for Falernum and a splash of overproof rum, but I believe it’s a little too modified from the original and not something someone ordering an Old Fashioned with rum would necessarily expect.
2. Rum Highball
Similar to the Old Fashioned, the highball is a style of drink that has spirit and a carbonated mixer – for example the famous gin & tonic is a highball. The one drink that’s the, let’s say, purest form of a highball is the Whisky Highball, or simply put, whisky and soda. Now why would I talk about combining rum with something as seemingly boring as soda when there are other more famous rum highballs such as Wray & Ting or the obvious rum & coke? Before let’s talk a little about the Whisky Highball.
For such a simple drink, it sure has some confusing origins. It seems the first time the term “highball” makes an appearance was in a play by Ha Du Souchet in 1894 where the main character asks for a “high ball of whiskey”. Patrick Gavin Duff claimed in his 1934 “The Official Mixer’s Guide” that he brought the highball to America in 1985 and Tommy Dewar of the Dewars Scotch brand said he had discovered the highball 14 years earlier.
That being said, the English were the ones to invent sparkling drinks with the carbonated water dating back to 1767. Now take brandy, which was already popular in England, add it to the sparkling water and you have a Brandy Highball prototype – without ice, as it wasn’t that popular or available at the time. Mainly because of the Napoleonic wars and, later on, the phylloxera plague which decimated the French vineyards, the English made the switch from brandy to Scotch due to its availability.
The term “highball” has 2 potential origins, one being a reference to an old railroad term for the ball indicator connected to a float inside a steam train’s water tank that would tell the conductor there’s enough water in the tank for the train to proceed. The second one might be from England/Ireland where a “ball” would refer to a term for whisky served in a tall glass, specifically in Ireland or in the late 19th century gold clubs in England.
The Whisky Highballs are very popular in Japan as they are a good beverage to have while eating that still lets you enjoy the whisky flavours. So there’s why you should mix rum with soda rather than any other flavoured carbonated mixer if you want a simple, long drink. There are many rums that are on par or even more complex than whisky at a more accessible price, so it would be a shame to drown all that flavour with something as Coca-Cola.
It might look very basic, but there’s a beauty to highballs and it all comes from the base spirit you choose to have it with. A Rum Highball would work best with an aged, intense rum that can get through all that dilution while retaining its profile. Unaged funky rums could work as well, but I prefer the warm spices and ripe fruit flavours you can get from the wood influence. My choice was Smith & Cross, a punchy 57% ABV blend of Jamaican rums that packs a lot of tropical fruit flavours as well as a nice, rounded oaky profile – it might be too much for some by itself, but some soda makes it very pleasant and easy to drink.
Recipe:
Smith & Cross – 50ml
Soda Water – 50-150ml (by taste, I prefer 100ml)
Add the rum to a highball glass, pack it with cubed ice and add the soda on top. Make sure to top it with more ice to prevent fast dilution and give it a gentle stir. No garnish.
Alternative rum recommendations: Hampden 8 Year Old, Pusser’s Gunpowder, Worthy Park 109, Rum-Bar Gold, Doctor Bird or, if you can afford it, any heavy Caroni.
Alternative name: Rumball – my own take, not to be confused with the desert.
Additional notes: You can always spice up your Rum Highball with a dash or two of Angostura bitters if you think it’s too thin.
3. Rum Espresso Martini
Another no-brainer, but it’s too good to not mention – also I am of the belief that any drink made with vodka would taste better with any other spirit. The Espresso Martini is a contemporary classic also known originally as the Vodka Espresso and, when served on the rocks, as a Pharmaceutical Stimulant.
The Espresso Martini was created in 1983 by Dick Bradsell at the Soho Brasserie for, allegedly, a top model that asked for a drink that would “wake her up and, *AHEM* her up”. Vodka was quite popular at the time, the coffee machine was nearby and so the Vodka Espresso was invented. The drink was renamed Espresso Martini to appeal more to the people of that era. Love an uncomplicated origin story!
