Rum is, quite literally, a very sticky subject,
and if it confuses you then please know that you're not alone.
Rum is a distilled spirit made from sugar cane but that's about all everyone can
agree on. Well that and the fact that it makes
darn tasty drinks. It may be known for tiki drinks but it can also work really
well in stirred down sippers and even my very
favorite indulgent dessert cocktail. Which is why I wanted to show you how
versatile it can actually be with these five very tasty and very
different rum cocktails.
The first of our rum cocktails today is The Hurricane.
Now this is probably one of the most misunderstood drinks of all time
so don't worry if you've had an overly sweet and sugary one,
this is not it. I prefer to think of it as more of
a very rum heavy rum sour with a little tropical pop of passion fruit
and that iconic serve keeping it fun.
So first we're just gonna
squeeze some fresh lemon juice. Being thrifty I've used this one for
a twist for another drink. Good juicy one.
And then we'll get our garnish ready as well. You can obviously use
cocktail cherries we just happen to have some nice fresh cherries here,
which I thought would be a lovely addition, so just skewer one of them
and your orange wedge.
So we're gonna go 40 mils of light rum.
I'm using pampero blanco it's just really
nice and kind of fruity, but really any good quality light rum or white rum is
going to work for you.
And then the same amount, so 40 ml, of your dark rum. I'm using plantation original dark
definitely a good buy and it's not super expensive.
We'll do 30 ml of passion fruit syrup, this is pretty easy to make, I'll pop the
recipe in (the description) for you. Then 30 mls of your fresh lemon juice.
I'm gonna fill your shaker with as much ice as you can fit in there.
Pop your tins together and shake as hard as you can.
As you can see your tin is all nice and frosty. Pop it open.
Give it a little taste.
It's pretty lethal.
Grab your glass out of the fridge or freezer and then you
can just pour straight in with the rest of it.
Because it is such a big glass I've just popped a little bit of fresh ice in the
bottom because probably what you have in here will not quite fill it all the way up.
And you just need your straw.
Pop in your garnish and there we have a Hurricane.
If made properly the Hurricane will be tart and refreshing and transport you to
a tropical beach immediately. However if you're more of a
late night cocktail lounge person then look no further than our next drink.
The Cuban answer to a Manhattan this cocktail shows the rum drinks can
be just as sophisticated as the rest of them.
As per usual we're going to get our twist prepared first.
So I like to kind of trim it down and make it look pretty you can also just
use a veggie peeler to to peel off a twist as well if that's
easiest for you.
So we're going to start with 40 mils of
a full bodied white rum
Havana three-year-old is actually quite an old rum, it's three years old,
you get heaps of citrus and floral notes in there.
20 mils of blanc vermouth.
Then you want a nice dry curacao or
triple sec. As any regular viewers will know I do just
love this product I promise I'm not sponsored it's just my favorite.
And then a little bar spoon, five mils of grenadine.
I've got a nice homemade one here. Fill the glass with ice.
Put the back of your bar spoon against the inside of your mixing glass
and just kind of push the ice around.
When you start to feel the mixing glass getting chilled give it a little taste.
This probably needs to go on for a little bit longer, you can kind of just
still like feel the booze on your tongue.
And you're looking for this to be really nice and smooth.
Grab your coupe out of the fridge or preferably the freezer.
Use your julep strainer to hold the ice back and then just pour into the glass.
These sort of all booze drinks generally are best served as cold as you can get them.
Give your twist a little squeeze over the top of the drink.
And then I just like to kind of wrap it around
and the idea is it's not going to get into your face quite as much as if it's
just sort of free floating in there.
The El Presidente.
Now that we've traveled to Cuba let's go
back to something a little bit more well known.
It's absolutely one of our biggest sellers at Bomba, I can't believe how
many we make on a friday night sometimes and when made properly it's a really
awesome spicy thirst quencher.
Unsurprisingly for a rum cocktail this drink was apparently a naval invention.
