Missing the Festival

Well, that’s it . . . the Miami Rum Renaissance Festival came to remedy the world of all its wrongs, and restore harmony, peace, and justice not only to all humanity, but inexplicably to the animal kingdom as well.  Now it’s gone.  I did not attend this year.  Hopefully next year.  In anticipation of the festivities, I decided to do a bit of research by sampling lovely rums, after venturing up to Chicago recently and buying two rums unavailable to my home state.  Tanduay from the Philippines, and Hamilton 151 from Guyana (the awaited creation offering to rebalance the universe from the tragedy of losing Lemon Hart 151).  I made two Mai Tais, based on Trader Vic’s 1944 version, for a side-by-side experiment, substituting these two rums in for the recipe’s dark Jamaican and amber Martinique rums.

Tanduay Silver, which I was quite taken with at last year’s rum festival, is a straw-colored rum due to its moderate filtering to enhance flavor.  The sweet aroma is a little vegetal, slightly similar to an agricole, as well as smelling clean, without a burning fume for my ignorant sense of smell to enjoy.  I apologize for my lack of skill in describing tasting notes.  Rhum agricole is one of the two rums used to imitate the original and extinct J. Wray & Nephew 17 year, the key ingredient in the original recipe.  My favorite agricole is from Martinique, specifically the Clément, which deservedly masters its role in the Mai Tai.  I am not saying Tanduay is similar to Clément.  I am saying Tanduay is as good as Clément.  Not only the top-selling rum in Asia, Tanduay is the second strongest seller worldwide, second to the marketing powerhouse of Bacardi (I am not up to date on current fiscal earnings).  As for the tasting notes, what I taste is bell pepper, the funk aspect of honey, black peppercorn, maybe butterscotch…or is it toffee?  I don’t know – I taste a lot of things, and am embarrassed to not be able to put it all into coherent thought and syllables.  For an expert review, please click here.  The Rum Howler not only has a discerning palate, but the ability to explain such things well.  I highly recommend his expert reviews not only of rum, but other spirits.

Hamilton 151, subtitled “Ministry of Rum Collection,” which I particularly enjoy reading on the front of the bottle since I have learned from our ministry for some years, is a demerara rum, a dark rum, a spiced rum, and dangerously also an overproof rum.  Above all, it takes on the responsibility of saving a world without the legendary Lemon Hart 151.  Lemon Hart has had some tough times, recently bought by a Canadian company to continue the legacy, only to fall short of the desired financial success.  No longer bottled, we are at a loss, like children suddenly finding ourselves lost in the wilderness by night.  What are we to do?  Seriously, what are we going to do?  What do we float our tiki drinks with?  We need a dark demerara overproof with the wherewithal to stand defiantly on the mountaintop and bellow during the crushing storm.  We had it, and we lost it.  Edward Hamilton, who manages the website ministryofrum.com, tried to help.  In the end, the overproof version of the company would not survive.  So Mr. Hamilton helped in another way by starting afresh with a new rum with the goal of coming close to the highly complex flavors of Lemon Hart 151.  His Hamilton 151 was born, and not an easy task I would assume.  For those who have tasted Lemon Hart 151, you know what towering height this achievement would seem.  For those who have tasted both, please let me know what you think.  Does Hamilton come close enough?  The tasting notes of this rum are beyond me.  Too much goes on, elusive, and yet obviously luring me with a long list of clues.  The best I can do is tell you this story in hopes you search the rum out for yourself.  It is worth it.  Back to the ingredient for the Mai Tai, Hamilton 151 is not a dark Jamaican rum, yet rich and oaky, sweet and bold.  I usually use Myers’s or Coruba for this category.

The second part of the experiment is comparing Jeff Beachbum Berry’s research of Trader Vic’s Mai Tai with Trader Vic’s own, going by their prospective books, Remixed, and Tiki Party!  There is one difference in their recipes:  The amount of freshly squeezed lime juice, whether one ounce, or only a half ounce, which sounds like a huge difference.  If you look around, you will find Trader Vic Mai Tai recipes with one ounce measurements for lime juice.  This book has a different recipe, perhaps for the reason of using Trader Vic brand rums.  Regardless, this is a fun way to try a published recipe against another published recipe.

 Trader Vic's Tiki Party! Mai Tai
1 oz gold rum (Tanduay Silver)
1 oz dark rum (1/2 oz Hamilton 151)
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz curaçao (Curaçao de Curaçao)
1/4 oz orgeat
1/4 oz simple syrup
2 cups crushed ice

Shake ingredients vigorously for a few seconds until very cold, and pour unstrained into a chilled double old-fashioned glass.  Garnish with one of the spent lime shell halves, and a healthy sprig of mint.  Sorry, I have no mint (too early in the year for outdoor growth).

