Tag: Haiti

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2044 Mai Tai: Funky Rum Riff with Yellow Chartreuse

This interesting Mai Tai riff made the rounds on a couple private Discords I’m on, and I’m thankful since it had evaded my radar up to now. The 2044 Mai Tai comes from Three Dots and a Dash in Chicago via an article in Fatherly.

The recipe features two notable changes from the classic Mai Tai. The half ounce of orange curaçao liqueur is replaced by the sweet herbal Yellow Chartreuse in a subtle change that is sort of buried in the blend due to the firebomb of a rum blend made with funky high proof rums.

The rum blend is specified as being equal parts of Wray & Nephew Overproof rum from Jamaica, Rhum JM Blanc from Martinique, and Avua cask strength cachaça from Brazil. These flavor bombs that lean on sugar cane juice distillate really come forward in the cocktail and impact a very different character than traditional long-aged molasses rums that the Mai Tai is most associated with.

2044 Mai Tai, Three Dots and a Dash, Chicago
1 oz Lime Juice
1 oz Orgeat
½ oz Yellow Chartreuse
2 oz Rum Blend
Shake with crushed ice.

2044 Mai Tai Rum Blend
1 part Wray & Nephew Overproof Rum
1 part Rhum JM Blanc 55 Rhum Agricole
1 part Avua Cask Strength Cachaça

The JM I have at home is 50% ABV, so close enough in my estimation. I substituted Saint Benevolence Rum Clairin for the Avua since it is a higher ABV than any of the cachaças I had in stock, and feel vindicated seeing a Reddit post that shows Garret Richard doing the same thing at Sunken Harbor Club. The clairin is perhaps a bit too forward in this particular blend; I would suggest pulling it back a little or substituting Rum Fire for the Wray & Nephew.

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Petion with Haitian Rum

This cocktail popped up in Beachbum Berry’s Total Tiki app and it was perfect to try since lime was the only juice I had on hand. This dates to the post World War 2 era and was served at the Tourist Bar in Port-au-Prince, Haiti – so naturally it uses Haitian spirits. Supposedly named after Haitian revolutionary General Alexandre Pétion who chose the title “President for Life” rather than “Emperor for Life.” What a true patriot.

Petion
¾ oz Lime juice
½ oz Sugar syrup
¾ oz Bénédictine
¾ oz Clairin from Haiti (alt: Cachaça)
¾ oz Barbancourt 8 Year
Shake with ice and strain into cocktail glass.

I loved this with Saint Benevolence Rum Clairin, but for the rest of my family I knew it would be a bit too much and subbed Cachaça as the Bum suggests. Quite a nice light style cocktail.

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Less Assertive Rums

Working my way through the Dr. Funk “Rum Asylum” Level 1 list and popped over for a quick visit early on Saturday. This seemed like a good opportunity to compare and contrast some of the lighter leaning rums that can be used in cocktails but also offer a good sipping experience. Being a veteran rum drinker, I typically like to sip higher proof expressions so I can really get a lot of flavor, but that can be a turnoff for those new to sipping rum.

The three rums are:

All are pretty good in this format, and since I’ve tried them all before I asked for shorter pours just to not have to drink so much in one sitting. The Bacardi and Santa Teresa have small amounts of sugar added, not uncommon in column still Spanish heritage rums, but neither is overly sweet, thank goodness. Santa Teresa uses Solera style aging so is probably less overall age than the Bacardi, resulting in less overall character. Very approachable, though, and as much as I dislike Bacardi Superior white rum I do enjoy the Ocho when I’m looking for something that isn’t a gigantic flavor bomb. Very pleasant flavors from both.

The Barbancourt is a little different and in this group leaning more into an assertive flavor profile. Made from sugar cane juice, the aging means that you don’t really get those vegetal notes common in rums from that source product. Instead, it is a flavorful and rummy taste that works especially well over an ice cube.

Dr. Funk’s Level 1 rum list presents a great introduction to the variety of popular and consistently available rums.

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Haitian Mai Tais

Despite what you may have heard on television, no dogs or cats were harmed in the making of these two fabulous Mai Tais made with rum from Haiti. The Kon-Tiki in Oakland has a large collection of cane spirits and it took me a while to choose for these two Mai Tais.

