Coruba | Rum, Tiki & Exotic Cocktails

2013-05-292013-05-29

5 Minutes of RUM!

If you love rum you need to listen to “5 Minutes of Rum” – which is notes of rum, 5 minutes at a time. It`s a great podcast that is just starting out and episode 5 is just out. You can find it on the web – here – and then you can also find it on itunes if type in “5 minutes of rum”.

It`s made by Kevin Upthegrove aka heylownine and it´s a great podcast and who doesn´t have five minutes for rum?

The five episodes are these and talks about:

Episode 1 –

Barbados (wikipedia) Plantation rum – Plantation Grande Reserve 5 years – Ministry of Rum

OXO citrus squeezer – Beachbum Berry – Grog Log – Beachbum Berry Remixed

Episode 2 –

Regional variations of rum – Don Q Cristal – Syrup bottles (Cost Plus)

Google search for history of the Daiquiri

Episode 3 –

Regional variations of rum – Solera – Coruba rum – Coruba Dark Jamaican rum: Ministry of Rum –

A Mountain of Crushed Ice passion fruit recipe – BG Reynolds passion fruit syrup

– Monin passion fruit syrup – Beachbum Berry Remixed – Trader Vic’s Tiki Party

Episode 4 –

Microdistillery (wikipedia) – Portland’s Distillery Row – House Spirits

Photos of House Spirits (Flickr) – Smuggler’s Cove Triumverate Rum

Old Fashioned Glass (wikipedia) – Aeration of wine

Episode 5 –

Rhum Agricole (wikipedia) – Rhum Agricole – Martinique (wikipedia)

Martinique AOC specification – Rhum JM – ‘Ti Punch @ RumDood.com

So go and check it out! it only takes 5 minutes per episode! and you learn a lot plus there´s recipes on the website.

2011-10-302011-10-30

SPOOKY PINEAPPLE

SOMETHING RUMBOOLICIOUS!

I`m a bit late to the party with this post, i blame it on the working-week…but for this booo weekend i have a rum-barrel type of tiki drink served in a for the theme black pineapple.

I`m making it with – well you may have guessed it – rum – and after the UK rumfest one could believe i`d be tired of rum but no no no…that´s not the case, and i don´t think that`ll ever happen..

There`s a so much spooky drinks out there that i really didn´t know what to make…should i carve out a pumpkin or make a flaming drink? well i already did that last year, so no…Should i make a blood-red vampire type of drink?

I had no clue…but then i saw that nice pineapple in the shop and decided to paint it black and use as vessel for a heavy tiki drink that should quench the thirst at least for folks who likes exotic rum drinks.

This is grown-up treat:

SPOOKY PINEAPPLE

Not that this pineapple looks very spooky at all…it rather looks grilled…:-) So scoop out a pineapple and paint it black.

Muddle a handful of pineapple pieces with 0.5 oz butter-cinnamon syrup mix in shaker and add:

1 oz dark rum

1 oz rhum agricole

0.5 oz FairTrade Coffee liqueur

2-3 dashes Black Walnut Bitters (Fees)

0.5 oz fresh lime

Shake hard with ice and double strain into the pineapple filled with crushed ice and if you wish, top with a little Ting. Float Lemon Hart151

Garnish with something fun.

BUTTER-CINNAMON SYRUP MIX

Make cinnamon syrup by adding equal parts demerara sugar and water in a pan and heat to dissolve the sugar. Add crushed cinnamon sticks and lightly boil on low heat for just a little, then take off heat and leave to cool and let the flavors blend for an hour or two. Then strain and bottle. Or use B.G Reynold´s excellent cinnamon syrup.

Then melt one teaspoon butter for every 0.5 oz syrup. Add the melted butter to the syrup and stir together.

It´s simply a refreshing tiki drink, not the least spooky but there´s more than enough spooky drinks out there…in any case it´s tasty and most of all – relaxing. You can play with different rums too.

