My cocktail blog: The Boo Lion

[quote=“Bu Lai En”]
I wasn’t too taken with the couple of Angosturas I tried, but some people like them[/quote]
Do you know if you tried Angostura 1919?

SR -

One of my favorite rums.[/quote]
While I still don’t like it for sipping, this rum goes very nicely with Coke. I think that’s where it probably really shines.

Bu Lai En, or anyone else for that matter, what is a simple-yet-tasty cocktail I can make with this rum using local, common, easy to find ingredients? I’m not looking to build a cocktail bar, just a few things from the market that would go well with this rum.[/quote]

I like it, but realize lots of people don’t. To make it more approachable I’d suggest a rum Old Fashioned.

Put a teaspoon or so of sugar in a rocks glass. Add a dash or two of Angostura bitters (or play around with other brands). Add a dash or water (1 teaspoon or so) and mix to dissolve the sugar. Add a couple of shots of flavorsome aged rum like Appleton Estate. Add several chunky ice cubes and stir for 30 seconds or so to dissolve. Be generous with the ice - initially the ice should sit higher in the glass than the rum, and after a bit of stirring the drink should become diluted rum still with plenty of ice. Cut a strip of orange peel, squeeze over the drink to express the oils into the rum, and drop into the glass as a garnish. If you prefer you can muddle the orange peel with the sugar back in the first stage. That should get a stronger orange flavor if that is what you are after - but if you really overdo it you can make the drink cloud up with all the citrus oil.

It also makes a spectacular rum and coke (ideally with a bit of lime) if that’s your thing.

For rum and coke, I’d say try this version of the Cuba Libre. IMO it leaves rum and coke for dead:

projects.washingtonpost.com/reci … uba-libre/

Here’s a rum recipe I (literally) just tried:

ratedrcocktails.com/2013/01/07/t … omment-225

It may seem a little tricky, but passionfruit is much more readily available here than it is in other countries. I tried it with passionfruit liqueur I made by infusing passionfruit into cheap rice wine distillate (120NT a bottle - 40% alcohol). And for pineapple juice, I actually used this pineapple syrup I just made this weekend.

And what rum? It’s unconventional, but I used the delicious (and rather cheap) Royal Amber Saint James from Carrefour. It shines in this drink. it’s what’s called ‘agricol’, distilled from cane juice rather than molasses, so it has a distinctive ‘funky’ flavour that cocktail geeks call ‘hogo’. If you think you might like hogo, this drink is fantastic. I loved it.

Oh, and today was the first day in over a month that I’ve found limes at the supermarket, so perfect timing.

The Carioca Affair

Ingredients

½ oz fresh lime juice

1 oz fresh pineapple juice

1/3 oz passion fruit syrup

1 ½ oz Appleton V/X amber Jamaican rum

½ oz Benedictine

1 dash Angostura bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass or coupe.

I thought of it more as “shoe polish” but I found when consuming some coke my daughter had thrown in the freezer, which needed a kick of something, and the “hogo” was the best looking prospect lying around (as it has been for a long time) that it was so good I made a second rum and coke afterwards, my first I believe since a highly unfortunate “incident” some 25 years ago.

I thought of it more as “shoe polish” but I found when consuming some coke my daughter had thrown in the freezer, which needed a kick of something, and the “hogo” was the best looking prospect lying around (as it has been for a long time) that it was so good I made a second rum and coke afterwards, my first I believe since a highly unfortunate “incident” some 25 years ago.[/quote]

That’s funny. When I first bought the Neissons at Carrefour, which is even more ‘Hogo’, when I opened the bottle to sniff I thought I’d got a bad batch or something and it had gone horrible off. It’s a taste that grows.

What is ‘hogo’? Well it’s a New Orleans Creole corruption of the French ‘Haut Gaut’, which was a culinary term for game that had been left to hang - literally ‘high taste’ so,yes, basically ‘rotten’. :slight_smile:

Barbancourt and St James are some of my favorite rhums. :thumbsup:

Welcome has had calimanci’s on and off which are a great substitute for limes - muddle them with a splash or two of bitters, a proper dose of amber rhum, and top off with some ginger ale and crushed ice. Well, it’s not sophisticated, but I like it.

Oh, and make sure you set to “stun” and not to “kill” with the rhum as they go down easily.

Barbancourt may be my all time favorite. Love that stuff.

Anyone know where I be able to pick up Brugal Anejo around the center of town? Near the train station would be ideal.

Not big on cocktails. Thought I’d made one up, but it turns out somebody else did. It’s called the Kneecapper.

Equal parts ruby port and good Tennessee whiskey.

Both my ingredients come from Costco, and they are terrific together. Like I said, not big on cocktails but this is a dandy. The following is better than the sum of its parts.

Kirkland Signature Tennessee Whiskey, 103 proof. NT$1,049/L. It’s a truly great whiskey all on its own. Aged 7 years, but it’s difficult to learn exactly where it was distilled and matured. Even the exact mash recipe is a guess, far as I can tell. FWIW, it’s earned a number of tasting awards. Coming from an American who’s a die-hard bourbon drinker, believe me this is excellent American whiskey.

W. & J. Graham’s Late Bottled Vintage Port 2012, 40 proof. NT$799/75dl. Port wine is a classic Christmas Eve go-to in many parts of the West; this certainly holds its own plus some.

No wonder distillers in both the US and the UK use port casks.

ETA: suspect that tawny port would work fine, too. I suspect that a fruity whisky like the 10-yr. Glenmorrangie would also pair terrifically with this ruby.