As the days get shorter and nights grow colder, a classic rum cocktail serves as the ideal winter warmer. Celebrated on the 2nd Saturday of July, World Rum Day is the ideal time to get acquainted with the dark spirit, so we turned to the rum connoisseurs at Diplomático to share their top two essential rum cocktails.
A true top shelf tipple, Diplomático Exclusiva Reserva is a Venezuelan dark golden rum, blending 20% light column distilled rums with 80% pot still rums aged up to 12 years. Plus, the vintage-style bottle is sure to be a welcome addition to your bar cart lineup.
Sidecar
This traditionally cognac-based cocktail was named after a motorcycle accessory and is thought to be created in London or Paris, circa 1920s. We suggest this twist with Diplomático Reserva Exclusiva, which adds pleasant flavours to the palate thanks to the hints of orange that contrast nicely with the bitterness from the lime juice. To give it a different tone, you could add equal parts of half sugar and half salt to the rim of the glass.
Ingredients
50ml Diplomático Reserva Exclusiva
15ml Cointreau
20ml lime juice
Sugar
Directions
Add rum, Cointreau, lime juice, and ice to a cocktail shaker and shake. Then strain and pour into a cocktail glass lined with a sugar rim.
Old Fashioned
The earliest recipe for this cocktail appeared in bartending guides around 1860 and called for it to be prepared with gin. A couple of decades later it was prepared with bourbon, apparently by James E. Pepper, a bartender and esteemed bourbon aristocrat at the Pendennis Club in Louisville, Kentucky. You’ll be delighted at how delicious the Old Fashioned tastes when prepared with Reserva Exclusiva. It almost feels like the foundations of the Old Fashioned were designed with this rum in mind. An amazing blend of rich, bitter, and citrus makes our rum version a go-to for all Old Fashioned aficionados.
Ingredients
50ml Diplomático Reserva Exclusiva
5ml sugar syrup
3 dashes of Angostura bitters
Orange peel
Directions
Add rum, sugar syrup, and bitters to a stirring glass, fill with ice, and stir. Then, strain into a rocks glass over ice and garnish with an orange peel.
Words by AR Staff