Remixed Mai Tai
1 oz gold rum (Tanduay Silver)
1 oz dark rum (1/2 oz Hamilton 151)
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz curaçao (Curaçao de Curaçao)
1/4 oz orgeat
1/4 oz simple syrup

I’m going to quote the Beachbum’s instructions, “Shake well with plenty of crushed ice.  Pour unstrained into a double old-fashioned glass.  Sink your spent lime shell into drink.  Garnish with a mint sprig.”

After tasting both drinks, the obvious was obvious.  The Mai Tai with more lime simply tasted more tart.  The one with less tasted sweeter.  The Tiki Party! Mai Tai, however, hid nuances where the Remixed Mai Tai revealed.  Then I toasted the Burr family with both drinks, and went back to remembering the rum festival.

Hot Rum and Sweet Butter

I just got in from shoveling snow drifts in the bitter cold.  Hot rum and sweet butter warmed me up like nothing else.  First, here is where the idea came, from a simpler time – a simpler recipe, thanks to David Wondrich’s research.

Authentic, Pure & Simple Hot Buttered Rum
2 sugar cubes (2 teaspoons)
hot water
2 ounces dark rum
pat of butter

In a pre-warmed mug, dissolve the sugar in a little hot water, then add the rum and unsalted butter. Fill the mug with hot water.

No extra flavors, just silky warm rum.  It’s so good.  I think he even says if we want to sprinkle a little nutmeg on top, we can; but he doesn’t.  I’ve tried both ways – both are good.  Both are astonishingly luxurious.  But I’m going to have to agree with Mr. Wondrich on the purity of less.  If you have not tried this, please stop putting it off and sip one of these soothing drinks – like a hot bath with a bowl of soup – so thorough in how it eases the cares of the world away.  I would have written this post solely about this recipe, except wanted to experiment, something with spices, but particularly with orange.  In fact, before you make my recipe, make the original, and sip on it as you make mine.  I honestly do not care if you condemn my recipe, as long as you try the original Hot Buttered Rum.  And please tell people about it – no…better yet, make it for them, and watch them lick their lips.

For my recipe, it is more flavorful to make the batter ahead of time to marry the spices – a couple of hours at least.  Although you do not need to wait a whole day to make this drink, I think flavors need time to work their magic.  Very similar to making hot grog, or chili, or any heated liquid with spices, in most cases it will taste better the next day, and possibly twice as good the day after that.  My loving parents from Florida graciously sent me some wondrously delicious oranges, which only makes this drink better (both the drink itself, and the act of drinking it).  Freshly squeezed oranges work far better than from a carton or concentrate.  Plus, you will need orange zest for the batter as well.  Finally, a lovely and talented co-worker of my wife’s supplied us with tasty Amish butter, a genuine treat in almost all perspectives.  I felt a drink which highlighted butter as a main ingredient should have profound quality (particularly if drinking the original recipe) to get that true butter and rum flavor profile.

Hot Orange Buttered Rum
(for 2 drinks)
4 Tbsp room temperature unsalted butter
1/2 cup loosely packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp finely grated orange zest
2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
2 cups water
4 oz dark rum (Myers's)
2 cinnamon sticks

For the batter:  Beat butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and orange zest on high-speed with a hand mixer until thoroughly combined – 1 to 1 1/2 minutes.  Refrigerate in an airtight container, or put it in your freezer (lasts 2 weeks maximum).

For the drink:  Warm two heatproof glasses or mugs with boiling water.  Warm the orange juice with the water in a medium saucepan until very hot, but not boiling.  Discard water from warm mugs.  Scoop 2 separate heaping teaspoons of batter, allowing a few minutes to come to room temperature, especially if the batter was stored in the freezer, and place in mugs.  Pour 2 ounces of dark rum into each glass, then top with the hot orangey water.  Garnish with a cinnamon stick each, stirring until the batter dissolves to reveal all those flavors.  The melted butter will rise to the surface, even though the batter does not float.

The Grinch vs The Zombie

Mr. Theodor Seuss Geisel, also loving known as Dr. Seuss, wrote and drew the treasured children’s book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, among many others.  I first want to make this perfectly clear, out of due respect (as well as respecting the law), I do not want to take credit for any of Dr. Seuss’s works, specifically this story, nor will I sell or obtain any earnings from his efforts.  What is his, is his.  I grew up reading and listening to his delightful stories, and do not aspire to take anything from him, not even by means of the drink I’m writing about this time, which is based on Beachbum Berry’s research on the Tonga Room Zombie – a fantastic drink.

