Rum & Cocktails Week In Review – 3/6/2015

Saint Teresa Distillery‘s Hacienda Santa Teresa in Estado Aragua, Venezuela made Liquor.com’s list of Most Stunning Distilleries in the world. Surrounded by nearly 1000 acres of sugarcane, the 100+ year old estate is a “formidable agricultural complex, capable of making 18 million liters of rum per year.”

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Denizen Rum’s Mixologist of the Month is Zac Overman. Zac is the lead bartender at Seattle’s Sitka & Spruce. They are talking tiki and rum’s current renaissance.

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WSJ.com reports  Worthy Park Estate Ltd, makers of Rum Bar and Worthy Park Rums, is looking to sell a stake of their distillery to an industry partner that can help boost its sales internationally. In addition to the Jamaican market, the company produces rum  for export to the U.K., India and the Bahamas, among other countries.

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TheSpiritsBusiness.com gives their Top 10 single estate spirits “as more producers create bottlings which offer a ‘taste of the land’ on which they were created.” The list includes Island of Mauritius’ produced Penny Blue XO Single Estate Mauritian Rum and the Richland Distillery’s Richland Single Estate Georgia Rum. Based in Richland, GA, their rum is produced with “water sourced from the Georgia Aquiferis”.

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It’s Spring Break time so Bustle.com helpfully provides you with 18 Rum Facts To Get You Ready For Your Boozy, Island-Inspired Spring Break which includes “Other names for rum” like demon water, pirate’s drink, and rumbullion.”

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Every Caribbean Island has its own preferred drink: Puerto Rico has the Pina Colada, British Virgin Islands has the Painkiller, Cuba has the Mojito and the Daiquiri. CaribJournal.com’s Rum Journal explains that in Martinique/Guadeloupe/St Barth the Ti’ Punch (“Little Punch”).

Ti’ Punch

Ingredients

1 lime
1 teaspoon sugar cane syrup (or 2 teaspoons raw sugar)
6 ounces white (un-aged) rhum agricole (see note)
Crushed ice

Preparation: Stand lime on end and cut thin, half-dollar-size slice (mostly peel) off one side. Repeat with 3 remaining sides. Set slices aside. Into each of four 9-ounce short glasses, squeeze a few drops juice from remaining lime. Add 1/4 teaspoon sugar cane syrup (or 1/2 teaspoon raw sugar) to each glass and stir. Add rhum to taste, about 1 1/2 ounces per glass. Stir, add crushed ice and lime slices, stir again, and serve. As the ice melts, the flavors blossom.

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Lastly, ChilledMagazine.com is talking Winter Tiki Cocktails. They include a number of interesting tiki cocktail recipes. The Cali Colada sounds terrific!

…the flavors of Tiki cocktails are very in tune with the winter season. All spice, almonds, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves… island spices are very akin to our concept of cold weather food and drink

Cali Colada

Courtesy of Adam Seger, CCP, Mixologist,Tanzy, Los Angeles

Adam Seger explains, “We start with sweet, young, Thai coconuts from Melissa’s World Variety Produce. Melissa’s works directly with growers in Thailand to pick their coconuts at the peak of coconut water nutrition and refreshment. We then scrape out the tender coconut meat and puree it with fresh pineapple and a touch of organic agave nectar to make the freshest piña colada humanly possible. We then add a California touch with crushed Pistachios for an added decadent texture.”
Makes 3 Pints, Serves 6
Ingredients
Grilled Pineapple-Infused Rum (see below)
Whole Pineapple
Two Sweet, Young Thai Coconuts
Agave Syrup (to taste)
1/4 cup Roasted, Unsalted California Pistachios

Preparation: Peel and core a golden pineapple (it should smell sweet and the leaves should come easily out of the top). Cut the pineapples in 3/4” thick planks. Grill with no oil on each side until browned and caramelized. Let cool and cut into chunks. Remove water and meat from two sweet, young, Thai coconuts. Of the total volume or coconut meat and water, add the same volume of equal parts grilled pineapple and pineapple juice. Add pistachios. Puree just until pistachios are small enough to easily drink. Add Grilled Pineapple infused rum and serve.

Grilled Pineapple-Infused Rum

750 ml Dark Rum
1 1/2 Cups Grilled Pineapple, cut into chunks

Preparation: Infuse for 72 hours, strain and re-bottle.