Food + Drink

I Give You….the Rum Old Fashioned

Join me on a holiday from the everyday.

The Old Fashioned is a great drink that has been around a long time. Everybody interested in cocktails knows it: bourbon, simple sugar, bitters, orange peel over ice. How can you go wrong? Its resurgence as a craft cocktail of choice in the last decade or so has also been well documented and really, has been done to death by now. You’ve probably had a few good ones and let’s face it, you’ve probably had a few that were perhaps not created with the same care, attention and dare I say it, love, that we’ve come to expect.

However, if you are so fortunate as to live on a Caribbean island, or anywhere that produces sugar for that matter, you’ll probably find that your access to quality rum is far greater than your access to decent bourbon.

As a result, there is an opportunity to change things up a bit, in the form of the Rum Old Fashioned.

It’s not that different, the concept and modus operandi are the same, but there are a few key opportunities for flashes of brilliance to take into consideration here. And, in true Caribbean fashion, let’s not be too precious about it.

Step 1: Kick things off with some excitement in your eyes, voice and general body language when you offer to make this drink for someone. They’ll feel it and that is the start of any great cocktail story.

Step 2. Be a good home bartender and get your shit together. You are going to need: Two rocks glasses. A mixing glass and strainer. A long spoon. A measuring jigger. An orange peeler. A bottle of rum. Honey syrup. Orange (or grapefruit) bitters. An orange (or grapefruit). Proper ice.

Step 3. I said proper ice. Get rid of that stuff that’s been in the freezer for more than 2 or 3 days. By then, it will have assumed the taste ofwhatever you keep in that freezer.

Step 4. Get one of those large cubes of ice into each rocks glass and get some small cube ice into the mixing glass. Then put those two glasses in the freezer and leave them there while you work your magic. While the clock is ticking from this point, there is no need to rush. In fact, rushing will be a hindrance, rather than a help. Pretend like you’ve done this before. Just be cool, everybody.

Step 5 . Now, let’s talk about the rum. You are going to want to use the dark stuff and I’d stay away from anything that calls itself spiced — both here specifically and in general, but that’s just me. Every brand of rum has a spectrum of offerings and each point on it has different purposes. The high end should not find its way into any cocktails, since that is made for sipping with maybe a cube of ice or two. The less about the low end that is said, the better.

You want to find that sweet spot in between. I live in Jamaica and the most widely available brand is Appleton. I have found that the Signature and the Kingston 62 (formerly known as Appleton Special) work well. The 8 year can too, but anything older than that will not be right for this drink. Recently, I was in Puerto Rico and managed to come back with a bottle of 2 Star (3–5 year) and one of 3 Star (6–10 year) from Ron del Barrilito in San Juan. Either will give a really flavourful smoky vanilla hint to your creation.

Step 6. Alright, now it’s go time. Get 2 ounces of that (per cocktail) into your mixing glass, over ice, lots of ice. Add an ounce (total) of the honey syrup. A regular Old Fashioned calls for a sugar syrup, but in this case, the rum is going to give it enough sweetness as it is, so I use honey syrup. It’s made the same way, 1–2 parts honey to 3 parts warm water (left to cool ahead of time) and these measurements can be adjusted to taste. Keep this in a jar in the fridge and it can be used in other cocktails. Bob’s your uncle.

Now, add 3–5 dashes of bitters — orange or grapefruit. Stir it up (this is what Bob Marley was talking about, by the way) these ingredients using a cocktail spoon and stir well for 30 seconds or so in the mixing glass. Note that well does not mean vigorously. It just means steadily.

Step 7. Get those rocks glasses out of the freezer and put the strainer over the mixing glass. Pour evenly over the ice cube of each glass and grab an orange or grapefruit and thinly peel a bit of rind (2–3 inches long or so), run the fruit side around the lip of the glass and twist it over the drink and then pop the rind into it.

Step 8. You are all set, clean up later. Or leave it to make another one. The sun is setting, you’ll want to get outside.

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