The Espresso Martini is a simple combination of vodka, freshly made espresso, coffee liqueur and a touch of sugar. It’s preferable that the coffee is fresh, but if that’s not possible, at least make sure it’s good quality – no matter how good the spirit is, the espresso is the main player here.
Due to the rich, dark nature of the drink, it’s only natural that rum would be fitting that profile. Most Navy Style rums would do, just be aware sometimes the ingredients might need tweaking, taking ABV into consideration as well. I went with El Dorado 8 Year Old as it is one of those rich Demerara rums with pleasant caramel notes that can carry through the coffee’s intensity and it clocks at the standard 40% ABV so it’s easy to use without much modification to the recipe.
Recipe:
El Dorado 8 Year Old – 50ml
Fair Coffee Liqueur – 15ml
Espresso – 35ml
Sugar Syrup (2:1) – 2.5-5ml (by taste, you can omit it altogether)
Add all the ingredients to a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously with cubed ice. Double strain into a coupe glass and garnish with 3 coffee beans in the middle of the drink.
Alternative rum recommendations: El Dorado 12 Year Old, Pusser’s Blue Label, Skipper’s Rum, Black Tot Finest Caribbean, Appleton 12 Year Old, Santiago 12 Year Old, That Boutique-y Rum Company Signature Blend #2.
Alternative name: Espresso Rumtini – another name that’s already popular among cocktail enthusiasts.
Additional notes: Spiced Rum Espresso Martinis are also very popular, but I consider spiced rums a separate category from rums.
4. Rum Sazerac
You could call the Sazerac the cousin of the Old Fashioned, they are both quite similar, but the Sazerac relies more on aromatic, herbal notes to compliment the spirit – usually cognac, rye whiskey or bourbon, or even a combination of them.
Sazerac originated from New Orleans and it contains one core ingredient, namely the Peychaud’s aromatic bitters, a creole style of bitters made by Antoine Amedee Peychaud. He arrived in New Orleans as a refugee in 1795 and grew up to be a pharmacist and because bitters were popular at the time he created a “medicinal tonic” which he called American Aromatic Bitter Cordial. He did actually serve brandy with bitters and various other liqueurs as well, but he’s not responsible for inventing the Sazerac.
Around 1850, Sewell T. Taylor gave up being the owner of the New Orleans bar, the Merchant’s Exchange Coffee House, to become a local agent for the French cognac company Sazerac-du-Forge et Fils. It was at the Exchange Coffee House where the Sazerac Cocktail was created sometime between 1850 and 1859 and it was named after Taylor’s Sazerac cognac. At the time it was mixed with sugar and Peychaud’s bitters, the absinthe came later on around the same time when the phylloxera aphid once again changed a classic by making cognac unavailable in the late 1860s-1870s. After that rye whisky became the norm as it was popular in America at the time and then when bourbon took over the American palate it also became an option for the Sazerac.
So if a drink like the Sazerac can use these 3 different style of spirits, why wouldn’t it work with rum? Similar with the Old Fashioned, almost any aged rum would work, except the ones that have a very high ester count. Due to its cognac-y profile I picked the Equiano Original Rum, a blend made with Barbadian and Mauritian rums aged in ex-Bourbon and respectively French oak casks. It’s a pretty easy drink to make, the only thing you should be aware of is how you use the Peychaud’s – add a couple more drops if the rum is too soft or less if it has enough oak spice.
Recipe:
Equiano Original – 50ml
Peychaud’s Bitters 1-4 dashes (by taste)
Sugar Syrup (2:1) – 5ml
Absinthe – 5ml
Add all the ingredients except the absinthe to a mixing glass and stir down with cubed ice while periodically tasting it for its level of dilution and potential tweaking. Meanwhile add the absinthe to a chilled tumbler glass, wash the inside of the glass with it and discard any excess – the absinthe is there just for the aroma, not the taste. Pour the drink into the tumbler (no ice), gently express the oils of a lemon zest and discard it.
