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Raising The Bar: Falernum, nectar of the tiki gods
Filed under: Juice, Cocktails, Caribbean, Rum, On the Blogs, Spirits, Raising the Bar  There is an ingredient listed on the cocktail menu at Union which receives more quizzical looks, more gasps of surprise when sampled and generates more chatter than anything else we do in the bar. The complexities of it's aroma and flavors are hard to pin down, though everyone tries. This witches brew of cocktail goodness is popping up in scratch cocktail bars all over the nation, and in the well-stocked homes of cocktail aficionados all over the globe.
I'm talking about falernum, the nectar of the...
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Escarchado: A bottle, booze, and a sugary sprig
Filed under: Rum, Liqueurs 
Years ago, my friend's parents were cleaning out their liquor cabinet and gave me the above -- Ermita Ron Escarchado (translated to Ermita Frosty Rum). Holy crap, this stuff is good.
Ecarchado is liqueur enriched with sugar by putting an aniseed branch inside. Sugar than pulls itself out of the liqueur and crystallizes around the sprig and the base of the bottle, which ends up creating a thicker, more sugary liqueur. In the words of my friend, the rum becomes "viscous sh*t." (In the good way.)
The two main types of escarchado, after searching the web, seem to be the ron/rum variety and the...
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Tales of the Cocktail: Judgement Day
Filed under: Lush Life, Rum 
They call New Orleans the Big Easy, but yesterday was big, but not easy, as I spent my first full day here, prior to the start of Tales of the Cocktail. I am one of the 24 judges for the 2008 Ministry of Rum Tasting Competition, a strict rum judging event coordinated by the Ministry of Rum at Tales. There was a long list of people who were considered as judges for this event and Ed Hamilton, the head of the Ministry, spent several weeks winnowing down the list to some of the top rummies around.
We met at the famous Arnauds restaurant for the...
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Raising the Bar: If you like PiƱa Coladas. . .
Filed under: Caribbean, Rum, Raising the Bar, Summer  . . . and I know a few of you do during the dog days of summer, here's an alternative to that ubiquitous coconut libation.
The original Painkiller has its genesis in the wonderfully named Soggy Dollar Bar, on the island of Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. Since there is no dock for sailors to tie up to, they are forced to swim to shore. Of course, the money gets wet so the proprietors had the novel idea of stringing up a clothesline to air-dry the money. So there you have it, the Soggy Dollar...
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Beat the heat with a Mojita Granita
Filed under: Rum, On the Blogs, Summer 
Looking for a good, slightly boozy way to beat the heat? If so, consider checking out the Mojito Granita recipe that Rob at the Foo(d) Bar Blog has concocted. He'd been considering making one of the granita recipes featured on NPR last summer, but an overgrown backyard mint patch convinced him that he needed to devise a way to use what he had. Thus the Mojito Granita was born.
He cooked up a simple syrup that he infused with several sprigs of mint, mixed that with freshly squeezed lime juice, rum and chopped mint leaves and...
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Pairings Coconut Ice Cream with Warm Rum Glazed Pineapple
Filed under: Recipes, Rum, Spirit of Summer 
Here is the recipe from Pairings Food & Wine Education Center, and Chef Robert Waldron, of Pairings Coconut Ice Cream with Warm Rum Glazed Pineapple, mentioned in Chapter Five of "Diary of a Distiller."
Coconut Ice Cream
Chef Robert M Waldron
Ingredients
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1 quart Half & Half
2 cans coconut cream
1/2 Tbs vanilla extract
1 (15 oz avg) bag coconut flakes, 3 oz. reserved for toasting.
tools
ice cream maker
measuring cups and spoons
plastic containers
large whisk or slotted spoon
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Tuesday Happy Hour: Hard Root Beer
Filed under: Recipes, Rum, Happy Hour, Soda, Summer  Though I drank a lot of root beer years ago, these days all of my soda needs are taken up by Diet Coke and Pepsi (yes, I have someone learned to love both of them). But icy cold root beer can hit the spot on a warm day. I have to admit I've never had it with alcohol involved.
But AOL Food has the recipe (from DrinksTV) for Hard Root Beer, which is basically 8 ounces of root beer and 2 ounces of spiced rum. Pretty simple and delicious-sounding (unless, of course, you don't...
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Cocktail Ingredients Quiz
Filed under: Whisky, Vodka, Cocktails, Gin, Rum, Spirits, Liquor Cabinet, Liqueurs, Tequila, Brandy, Guilty Pleasures 
Know what gives a Mai Tai its signature sweet, or what morphs a Martini into a Gibson? Just wanna know a dram more about mixology? We've got the quiz for you.
There's an exceptionally steep curve when it comes to spirits savvy, so we're just hoping there's a li'l something in there to quench everyone's thirsts. Take the quiz and c'mon back to gloat or glower.
Cocktail Ingredients QuizRecipes, Champagne, Cocktails, Rum, How To, Spirits, Raising the Bar, Spring, Summer Nothing signifies late spring/early summer better for me than to see a bartender muddling mint for a cocktail. The light, clean flavors of mint bring a certain delicacy and refreshing quality to a drink, whether it be in the iconic Mint Julep, the omnipresent Mojito or any number of classic or new creations. On a hot summer day, nothing beats a cocktail elevated with the crisp flavor of mint.
Given its fragility, mint is an easy herb to abuse. I've been to a number...
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Hump Day Happy Hour: Blueberry Smash
Filed under: Recipes, Cocktails, Rum  I've never been one for cocktails with a lot of fruit flavor. The sweetness of many of these drinks gets to me after a while.
But this one sounds both refreshing and strong (though not too strong) and seems like a perfect drink for spring. It's the Blueberry Smash. You have to muddle blueberries and mint leaves. I'm not sure I've ever muddled anything, but it's one of my favorite words. Muddle! Full recipe after the jump. Continue reading Hump Day Happy Hour: Blueberry Smash
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