Dinosaurs – Sixty Six Cask Strength

Well, I missed the Secret Sante event on Instagram, but for the start of Tropical Month f.k.a. Tiki Month, I decided to still pay tribute to my namesake Matthias Soberon. It is just crazy how many beautiful cocktails he is putting out there every day. So, when Johann from Cocktailbart came up with a Chartreuse forward cocktail for Matthias, I instantly knew that I had to adapt the recipe.

Before we get into the facts about the rum and the cocktail, I have to get serious real quick. While, the annual Tiki Month is a real tradition here on the blog, I recently found out that Tiki and everything associated with it is more than problematic. I guess, this article from Liquor.com sums up the whole topic best. As a consequence I decided to rename the annual event here on the blog to „Tropical Month“. Furthermore, I will try to avoid insensitive mugs or names for cocktails.

Cask Strength

Now, let us talk about the rum. The Sixty Six Rum is distilled at the Foursquare Distillery and named after the year Barbados gained independence. Richard Seale distils the molasses for this rum on pot-stills and column stills. Afterwards the blend of heavy and lighter rum ages in bourbon casks in the tropics for eight to ten years before being sampled and selected for further ageing. After twelve years 100 to 120 casks are blended together and then bottled at 59 % ABV. As with all products from Richard Seale you will not find any additives, no sugar, no caramel-colouring and no chill-filtration in this rum. A word of warning however, the current owner of the Sixty Six brand also bottles rum from Panama under the same name.

Spicy coconuts

Despite its powerful ABV, the Sixty Six Cask Strength still is relatively smooth. Although I do prefer it with a little water. You get a lot of spices, molasses and a lot of vanilla. On top of that, you can taste some sweetness, but there is definitely no sugar in the rum. However, its coconut flavour dominates the character of the rum the most. There is no lying about it, this definitely is one of the most interesting rums I have tried in a long time!

A sherried Chartreuse Swizzle

Johann composed his cocktail with ingredients Matthias likes and as it turns out, I am also quite fond of those things: Chartreuse, sherry and rum. Apart from that, since Matthias started doing Foursquare Fridays, I thought I use a rum from Foursquare, too. In contrast, p In the end, the recipe is made out of the Cask Strength Rum, Chartreuse, Palo Cortado sherry, pineapple juice, lime juice and cinnamon syrup.

The „Dinosaurs“ tastes like a great combination of exotic flavours. Especially the herbal and spicy notes of the Chartreuse and the cinnamon work very well with the Sixty Six Rum. At the same time the pineapple and lime add more fruity flavours to the mix. The sherry brings oxidized flavours and more complexity to the cocktail.