Alternative rum recommendations: Black Tot Finest Caribbean, HSE Eleve Sous Bois, HSE Black Sheriff (or most aged agricole rhums), Mount Gay XO, Doorly’s XO, Doorly’s 12 & 14 Year Old, El Dorado 8 to 15 Year Old, Ninefold Cask Aged, That Boutique-y Rum Company Signature Blend #2, Appleton 8 to 21 Year Old, Santiago de Cuba 8 to 12 Year Old, Chairman’s Legacy, Chairman’s Forgotten Cask, Montanya Exclusiva, Montanya Valentia.
Alternative name: Sazerum – pretty happy with this one, as obvious as it is.
Additional notes: The Sazerac Cocktail has been trademarked by the Sazerac Company since 1900 – I hope they don’t come after me for putting rum in it…
5. Rum Dry Martini
Here’s a drink that almost everyone has claimed to have invented therefore not making things easier for me writing about it, so I’ll keep it short. This cocktail went through plenty of variations and iterations before becoming the dry, elegant drink that is sometimes associated with James Bond.
With its muddled origins, one thing that most agree upon is that the Martini most likely originated from the Martinez, a sweeter style of drink that uses gin, which in turn came from the Manhattan. The first known recipe for the Martinez appeared in 1884 in O.H Byron’s “The Modern Bartender” and later in his second edition of his “Bartender Manual” (1888) he listed a “Martini Cocktail” with Old Tom Gin, curacao, bitters, sugar syrup and a lemon twist.
The drink and its variations became increasingly drier, probably helped by the emergence of the London Dry gin category and heavy advertisements from the Martini & Rossi who launched a Dry Martini vermouth at the beginning of the 20th century.
In present the Martini is one of the simplest cocktails, but very easy to get wrong, it’s all about temperature and dilution. Now for the rum, I went for something a little special, a clairin from Haiti, Saint Benevolence, which is made from sugar cane juice and sugar cane syrup in a very traditional, rustic manner. Its grassy, savoury and smoky notes make it perfect for a martini to be enjoyed with olives. My recipe contains a little more dry vermouth than many would prefer, but I found it works so don’t shout at me.
Recipe:
Saint Benevolence – 60ml
Cocchi Extra Dry Vermouth – 10ml
Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass and stir down with cubed ice while periodically tasting it for its level of dilution and especially temperature. Strain into a chilled martini glass or Nick & Nora – I dislike wide V shaped glasses as they are not great at keeping the drink cold. Garnish with olives.
Alternative rum recommendations: Clairin Communal (or any unaged Clairin), Renegade Pre-Cask rums, unaged agricole rhums.
Alternative name: Clear Martini – as clairin is creole for “clear”… clever, right?
Additional notes: Feel free to add some olive brine for extra savouriness and whatever you do, DO NOT SHAKE YOUR MARTINI.
6. Rum White Russian
Enough fancy drinks for now, let’s get creamy! Another contemporary classic that involves vodka and coffee liqueur (with the addition of cream) that is way more delicious if you use a good tipple of rum as the main spirit.
The origin of the drink is also quite unclear, but in my searches there’s a mention of a Belgian bartender called Gustave Tops that in 1949 “dreamt up two luxurious cocktails” – the White Russian & the Black Russian. Other mentions say that the White Russian came after the Black Russian, which is simply only vodka and coffee liqueur, sometimes with some Cola added. Its name is based on its appearance as well as the influence of the main vodka brands at the time, Smirnoff and Stolichnaya, which were Russian.
While the White Russian’s popularity decreased over the years, it was made famous again by the 1998 movie called The Big Lebowski when the main character’s (The Dude) preferable drink was the White Russian, although called the Caucassian throughout the movie – he consumed 7 of them.
