Christmas Nui

One of my favorite "holiday" drinks is the Christmas Nui, created by Helena at A Mountain of Crushed Ice. It's a classic Don's Nui Nui formula with a couple of slight twists that steer it into Christmas flavor territory. The rum is punched up in flavor by substituting Smith & Cross and some Lemon Hart 151 in place of the original's gold Virgin Islands rum, and the Angostura bitters are traded for mole bitters (substitute Fee's Aztec Chocolate as needed; the results are still great). Otherwise the classic Nui Nui flavors are present: lime, orange, pimento, vanilla, and cinnamon. In fact, without too much altering, the Nui Nui is already hitting some traditional Christmas notes.

I mix these pretty often around Christmas and am just now realizing that the recipe is probably made for 2 servings - I'll have to try it that way. When made for 1, it's extremely potent, so make one at home, relax with some classic Christmas tunes from the 40s, and try to let the season wash over you.

Get the recipe.

Holiday punch recipe: The Cup of Cheer

It's that time of year again, so how about a nice holiday punch? Episode 17 has a few notes on punch and an easy seasonally-flavored rum punch recipe. Go forth and pour.

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Mugs by Jungle Modern Ceramics.

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Link: Falernum history lesson →

Sure, most tiki drink aficionados know what falernum is and probably make their own. But the history of the stuff? Murky.

“The word falernum originates from the Roman wine falernian (or falernum in Latin.) But modern falernum, found in classic tiki drinks like the Mai Thai or the Zombie, has little in common with the original use of the word except for it’s coloring.”

Link: Lost Spirits Colonial American Inspired rum →

One thing I naively didn't originally realize about rum (and other spirit) production is how much chemistry is involved. 

Lost Spirits Colonial American Inspired rum is a very limited production - I should probably get off the fence and buy some already.

“The end result is that the entire batch of rum sees all the aging steps. That by itself isn’t a particularly innovative idea – it would just take longer. However, a naive movement of the rum through the four barrel types can produce something pretty bad – Bryan called it “wood-derived nail polish remover.” The conversion process that happens in C-aging might adversely affect the rum character after its B-aging, for example. What Bryan does is nowhere near as simple visit to each barrel type. The trick to the 2.0 process is knowing the order of steps in which to apply a particular aging process. It also required the discovery that certain aging steps need to be repeated. Being able to do chemical analysis on his rums after each step is a big help in figuring out the eventual path to a successful process.”