I still think that rum is a really great spirit. It’s so full of flavour, with amazing complexity and distinctiveness.
The best part? It might be great on its own, but in cocktails, especially ones with tropical fruit in them, it can be absolutely delicious. Assuming, of course, that the person making your drink knows what he (or she) is doing.
To prove rum’s place in the cocktail world, Sugarhall’s head bartender Stuart Danker, led an exclusive cocktail workshop, which yours truly had the fortune of attending. Stuart certainly knows what he’s doing; he’s a finalist in the Singapore league of Bacardi Legacy Cocktail Competition 2015. Stuart is a native of Malaysia, and worked as a chef before finding his passion in the sugarcane spirit and its many cocktail children. In person, he’s an affluent, down-to-earth guy who you can easily mistake for your next-door neighbour. With none of the airs and arrogance that some successful bartenders exhibit, he’s a pleasant person to listen to for a couple of hours.
One can’t make a cocktail without first understanding the ingredients that go into it. Rum isn’t all the same; there are distinct differences in, say, different types of pork- kurobuta, Iberian pork and so on that change the final taste of the dish, and the same applies to spirits and other alcohols. With so many styles of rums, the nuances can be particularly pronounced. Fortunately, Stuart was happy to bring us through a few sample rums and help us understand their impacts on a cocktail.
The Mount Gay Black Barrel, for example, was a Barbados rum that was just on the oaky, spicy side, can be worked with more sweet ingredients without becoming cloying. The El Dorado 12 year, a Guyanese rum, was quite different. Sweet, fragrant with vanilla, caramel and spice, leaving tastes of honey and light wood on the tongue, it needs to be balanced differently with the other ingredients- more sour to counteract the sweetness, for starters.
Needless to say, these rums are going to work very differently from the Bacardi Carta Blanca, by dint of the latter being a citrusy white rum!
With the introduction over, it was time to get our hands dirty (not literally, of course). It’s one thing to make a couple of gin and tonics at home, but it’s quite another to get behind a commercial bar and shake some cocktails. Just keeping track of the dozens of bottles of spirit, syrups bitters and juices behind the counter is no mean feat. A typical cocktail has anything between three to five ingredients. Multiply that by, say, 10 different cocktails, take away some for overlap, and you can have anything from 20 to 40 different ingredients sitting around the bar. It’s bewildering.
Fortunately, we had an experienced hand to guide us in making some of those delicious cocktails. An affable man, Stuart brought us through the steps with the patience of a born teacher. One classic stood out.
For those who haven’t had the pleasure of trying a Mai Tai, it’s definitely one of the best drinks to come out of the tiki movement of the 30s. It’s a wonderfully flavoured drink that combines light rum, gold rum, dark rum, lime, apricot brandy and orgeat syrup ( a kind of almond syrup). It’s also a difficult one to make, with no small amount of care needed to balance the 5 ingredients in the cocktail. Done properly, however, it’s easy to see why it remains the standard bearer for tiki drinks 80 years after its creation.
While delicious, the Mai Tai was hile delicious, the Mai Tai was only the second best drink that we made that day. Yours truly had the chance to make a Sugarhall cocktail which blew my socks off. Called the Pickering Sour, it’s a blend of smoky Berry Bros. Carribean rum, lemon juice, apricot brandy and pineapple reduction. It might sound pretty simple, but when put together in just the right way, the flavours are so deliciously complex and well-rounded that it’s irresistible. I was even inspired to make some back at home, but it doesn’t quite taste the same without the Trinidad rum.
Last but not least was the Legado Rosa, another of Sugarhall’s own cocktails. Made with Bacardi Carta Blanca, passionfruit syrup, fresh lime, egg white, Angostura bitters and Mezcal Spritz, the Legado Rosa placed Stuart Danker in the top 5 of Bacardi Legacy Cocktail Competition 2015 (which you should really check out). It’s a good mix of sweet, sour, and even a little smoky thanks to the distinctive touch of Mezcal in it. We even got a bit to bring back and enjoy at our leisure.
Overall, I’d say that the workshop was a pretty fun experience- particularly if you want to learn a bit about making your own drinks at home and appreciating a great spirit. Stuart’s a pretty good teacher and ready to impart some of his hard-earned knowledge. It’s also a great excuse to get out of the house and enjoy a great drink with some friends. As I understand it, this workshop could become a regular thing in the near future, and I’d definitely suggest signing up if you have a few hours to spare.
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