As mentioned, the White Russian is equal parts of vodka, coffee liqueur and cream that are stirred down. For my rum version I used Pusser’s Gunpowder, a blend of Guyanese rum bottled at Navy Strength with intense notes of caramel, dark chocolate and liquorice. Because of the intensity of the rum, I upped the cream measure a little so it retains the easy-to-drink nature that the drink is known and loved for.
Recipe:
Pusser’s Gunpowder – 25ml
Fair Coffee Liqueur – 25ml
Double Cream – 35ml
Add all the ingredients to a tumbler glass, add cubed ice and stir a few times to integrate the ingredients. It does not require intense mixing.
Alternative rum recommendations: Wood’s Navy, Worthy Park 109, Skipper’s Dark Rum, Gosling’s.
Alternative name: White Gunpowder – an obvious choice which I really like.
Additional notes: There’s also already a rum White Russian variation called White Cuban that asks for aged Havana rum instead of the vodka, but I believe dark rums, usually caramel laced, would work better in combination with the coffee liqueur.
7. Rum Champagne Cocktail
If you’re a rum lover like me, you would have at least a few bottles of rum in your repertoire, but not all your of friends would get that when it comes to presents on various occasions. A bottle of champagne or sparkling wine is a standard gift, but if you are reluctant in drinking it and you prefer rum, then I got a solution for you to not let the bubbles waste.
Originally the Champagne Cocktail, similar to the Whiskey Cocktail, was a combination of sugar, bitters and champagne served in a tumbler over ice with the first written mention of it happening in 1855 in “Panama in 1855. An Account of the Panama Rail-road, of the cities of Panama and Aspinwall with sketches of life and characters on the Isthmus” by Robert Tomes (such a short title, eh?). The drink evolved over the years into being served straight up without ice with added cognac and the recipe from W. J. Tarling’s “Cafe Royal Cocktail Book” in 1937 is quite close, using a wine glass, a sugar lump saturated with Angostura bitters, a lump of ice, a slice of orange and Champagne. “A dash of brandy as required.” is also mentioned.
The way I make a Champagne Cocktail is in a Champagne flute with the sugar lump soaked in with Angostura bitters, a measure of Cognac and Champagne. The sugar and bitters help the drink evolve as you drink from it and the cube dissolving also creates more bubbles – some citrus oils such as lemon or orange can help elevate the cocktail as well, but I prefer not to put any peel inside it.
As for the rum, I went with Ron Santiago de Cuba 11 Year Old due to its fruity, yet dry nature that works very well with the champagne.
Recipe:
Ron Santiago de Cuba 11 Year Old – 25ml
Brown Sugar Cube – 1
Angostura Bitters – 2-3 dashes
Champagne/Sparkling Wine – 125ml
Add the sugar cube soaked in Angostura to a chilled flute glass and pour the rum measure over. Top with the champagne, spray the oils from an orange zest on top and discard it.
Alternative rum recommendations: Santiago De Cuba 8 Year Old, Appleton 8 Year Old, Rum-Bar Gold Worthy Park Single Estate Reserve, Duppy Share Aged, Doorly’s XO, Montanya Exclusiva and most of aged agricole rhums.
Alternative name: Rumpagne Cocktail – pretty lame, but it’s the best I’ve got right now.
Additional notes: Just make sure you use a champagne or sparkling wine of good quality.
8. Rum Mint Julep
Time to whip out the mint from the garden… or supermarket! The Julep is such an underrated category nowadays so I want to bring it in the spotlight, but obviously, will do so by using cane spirit rather than the bourbon is usually associated with. Similarly with the Old Fashioned, a Rum Julep is not groundbreaking, you can find recipes all over Google, but it’s too delicious and too much of an underdog to not highlight it.
