“Float Away Thursday” was the theme for a happy hour at work today, so it seemed like the perfect time for dark rum floated on some Hawaiian Mai Tais.
Here’s the base recipe that I used. Not too much pineapple, just enough.
1 oz Lime Juice ½ oz Pineapple Juice ¼ oz Orange Juice ½ oz Orgeat ½ oz Simple Syrup ½ oz Orange Curacao 1 oz Light Rum Shake with ice and float Dark Jamaican rum
Light rum was a custom blend mostly with Denizen 3, Three Rolls, and a bit of Wray Overproof. The Dark rum was a blend featuring Blackwell, Appleton Reserve, and a little Hamilton 86.
Lots of fun to share something with the people at work.
This is the rum we crack open for a pour of at home on Black Tot Day, the day when the Royal Navy stopped issuing rum rations in 1970.
I love Navy Rum, including the original rum from the 1960s that I’ve been fortunate to try a couple times. I also have several delicious rums that follow the tradition, such as Pussers, Wood’s, and Skipper Rum. These rums are exclusively Demerara rum from Guyana, so aren’t the blend of rums that were poured into large vats in London before being issued to the ships. But they do have a lot of the same character.
But those aren’t as amazing and special as this one from Black Tot Rum. They have yearly limited releases such as this 50th Anniversary release from 2020 that is a blend of rums from Guyana, Barbados, Trinidad, and Jamaica. Plus .5% of original Navy Rum. Bottled at navy strength, obviously, at 54.5% ABV. I won’t be watering it down like they did on the ships.
I’m not joking. And it isn’t bad at all. In fact it is pretty amazing.
Matchbook Distilling has a limited edition rum called Some Night in Autumn that is “Molasses mashed with dunder double pot distilled with a turkey hanging in the kettle.” A. Turkey. And that Turkey provides a fine finish to this rum. Definitely rich on the tongue with a fat finish that will make you think of Thanksgivings of your youth.
It wasn’t on my radar but as I understand it, there is a tradition for agave spirits to be redistilled with local fruits, nuts, and poultry called Pechuga. So, this rum borrows from that tradition.
Thank you Kon-Tiki for carrying this special rum. Another great expression from the Kon-Tiki’s excellent selection of fine rums and spirits.
We had some pineapple juice and so I did a Jungle Bird riff using Campari’s sweeter cousin, Aperol. I have been enjoying Aperol Spritzs this month and thought this might work in a cocktail that calls for the more bitter Campari. I’ve grown to appreciate the Jungle Bird as a cocktail, but regular readers know I lean sweet.
Aperol Bird ½ oz Lime Juice 4 oz Pineapple Juice ½ oz Simple Syrup ¾ oz Aperol 1 oz Hamilton Jamaican Pot Still Black Rum ½ oz Goslings Dark Rum Shake with cubes.
This was okay. I’ve found that when the Hamilton is used by itself it can sometimes overpower a cocktail, hence cutting it with Goslings. As it turns out, it probably would have been better with all that Jamaican rum instead. The Aperol does give this a lighter and sweeter taste but it isn’t able to stand up to all that pineapple juice as well as Campari.
Thank you for the shirt. The @hala_kahiki_derby design looks great! Cheers!
The Mai Tai with Wood’s is amazing. Such a bold and flavorful dark Demerara rum, with plenty of burnt caramel overtones. Another friend from England muled that over for me a couple years ago and I keep it for special occasions.
On our free day between Giants/Padres games this weekend we visited Old Town in the morning for some shopping and cultural activities. Then we went to Shelter Island’s Bali Hai for a late lunch.
Seating is solely indoors now, and we were seated by one of the myriad water-facing windows. The windows are so clear that we weren’t sure there were actually windows present! Kudos to whoever cleans these.
We had evening plans at False Idol so we went modest for the drinks at lunch. Which means there was no way I was ordering Bali Hai’s infamous Mai Tai with 5 oz of rum! I decided on a pour of the El Dorado Port Mourant Rum special release. The current version of Mr Bali Hai cocktail was a hit by those at our table.
Food and service were right up there with the high standards we expect at Bali Hai and it was so relaxing to have lunch on a clear day with the views of San Diego Bay.
We’re in Seattle for a few days and the priority for me was to get up to Rumba and re-try their Mai Tai that I found to be truly amazing on a previous visit a couple years ago. So, Mrs. Mai Tai and I met up with Tiki with Ray for dinner.
Ray and I both ordered the Rumba Mai Tai, featuring Rumba’s House barrel aged Wray & Nephew, Rhum JM Gold, fresh lime, curaçao, and orgeat. But when we took a sip we could barely taste the funky rums. In fact, we couldn’t really taste anything except orgeat. Ray is local and said they must have changed their recipe, so he asked the waiter about it. He said that the Mai Tai only uses ¼ oz of orgeat, but we assured him there had to be far more than that.
As it turns out, our suspicions were confirmed. Rumba recently switched to a different orgeat that’s sweeter, and they dropped it from ½ oz to ¼ oz. But the bartender forgot and used the old measurement. These things can happen during a recipe transition.
We were offered new, correctly made Mai Tais and that small drop in orgeat made a huge difference as the cocktail became correctly balanced. And that Rumba Mai Tai is fantastic, with the funky rums offering savory notes alongside the tart lime and sweet orgeat.
The rest of the visit was great, with all of our drinks being truly high quality and our food coming out quite well. Service was outstanding, and they even helped us transition to our reservation at the connected sister bar Inside Passage.
Rumba has a huge collection of rums, and we got to see the wall for the members of their rum club. The postcards that line the walls and fun painted signs work well with the library-style furniture and shelving. It’s a seminal destination in Seattle.