2011-04-092017-05-19

MIXING THROUGH GROG LOG 13 – Coconaut

Time to revisit the Coconaut which is a very nice Tiki drink. I wrote about it long ago and now its the 13th drink from Grog Log i stumble over. It contains only three ingredients – rum, lime and cream of coconut (not coconut cream which is a different thing)

I like the coconut in all forms and yet i only use it occasionally, and i have tried without any success to figure out why since i really like it. Maybe some day i`ll find out.

So its rum, lime and coconut – a classic combination and such a simple drink really and very easy to play with – so let the fun begin!

COCONAUT

8 oz Lopez Cream of Coconut

2 oz fresh lime juice

7 oz dark Jamaican rum (I broke down the recipe and used 1 oz Smith & Cross and 1 oz Pusser´s overproof)

Put everything into a blender and fill up with ice cubes and blend until slushy. This serves 2-4.

In Grog Log there´s also a flaming version called Coconaut Re-Entry using a flaming lime shell. You remove the pulp from the half lime shell and partly fill with overproof rum and ignite it. I´m gonna do that but with my own twist of this drink. I`m not gonna leave this drink now just when the fun has begun!

FLAMING DEMERARA COCONAUT

2 oz Cream of Coconut

0.5 oz fresh lime

1 oz Demerara rum

1 oz Lemon Hart 151

1/4 oz Kahlua Coffee Cream or other coffee liqueur

Proceed as with the Coconaut and set alight with some overproof rum in a lime shell.

Tasty, tasty, tasty! the Kahlua coffee cream added yummyness that goes very well with demerara rum.

Finally, the 2nd twist, let´s add some smoke now and see how that will taste. With smoke i mean mezcal and i`m gonna use my favorite, the crema – made for women and a few strong men! (that´s what it says on the label) such a true thing!

And i love crema de mezcal, it´s so smooth, lightly smokey, creamy and mixes wonderfully.

SMOKY COCONAUT

A silly name i know.-) but that´s so appropriate in the Tiki world..

2 oz Cream of Coconut

1 oz Smith & Cross Jamaican rum

1 oz Del Maguey Crema de Mezcal

0.5 oz fresh lime

1/4 Kahlua Coffee cream (again, but yes – i insist)

0.5 oz sugarcane syrup (Petit Canne)

Oh wow! if the other two were tasty but actually quite similar, this was a entirely different beast. The mezcal added depth, smoke, complexity and well…a bit of mysticism actually even if it sounds ridiculous.

I guess mezcal has that kinda thing to it and crema de mezcal is so smooth and mixing that with a thing like Kahlua coffee cream and good rum, well you sure are in for a tasty treat.

The downside is that Kahlua coffee cream is probably not available anymore unless they have made it a regular, since it was a limited edition that was launched around x-mas 2009. I used it since i need to make more use of the bottle i have. But any good coffee liqueur could be used here.

Well, rum, coconut, lime, coffee, mezcal – this was really yummy and how can you possibly go wrong with these ingredients?

2011-01-232018-03-16

CORUBA RUM

This is one of my comfort mixing rums for Tiki drinks.

There are a dark and a gold type of this rum and a few different agings. I have tried 3 of them, the original dark, the 12 yo and the overproof (74% /148 proof) There´s also a 12 yo “Cigar-blend”, an 18 yo and a 25 yo. Plus the newly released four naturally flavored rums – coconut, pineapple, mango and spiced.

I´m always suspicious about flavored products but some are better than others.

Coruba is a heavily caramel colored Jamaican planters–style rum made with both pot and column stills rums (over 30 rums in the blend) and the rums are aged at least two years in small oak barrels. Its Bottled at 40% alcohol by volume. Its the kind of rum that was used in planter´s punches.

In 1967 the Coruba rum from Jamaica was first imported and became the leading rum in the 70s and since then it has kept that position.The name Coruba comes from the name “Compagnie Rhumière Bale”, Basel, Switzerland – which became “The Rum Company Ltd.” in Jamaica in 1929. Later it was bought by Wray and Nephew.