So first we need our garnish and some freshly squeezed lime juice so the
easiest way to do it is just to half your lime in the middle and then
just take a couple of thin slices off. And then you can squeeze at the rest of it.
So this one's super easy especially for
doing at home because you can just build it all right in the glass.
Just a regular highball glass is fine, I just decided to
go for something a little bit fancy
basically because I haven't had a chance to use these glasses yet.
So you want 60 mils of Goslings,
just depends how much booze you want to taste.
30 mls of freshly squeezed lime juice.
Then your good quality ginger beer, so about 120 ml, but I usually just eyeball it.
So you want it to be just over halfway
then that way it all gets nice and mixed in the glass without you having to kind
of mess about with it once the ice is in.
Just give it a little stir, again you don't have to get right in there with
the spoon just kind of slowly push it around. And at this point you can
see if you need to add any more ice or ginger beer. I think we're probably all
good for ginger beer but I might try and cram in a little more ice because you
know that I always say more is better. And then just take your lime wheel
pop it in the side. Give it a little push down with your bar spoon,
and another one on the other side and then a last one
just to kind of balance on the top here. And then to finish off just a couple of
dashes of Angostura on top.
And you get the nice contrasting little rim of bitters on top
give it a little taste.
Very spicy and refreshing. And then pop a little straw in there.
And there you have it. A Dark and Stormy.
As you can see rum and spices go so well together and another cocktail which shows us that
in a bit of a shorter sharper format is the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.
So this is basically just a fancy Daiquiri and it shows how switching out
just one or two ingredients can really transform a cocktail.
So first we want to squeeze some fresh lime juice and get your garnish ready.
Just try and make it as thin as you can because you want it to float on top of the cocktail.
And then you can squeeze it the rest of it.
So we'll start off with 50 mls of rum, so I'm actually going for a
Agricole Rhum here because this just brings a lot of interest in a kind of
almost like savory note.
Then we have 20 mils of freshly squeezed lime juice.
15 mils of Falernum.
And about five mils or a bar spoon of Marionette Curacao.
Pack your shaker tin with as much ice as you can fit in there.
Pop your tins together and then shake as hard as you can.
So good.
Grab your glass out of the fridge or freezer.
Then you're just going to use the hawthorne strainer to hold the ice back
in the tin and strain through the fine strainer.
Then we're just gonna pop the lime wheel on,
so get it on your knife and just nudge it off as gently as you can.
It should float.
So at Bomba we do normally use a
dehydrated lime wheel to garnish this and that
floats like perfection. The fresh one was misbehaving a little bit
and it was making Josh cranky so we've popped it on the edge here.
The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club. This is one of my all-time favorite rum drinks
when I'm looking for something really citrusy and bright,
when I'm feeling a little bit indulgent though it's quite hard to go past the
granddaddy of dessert cocktails.
Adding a whole egg to your drink might sound a little bit strange but I promise
that the creamy and luxurious texture is well worth it.
So we're going to go with 30 mls of a spiced rum, I'm using The Gunnery
which has got really strong sort of dark cocoa and coffee notes,
which obviously work really well in this cocktail.
30 ml of ruby port or a similar dessert wine.
Sticking with the Australian theme we're going for a little Australian fortified wine here.
Then we're going to go 20 mils of sugar syrup.
I know it sounds like quite a lot
but dairy does this weird thing where it kind of just
sucks up sweetness, so you kind of have to put a little bit more in there than
you think. And then 20 mils of cream.
And one egg.
So we're just gonna pop this all together
and then just shake a little bit.
And so you'll see at this point it's actually quite
nice and creamy looking, and that means it's emulsified.
So we can add in some ice.
Pop the tins together.
Shake as hard as you can.
So good.
So we're just going to use our hawthorne strainer to hold the ice back
in the tin and then definitely use a fine strainer
for this one because you don't want the ice chips ruining that really lovely
creamy texture.
And then finally, you just need a microplane if you have one
and then a little nutmeg and give it a grate over the top.
A rum eggnog. Perfect for Christmas or any day really.
Five delicious and incredibly different rum cocktails. So now you know!