The word julep has an interesting origin, coming from the Persian word “gulab” which breaks down into “gol” (water) and “ab” (flower) which was referring to a rosewater scented syrup. In Arabic the word evolved into “julab” and in Latin into “julapium” and because monks in medieval Europe were in continuous search for life/health giving elixirs so did the pletoria of plants used to infuse syrups. Therefore it is considered that the julep originated somewhere in Persia and it travelled to Europe where the mint replaced flower petals – soon it crossed the Atlantic where it was mixed with the likes of brandy, rum or whiskey. To understand how old the julep is, it appears in a 1634 poem written by John Milton that was performed before John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater, at Lodlow Castle, England (I won’t quote the poem for space purposes, but feel free to look it up).
The Bourbon Mint Julep is heavily associated with the Kentucky Derby since 1938 when it became its official drink. The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annualy in the first Saturday of May at Churchill Downs Louisville, Kentucky, USA. The silver drinking cups were already popular in the southern states of USA and they were used as gifts or prizes for different events, including… yep, horse races winners – so it was just a matter of time before the metal cups and julep came together to make the ultimate Kentucky Derby drink.
The most well known Julep is the one made with bourbon along with mint and sugar syrup – now guess what other spirit goes well with mint and sugar… For the Rum Mint Julep I’d say almost any aged rum works, especially one with more body/flavour and fruity flavours – the only ones that I wouldn’t particulary recommend would be the ones that have a caramel/molasses profile, but even those wouldn’t hinder the drink much.
My rum of choice for this drink is the Chairman’s Legacy, an aged rum from Saint Lucia made from molasses and a small percentage of cane juice which gives it spicy and fruity notes that are complemented by the mint-sugar combo. This concoction relies heavily on the dilution of the crushed ice and the metal cups are ideal at providing that, as the drink evolves while the ice melts.
Recipe:
Chairman’s Legacy – 50ml
Sugar Syrup (2:1) – 5-10ml (by taste)
Mint Leaves – 10-15
Add all the ingredients to a julep cup, add crushed ice and churn throughouly until the outside of the cup becomes frosty. Garnish with a mint spring and drink it using a straw or a julep strainer.
Alternative rum recommendations: Chairman’s 1931, Smith & Cross, Rum-Bar Gold, Worthy Park Reserve, Hampden 8 Year Old, Appleton 8 & 12 Year Old, Mezan XO, Mount Gay Black Barrel, Mount Gay XO, R.L. Seale’s 10 Year Old, That Boutique-y Rum Company Signature Blend #2, Black Tot Finest Caribbean, J. Gow Revenge, J. Gow Fading Light, Montanya Valentia.
Alternative name: Rum Julep – I mean, pretty on the nose/ Legacy Julep – if used with my chosen rum.
Additional notes: The julep strainer’s purpose was to be able to drink the julep without having the ice and mint coming in your face – that was before straws were the norm.
9. Rum Aviation
This is a little bit of an obscure classic recipe – a cocktail that has very much passed the test of time, but not many would ask for one nowadays. It still remains a very good, complex drink, but one that is on the dry side which won’t please the general public. That’s the beauty about cocktails though, you get to choose your preference, and if you prefer something tart with a touch of herbal-floral note, then the Aviation is for you.
The person credited for creating the drink is Hugo R. Ensslin who was the head bartender at New York’s Hotel Wallick. The cocktail’s first written recipe was in his “Recipes for Mixed Drinks”. Because the development of the drink was during the early age of aeronautics and its colour was similar to that of the sky due to the creme de violette, the cocktail was aptly named Aviation.
Because of the creme de violette’s scarcity in some parts of the world, some Aviation recipes don’t call for it, as seen in Henry Craddock’s 1930 “The Savoy Cocktail Book” – not a fan of that as it’s the violette that makes this drink stand out in both appearance and taste.
So the Aviation is a combination of lemon, gin, maraschino liqueur as a sweetener and creme de violette as a modifier. Some recipes might ask for equal parts of maraschino and violette, but I believe that throws off the delicate balance of the drink – just a little bit of violette goes a long way here.
