Beat 54 – Kill Devil “Navy Style”

Actually, I wanted to write about an entirely different cocktail. Yet, I again was inspired by Matthias Soberon and his Pain Killer Milk Punch. On top of that, I could not wait to put to use a caramel pineapple cordial recipe from the Tin Tin Bar in Stuttgart. In the end, I came up with a stirred Jungle Bird milk punch, which is also perfect for this month’s Home Bar Awards. It does not hurt, that I also had an excellent Navy Strength rum standing around…

Hunter Laing’s Kill Devil series bottles special rums from all over the Caribbean. In case of the “Navy Style” they wanted to recreate the traditional rum issued for several hundred years on the ships of the British Navy. Therefore, the rum is a blend of Guyanese and Jamaica rum aged in white oak casks. Hunter Laing does not chill-filter or colour their rum and bottle it without any added sugar.

Rich Jamaica rum notes

Yes, the “Navy Style” rum has a lot of ester notes. However, they are not as pungent as with the TCRL Fiji Rum I tasted a few articles ago. Instead the ester notes drift off in a red berry direction reminding me of raspberries. Beneath it all you can find a subtle Guyanese ester flavour. However, it has a bit of a hard time to shine through. Nevertheless, as you can see from my tasting notes I enjoyed the rum very much. You should definitely give it a try in your Mai Tais and Jungle Bird cocktails!

Jungle Bird Milk Punch

I based my drink loosely on the original Jungle Bird recipe. However, instead of just Campari I used a blend of three different bitter liqueurs. On top of that, I replaced the pineapple juice with the home-made caramel pineapple cordial. Jonas from the Tin Tin Bar was so kind to share his recipe for this delightful and exotic ingredient. Yet, I have to admit, that I only used pineapple juice and malic acid, instead of pineapple purée and the combination of citric acid and lactic acid. Therefore my cordial did not turn out as fresh and intense as Jonas’s. Last but not least, I had some clarified lime juice on hand, but because you are clarifying the whole cocktail with milk anyway, you can use freshly pressed lime juice, too. Instead of the traditional tea component of a punch, I added a little water to dilute the drink. Since, I ran out of songs with “bird” in the title, I decided to name the drink after a song by the band “Jungle”.

*Bitter Liqueur Blend:
Blend equal parts of Campari, Del Professore Bitter and Mondino Stagionato – bottle in clean bottle;

**Caramel Pineapple Cordial:
Over medium heat slowly dissolve 500 g sugar with 250 ml (fresh) pineapple juice or 62,5 ml water and 187,5 g pineapple purée – heat until mixture has the consistency of syrup and turns darker – switch to low heat and add 1 g salt, 25 ml maple syrup, 3 ml Fee Brothers Black Walnut Bitters – remove from heat alltogether – add water in 50 ml steps until you notice the first drop in pineapple taste intensity – add 5 g of citric acid (I used malic acid) per 500 ml of the mixture – strain as fine as possible – let cool – add lactic acid (use gloves!) with a dropper until the flavour resembles a fresh pineapple;

Through the milk clarification the drink turns from intensive rum, bitter and acidic flavours to a smooth blend of aromas. In fact, it is quite hard to taste individual flavours in the finished drink. Of course, you get hints of rum and some pineapples, but apart from that the cocktail resembles a classic piece of music where the whole orchestra is playing at the same time and it is hard to make out individual instruments. All in all, I enjoyed the drink very much and I bet it will not be the last time you see the caramel pineapple cordial popping up in recipes.