Clairin Vaval is a traditional clairin with light grassy notes, and a cocktail that presented these notes in balance with the lime and sweeteners.

Rhum Barbancourt is aged for eight years and has a less-assertive body that many rums aged for this length. The Mai Tai turned out to prominently feature the fresh zest of lime as a focus, not tart at all but certainly the most forward flavor.

They’re still making great Mai Tais at The Kon-Tiki. Quite an energetic crowd for Wednesday’s Ohana night, plus many non-tiki people as well.

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Kriss’ Fresh Custom Mai Tai at Oakland’s Kon-Tiki

This was a definite highlight of my visit to Kon-Tiki this week. Bartender Kriss Cucuy made a Mai Tai with a custom and interesting rum blend that included Hamilton Jamaican Pot Still Blonde, Copalli White cane juice rum from Belize, Ak Zanj aged rum from Haiti, and Alma Finca orange liqueur from Mexico. The fresh flavors from the Copalli cane juice rum really worked with the aged rums from Haiti and Jamaica.

I asked Kriss if this blend had a name and maybe he’s got one now but if he’s behind the stick at The Kon-Tiki just ask nicely for this amazing blend and you’ll have a fab Mai Tai that’s among my top of 2024.

Edit: Kriss says this is called “Brujo’s Mai Tai”.

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Rum Curious Happy Hour at Kon-Tiki

Fun times on Monday with a rum tasting happy hour at The Kon-Tiki in Oakland, hosted by Bryan Inman as part of his Rum Curious Club event series. The rums available for tasting were from Hawai’i’s Kō Hana and Haiti’s Rhum Barbancourt.

This session was a little different than the typical rum tasting at Kon-Tiki where a rum rep usually sets up and is there for maybe a couple hours. For this one the tasting was limited to one hour as were the special $7 cocktails made with the sponsored rums. As such, it was quite the feeding frenzy to get in to taste the rums. I’m not sure this is a better format, but there’s no doubt there was a certain energy in the room, and the Kon-Tiki bar team certainly did a great job keeping up with cocktail orders.

I’ve tried the entire Kō Hana lineup before so I didn’t partake in the rum tasting, but I really loved the Kon-Tiki’s take on the Royal Hawaiian Cocktail made with Kō Hana rum, orgeat, pineapple, and citrus. It was absolutely delightful, featuring the flavorful sugar cane rum made on O’ahu very much in balance with the pineapple.

As for Rhum Barbancourt, I was interested in Haitian Proof, an unaged expression at 110 proof. This was noticeably different than the aged Barbancourt releases which to me don’t have that “sugar cane distillate” taste. Haitian Proof on the other hand definitely has that flavor that you get from other Haitian rums and clairins. Very interesting and retailing for around $30 plus or minus.

Bryan Inman
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Custom Aged Rum

Mrs. Mai Tai got me this little aging barrel for Christmas and after three months I thought it was aged well enough to bottle. The blend is about two thirds Rum Fire from Jamaica, an overproof rum at 63% ABV with overripe fruit notes, and a third Saint Benevolence Rum Clairin from Haiti, an olive/brine forward rum at 50% ABV. Both pot-still rums are unaged and will put the aging process to the test.

After three months, you can see the rum has turned very dark. I estimate the “angel’s share” loss to be at least 40%, perhaps due to the barrel not exactly being made to distiller’s quality. In fact, the fragrant blend of rum is still present on the barrel today.

In this glass, this is like nothing I’ve ever tasted thanks to the blend of two flavor bombs blended together. Yet this definitely isn’t the same as the two rums together if poured straight out of the bottle. There’s a lot of traditional flavors that you’d expect from barrel aging, but still a lot of the acetone flavor you sometimes get from overproof Jamaican rums. In the Mai Tai, this potent rum made itself known immediately but the cocktail format rounded off some of the hard edges. It is delightful if you really like to chew on your rums in a Mai Tai.

The experiment isn’t over. I’ve refilled the barrel with some Puerto Rican light rum to see how the barrel and any residual flavors from the Rum Fire and Saint Benevolence affect the flavor. We’ll have an update in three months.

Next Up: the barrel was used a second time with a light Puerto Rican rum