We interrupt the Women in Wine series to get rummy on a boat at Pier 40. I don’t normally go this wild on Mondays, but I was on a boat. The Hornblower Hybrid was set to depart from Pier 40 last night, but due to a couple electrical outages and a smoking boiler, el cápitan decided to cancel the cruise around New York Harbor, avoiding another drunk, sunk Titanic. Despite our stationary state, the night rolled along at a steady pace, with six bartenders (from NYC, Boston, Chicago, LA, New Orleans, and Miami) vying for the title of best Ron Diplomático cocktail. The competitors each put their own spin on the Venezuelan copper pot still rum, playing off the drink’s dark flavors with additions like amari, orgeat, and allspice dram.
I was gunning for the New York concoction, Roberto Rosa’s A Hop, Skip and a Jump: Diplomático Añejo plus Barrows Intense Ginger Liqueur, mango juice, and lime juice, topped with mavi (a bittersweet tree bark beverage) and homebrewed Caribbean tincture. Inspired by the Taíno people’s ocean-hopping history, this one was my initial favorite, but it didn’t live up to its promise — emerging, once the perfume died down, as a sweet and simple (if enjoyable) rum punch. I wound up voting for Alex Renshaw’s Sky’s the Limit, a Chicago-born blend of Diplomático Reserva Exclusiva, raspberry syrup, creme de cacao, lemon, Maurin Quina, and Angostura Bitters. What can I say? I’m a sucker for chocolate covered raspberries.
The victor of the night, however, was Chimpin’ Ain’t Easy, LA-based Nick Meyer’s blend of Diplomático Añejo and Reserva Exclusiva, plus dry vermouth, lime, macadamia piloncillo syrup, and homemade banana phosphate. While too sweet and creamy to be my first choice (a bitter man likes bitter booze), I appreciated this cocktail for what it was. At the evening’s end, what I appreciated most was the rum itself: its talents are spotlighted by cocktails, but Diplomático shows best on its own, with a Nat Sherman cigar on the deck of a broken-down boat in the middle of January. Smooth, deep, and delicious, with notes of burnt caramel, plum pudding, and blackstrap molasses, the Reserva Exclusiva is one for the sipper, the winter drinker, the guy or gal unperturbed by the cold and the rocking of the boat.
Check it out online at http://www.rondiplomatico.com/
The Hop, Skip and a Jump wasn’t an ideal cocktail for batching and I knew that what took my cocktail to the next level was the tincture. The tincture was supposed to be sprayed on top of a garnish which was supposed to be edible flowers, not on top of the drink, that way the experience would last all the way through but the flowers never arrived…. 🙁
Don’t worry I learn from my mistakes and promise not to let you down for next years competition, I already have a great idea!!
I’m sorry to hear the flowers never came! They would’ve really carried the taste of the tincture, prolonging the drink’s unique flavor and (at least in my book) securing you the win. I’m rooting for you, and looking forward to seeing what sort of unique, historically inspired concoction you invent next year!
[…] Dagorn paired it with chocolate, but Hanahato Kijoshu would also go well with a nice, dirty cigar (the cigar kick continues!), or with a dish that, like this sake, walks the line between sweet and savory: unagi sushi, curry […]