It’s April, you old so-and-so! That means summer (or Mr. Sunny Suntimes, as it’s called by some) isn’t too far around the corner, what with its rum drinks and poolside parties and pirates. With that, I suggest you start practicing your summer drinks now, so you can be known as Drinkmaster HW (for hot weather) when it gets here. And here’s one to start practicing with, not a known drink worldwide yet (though known enough to carrying its own second moniker, “rum-daddy”), but a darn good one, featuring a hearty base (or spirit-kick, as they say) of Flor de Caña rum shimmying close with Brovo’s delightful Lucky (it already has a nickname in its name!) Falernum, Pierre Ferrand’s now classic orange curaçao, Scrappy’s dancing on the tongue Orleans bitters (did you know Scrappy was a nickname of a real person? It is!), and a touch of lemon and simple. The very latter I like, as it seemed to smooth the edges (or tan lines, if you will), but if it’s too sweet for your taste, drop it like a name you’re not fond of.
Can you feel it, deep in your bones? A wisp in the wind in your hair and/or behind your ears? A light peeking out from the dark clouds, peeking out as the wind and bones make their respective natures felt? What do I mean? Spring! Spring! Spring! Well, it’s not here yet, of course, but I can sense it, lurking with all its happiness. And lurking behind it, summer! But let us not get to far in front of ourselves. Sometimes, though, it is admittedly hard to wait, cause you want those sunny and then sunnier days to arrive like a speeding chicken into your days. You want the whole sunshine and flowers feeling in your hand now. And here we are with this drink, which has a whole spring and summer feel, refreshingly rolling like a spring river with rum, rum’s old spring break compadre Falernum, totally tubular Tuaca (which reminds us with its citrus-vanilla-y-ness of a blooming orchard), pineapple juice’s jingly-jam, and ginger ale’s bubbly dance beat. Wowza! Come aboard the sunshine train y’all.
I’m pretty blessed to live in a state full of swell distilleries: big-ish ones, little-ish ones, medium-ish ones. And so many of them are doing their own, interesting bottled thing – it’s awesome! And during the course of one recent evening, I wanted to celebrate this particular WA-blessing by making myself a drink using all local booze. It wasn’t hard really (due to the many choices intimated at above), outside of narrowing it down – cause I like so many of them! Another night, it’d be completely different. This particular evening I was feeling rummy, though, and went with Skip Rock’s Belle Rose rum, the light-ish rum version, which was aged in white wine barrels, and has a nice vanilla-oaky-ness. I introduced it (hopefully not for the first time in history) to broVo spirits’ wonderful new-ish Lucky Falernum liqueur (especially good today). A lot of falernums available are a little cloying to me, but Lucky is higher-proof and more mighty than cloying, without losing its underlying ginger, lime, pineapple, star anise profile. Those two locals together is a good start, but I wanted a wild card, something to bring one more zing – I went with Salish Sea’s Hibiscus liqueur, made from Egyptian red hibiscus flowers, and carrying a lovely tangy tartness. Together, they made for a wonderful Washington evening indeed. No fooling!
1. Fill a cocktail shaker or mixing glass halfway full with cracked ice. Add the trio of Washington-state delights. Stir well (I really wanted to say “just right” there).
2. Strain into a cocktail glass. Squeeze the wedge over the glass, then drop it in.
It’s getting nearer and nearer to summer (which some dread, some pine for, and some – like me – are happy when it’s here but don’t miss it when it’s gone). My advice in these pre-summer days (outside of buying some new short shorts)? Get ready for the rising of Mercury by putting a few new new drinks into your hot-weather repertoire. A good start would be the ASAP. It contains the requisite bubbly, tangy, refreshing nature, and also has a heck of a shot of rum in it – which I find helps summer trot smoothly through its paces as well.