Coruba dark rum is medium dark amber in colour and is a heavy Jamaican style rum with a deep taste, rich with molasses. Its perfect for tiki drinks and that`s why i suppose its also very popular among tiki drinkers.

On its own i find it a bit too rough on the edges (then again i haven`t tried the older ones yet, except for the 12 yo which also is easier to sip). But in mixing – and especially with tiki drinks its good, it marries well with fruit juices, syrups and other rums.

In my tiki and tropical drinks i prefer their dark rum. The overproof is good as float but is very strong so a little goes a long way.

Here´s a drink from Beachbum`s Remixed where i have used Coruba dark.

MONTEGO BAY

0.5 oz fresh lime juice

0.5 oz grapefruit juice

0.5 oz honey-mix (equal parts honey and water, warmed up to mix)

1.5 oz Coruba dark

1/4 tsp pimento liqueur (pimento dram)

Dash Angostura bitters

6 drops Pernod

3 oz crushed ice

If you wish – add a little hibiscus grenadine for color and extra tropical tang.

Put in blender and blend for 5 sek and pour unstrained into a sour glass (or other glass)

Honey, pimento dram and Pernod gives this drink its third dimension with spiciness also from the bitters.I also added a little splash of homemade hibiscus grenadine in this as well which isn`t a part of the recipe though.

Angostura bitters are more aromatic than bitter and is the backbone of all bitters i think, and despite all great and fun bitters out there, i don´t know what we would do without Angostura.

This is a tasty drink with a comfort mixing rum that is very reasonably priced.

2010-11-06

FINE TIKI – BOO LOO AND PRINCESS KALAKAU

Boo Loo… a smooth blend of honey and pineapple and quietly strong…i could buy this drink for the name alone. This is an old classic Tiki drink that is so worth re-visiting since its one of the very tasty ones. You can find it in the Grog Log and the Remixed, and it`s a rummy one – it contains 4.5 oz of four different rums including the 151, just the way i like it.

So it was with pleasure i made this one once again- despite i made it in june in my post series “Mixing through Grog Log” but here´s some cheating: i didn´t have all the rums required or more precisely “Gold Puerto Rican Rum”, but i do have lots of rums so i made it with Coruba, El Dorado 12, Smith & Cross and Lemon Hart151 with great results.

Coruba isn´t exactly Gold Puerto Rican Rum but nevertheless it made for a great addition to the rum-mix. When you have been researching rum for a while you start to develop a feel for which rums goes well together and besides – Coruba is a classical choice for many Tiki drinks. I think it blends wonderfully.

I have no idea as of the origins of this drink more than it dates back to circa 1965 and was on the menu of the Forbidden Island.

BOO LOO

A few small fresh pineapple chunks
2 1/2oz unsweetened pineapple juice
1 1/2oz lime juice
1oz honey
1 1/2oz club soda
1 1/2oz Demerara Rum
1 1/2oz gold Purto Rican rum
3/4oz dark Jamaican rum
3/4oz 151 Demerara Rum

Heat honey until liquid and blend with the juices and pineapple. Stir in rums and soda. Pour into glass filled with crushed ice.

This is such a nice and satisfying Tiki drink! honey, pineapple and lime…paired with dark rums, this is for a fine Tiki drink experience. but beware of its quiet strength..

Now – Boo Loo has an exotic cousin – Princess Kalahau. This is yet another twist i make of Boo Loo but this one is so different its a totally new drink – with equally much flavor but with more character due to the addition of a mix of dark roast coffee liqueur and Xocolatl Mole Bitters.

I wanted to use coffee bitters first but since i don´t have that i got the idea to mix coffee liqueur with the mole bitters.

This adds a bitter-sweet coffee-chocolately-spicy darkness to the drink.

PRINCESS KALAKAU