Tonga Room Zombie (from Beachbum's book Remixed)
1 oz lime juice
1 oz passion fruit syrup (or 2 oz if juice)
1/2 oz pineapple juice
1 oz Puerto Rican rum
1/2 oz overproof amber rum
1/2 oz dark Jamaican rum

Shake enthusiastically with crushed ice.  Pour unstrained into a chilled glass or tiki mug.  Garnish: cherry/lime slice/pineapple chunk.

And for a little Christmas cheer, with the help of Dr. Seuss (substituting “Zombie” for the name of “Grinch”):

And the (Zombie), with his (zombie)-feet ice-cold in the snow, 
Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so?" 
Then the (Zombie) thought of something he hadn't before! 
"Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!" 

And what happened then...?  Well...in Who-ville they say 
That the (Zombie's) small heart grew three sizes that day! 
And the minute his heart didn't feel quite so tight, 
He whizzed with his load through the bright morning light.

I substituted out the pineapple juice because I wanted to add a little more sweetness to pineapple’s simultaneous sweet and tart flavor. I adore pineapple, as it is my favorite fruit.  Guava lends so much harmony when confronting passion fruit’s melody.  Most of it, however, has to do with my inability to explain what passion fruit and guava do together.  They are fantastic by themselves, but become a true marvel together.  Also, I confess my desire for guava in many more drinks, as another one of my favorite fruits.  To cut a single drop of liquid, in this case potent food coloring, with a dropper – drip onto a wet spoon, then run that off into my mixing glass.  Enough residue will remain on the spoon, and not making the drink quite so vivid (food coloring will stick to a dry spoon much more, not supplying enough color to the drink).  Unfortunately, I do not have any tiki mugs yet, which is one reason I took the picture below.  The main reason – clear glass shows the color of the drink.

Welcome back to Who-ville,          Mr. Grinch. Will it be your usual, or shall I shake up something else for you?

Zombie Grinch 
1 oz lime 
2 oz passion fruit 
1/2 oz guava juice
1 oz Ron Rico gold
1 oz Pyrat XO 
1/2 oz Myers's dark 
less than 1 drop green food coloring

Shake hard with crushed ice.  Pour unstrained into a chilled zombie glass, or collins glass, or tiki mug.  Fill glass with more ice if necessary.  Garnish:  Cut guava slice/lime slice & cherry half in shape of a heart (Grinch’s heart growing 3 sizes).

If you prefer it sweeter, that is not as tart, add a 1/2 oz of simple syrup.

Merry Christmas.  And for those who do not celebrate Christmas, I hope you revel for whatever reason you wish.  Is living another day reason enough?  Enjoy your life with those you care about, and may it be merry.  Cheers to you all.

Laulima Lapu

A little after posting the Powell Point Punch, I began to wonder what was out there when it came to the three ingredients of pineapple, cranberry and grapefruit.  A funny thing happened – I found not only a drink that sported the three, but nearly had all the ingredients of another of my posted drinks as well (POG).  Reading Beachbum Berry’s book Remixed, I came across Bob Esmino’s Kijiya Lapu.  What I wanted to do was fiddle with Bob’s great drink, but still remaining devoted to his reasoning.

It comes down to a balancing act, sweet versus sour, like two teams with many members on each side of the rope playing tug-of-war, and rum is the rope.  My first thoughts before tasting it was not nervousness, but doubt.  I hoped the two drinks I liked wouldn’t ruin each other in the same glass.  Bob Esmino made a better drink, neither was his drink improved.  I simply made a different drink.  But it’s similar in many ways.  Changing the proportions altered the drink all by itself.  Also, it only made sense (to me) to add guava juice (regardless if I think the world is a better place with more guava in it).

Laulima Lapu
1 1/2 oz Myers's dark rum
1 oz Cruzan light rum
1/2 oz cranberry cocktail
1/2 oz grapefruit juice
1/2 pineapple juice
1/2 oz passionfruit juice
1/2 oz orange juice
1/2 oz guava juice
1/4 oz lime juice
1/4 oz honey mix**
6 drops of absinthe
splash of orgeat
dash of Regan's No.6

Shake with lots of ice.  Pour without straining into large chilled glass, adding more ice if needed. Garnish with orange, cherry, mint, and an umbrella.

**Honey mix is simply equal portions honey to hot water, mixing until honey is dissolved.  Honey blends better this way; and you can get it all out of your jigger.