For the rum version, in order to replace the gin, I went with Saint James Imperial Blanc due to its grassy, vegetal and floral balanced profile. Any unaged agricole rhum that’s not over 45% ABV should also work.
Recipe:
Saint James Imperial Blanc – 40ml
Lemon Juice – 20ml
Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur – 15ml
The Bitter Truth Violet Liqueur – 7ml
Add all the ingredients to a shaker and shake with cubed ice. Double strain into a Nick & Nora (or any pretty coupe) and garnish with a Luxardo cherry.
Alternative rum recommendations: HSE Blanc 40%, Clement Blanc, Damoiseau Blanc 40%.
Alternative name: Rhum The Sky – a play on the word “roam”, alluring at the planes flying, I’m very proud of this one.
Additional notes: The violet liqueur used is very important, as not all of them have the desired effect for this cocktail, but I found that The Bitter Truth one is great in both flavour in colour.
10. Rum Clover Club
Here’s a pink drink that doesn’t have the cloying sweetness that would make your teeth feel like they’re rotting. A very under-appreciated cocktail, the Clover Club is a lovely combo of raspberry, gin, lemon and egg white for extra fluffiness – and despite its appearance, it is actually very balanced when done right, with a lovely sourness to it.
The drink is named after after a club founded in 1896 by a group of prominent Philadelphia journalists which started hanging at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel since its opening in 1904. The group was in time comprised of writers, lawyers, bankers and important businessmen and it was named… well, the Clover Club. The recipe was initially published in 1901 in the New York Press which predates the Bellevue-Stratford’s opening year, so nobody knows exactly who made it the signature drink of the aforementioned group.
Because of the drink’s pink “girly” look it fell out of fashion, but it was brought back during this era’s cocktail craze and even a venue called the Clover Club was opened by Julie Rener, who also featured the Clover Club cocktail on the menu, but with the addition of dry vermouth.
The version I’m using is without the dry vermouth as I’ve never made one and frankly, I don’t think it needs it as I already find it great – change my mind! That being said, while the original recipe asks for raspberry syrup, I stole the recipe of the one of the bars I used to work at that subbed the recipe for raspberry jam and fresh raspberries – I added some simple syrup for balancing as well, just please do not use grenadine.
My rum iteration for this uses the Jamaican, unaged, pot still distilled Rum-Bar Silver due to its fruity notes, one of which is raspberry. I would stress that, while I will recommend other rums, it works best with the “underproof” Rum-Bar – otherwise use any rum that has a high percentage of Jamaican pot still in the blend.
Recipe:
Rum-Bar Silver – 50ml
Lemon Juice – 25ml
Sugar Syrup (2:1) – 10ml (omit if you prefer your drink more on the tart side)
Organic Raspberry Jam – 2 barspoons
Fresh Raspberries – 4
Egg White – 25ml or the egg white of a single egg
Add all the ingredients to a shaker and shake with cubed ice. Strain the content to the shaker and dry shake again (without ice) for that extra fluff. Double strain into a coupe and garnish with a floating raspberry in the middle.
Alternative rum recommendations: Duppy White, Streamertail, William George, Wray & Nephew Overproof (for extra kick, although the drink wouldn’t be as balanced).
Alternative name: Rum Club – because why not?/ Silver Club – if used with my chosen rum.
Additional notes: If you are using the jam, make sure it’s not a cheap supermarket one, use an organic jam that preserves the taste of the raspberries.
I hope this article managed to give you some ideas of how to mix some of your rums. Many thanks to Difford’s Guide which was very helpful in writing about the background of these classics and to Trailer Happiness for allowing me to do the drinks’ photo shoot.
For any questions, feedback, corrections or suggestions please feel free to contact me or email me at alex@therumbarrel.co.uk.
You can find more cocktail recipes at The Cocktail Barrel section.
Cheers!
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