I realize it’s been quite a while since my last post. My home bar has been decidedly uninspired lately. Currently, it seems I spend a lot of time tinkering with a few recipes I’ve really become attached to but I want to feel sure that what I’m working on feels meaningful to myself as well as readers so that I’m not just posting for the sake of it.
Thanks to some fortuitous circumstances though, I found renewed inspiration in the form of some new rum acquisitions and – a bottle of banana liqueur?
Some of you have noticed me lamenting the limited selection of quality rums available commercially in my area. Having been stocking my home tiki bar for a little over a year now, I’ve gotten to where the anticipation of a trip to the liquor store has been somewhat replaced by the disappointment of realizing my inventory might have peaked at only about a dozen varieties. This might sound like a petty complaint but as an avid follower of rum and tiki drink aficionados from around the country and world, and hearing some establishments talk about the hundreds of varieties at their disposal, it’s a little like cooking with salt and pepper while knowing there’s a world of other exotic spices you could be working with.
As luck would have it, a friendly conversation with a patient bartender turned me on to a small liquor store I hadn’t yet paid a visit to, that coincidentally stocked a few varieties I have been on the lookout for. The Hamilton 151 and 86 (referencing their proofs) stand as Ed Hamilton’s answer to other Demerera rums such as the Lemon Hart and El Dorado brands – each remarkable in their own right – but largely unparalleled, at least in my bar, until now. They also craft a Jamaican
style gold rum, as does Plantation, which I’m eager to pit against my previous standard: Appleton Estate.
As for the Banana liqueur, also called Crème de Banana, this is something I’ve been interested in picking up for a while now, curious about what it might add to the arsenal. There’s a number of brands that offer a banana cordial, and my research didn’t turn up a really clear top contender so I basically just picked one up that looked good. While I think a side by side taste test could be really informative, (…that actually gives me some inspiration for future research projects…) having half a dozen bottles of an infrequently used liqueur seems counter productive, so Leroux it is! With no pre-standing bias to go off of, I will say that I did actually like the flavor of this. The banana flavor seems mild, but it didn’t strike me as overly sweet and even had just a hint of astringency.
I decided to try out two different cocktails with the creme de banana. I always like to play on a spectrum when I’m working with a new ingredient, or in this case multiple ingredients. The first one is the Banana Coconut Rum Smuggler, which I found on thedrinkblog.com – a great little site my wife stumbled on that I’m sure I’ll be revisiting. The second cocktail is from the Smugglers Cove book, called The Naked Ape, “created in honor of the San Francisco exotica band Ape.”
Banana Coconut Rum Smuggler
2 oz. rum**
1 oz. banana liqueur
1.5 oz. Cream of coconut
1 oz. fresh lime juice
.5 oz orange curacao
a dash of bitters
Shake all the ingredients together with ice and then strain into a glass or tiki mug filled with ice. I thought this was an excellent recipe. I’m not usually one for sweeter drinks, but this one offers a lot of citrus which cuts through the creaminess. I would say that I even prefer this to a pain killer or piña colada as well! So, cheers to the drink blog!
** Their recipe specified Carmelita’s Dark spiced rum. If you’ve been paying attention, you probably recall the part about my limited brand access so I instead used a 50/50 mix of four square spiced rum, which is a milder infusion, and Jonah’s Curse black spiced rum, which is aromatic and strong on vanilla.
The Naked Ape
.5 oz. fresh lemon juice
.5 oz cinnamon syrup
.5 oz banana liqueur
1.5 oz black blended rum**
.5 oz pot still lightly aged rum (overproof)**
1 dash angostura bitters
Add all ingredients to a mixer tin. Fill with 12 oz. crushed ice and 4-6 agitator cubes. Flash blend and open pour with gated finish into a tiki mug or double old-fashioned glass. I also, really enjoyed this recipe. But, come on – it’s smugglers cove… As expected, it offers a very different experience than the previous cocktail even though the recipes are basically, pretty similar. This cocktail struck me as one that fans of a classic mai tai or a navy grog would definitely approve of.
**Smuggler’s Cove has a novel way of classifying their rum by the style in which it is produced rather than lock you into a particular brand. I opted to use my newly acquired Hamilton 86 which worked very nicely.
Final verdict: I rather enjoy what banana liqueur adds to cocktails, these two in particular, which I think could exist side by side on a menu and still please a wide range of palates. It’s a subtle addition, but just enough of a “something” that I think it’s the sort of thing keen partakers would probably call out, but maybe not readily identify. It also helps notch a simple tiki cocktail into that “tropical” territory I like sort of striving for.
I decided to get a little silly with my garnish on this one and nabbed the last over ripe banana we had sitting around to make this very, erm – colorful? – banana octopus creation which is either spawning up from the cocktail, or having a soak in it. It’s a little hard to tell. I’ll keep practicing on that one…
Show me your best banana garnishes!
Cheers!
The Meek Tiki 