Busy Earnin’ – Rum Fire White Overproof

You probably noticed that this Tropical Month I am very focused on the Jungle Bird cocktail. I guess this is due to the fact that it combines Negroni-notes with tropical flavours. However, today I guess the drink tends more towards a “bittered” Mai Tai. Furthermore, I used a high-ester rum which was forever on my list. To top everything off, I turned the whole drink into a milk punch again.

The Rum Fire White Overproof Rum probably wins the award for the ugliest spirits label out there. Yet, the label is so trashy that it has become iconic. Apart from that, the white overproof rum distilled at Hampden Estate has an almost legendary status among rum fans alike. I was lucky to try one of the first bottles available in Germany. Every since, I thought about buying a bottle, but until now it did not work out. However, now I can tell you all about the current bottling. The Hampen Estate Distillery is one of the oldest operational distilleries in the world. Apart from that, they also use the remains of the previous distillation runs the “Dunder” in their new mash. On top of that, the folks at Hampden also use something called “Muck”, basically a cesspool of bacteria, during fermentations. You can find a detailed presentation by Vivian Wisdom on what “Muck” is here

Full on Jamaican funk

While I remembered the Rum Fire to be ester heavy, I apparently forgot how powerful the ester notes were. The Rum Fire burns a firework of ester notes, overripe and exotic fruits – pun intended. However, besides its obvious strength both in alcohol content and ester notes, you can taste that the rum beneath is high quality. You can even taste a certain minerality in the Rum Fire.

Bitter grapefruit Mai Tai

Similar to the „Baby Missiles“ cocktail from the last post, I split the liqueur base of the Mai Tai between two different ones. In this case, I chose the Luxardo Bitter Bianco and the Giffard Pamplemousse. This pink grapefruit liqueur is rather popular in the US. This is why I wanted to check it out for a while now. The crème liqueur is made using grapefruit extracts. Of course, it is rather sweet, but besides that I get why bartenders love mixing with it. Apart from that, I stuck with the original Mai Tai proportions and after mixing all the ingredients with a little water, I poured it into whole milk. After straining through a coffee filter twice, I ended up with a bright and clear drink ready to be stirred over ice. On top of that, the drink also served as my third entry for this month’s Home Bar Awards.

While my last Jungle Bird milk punch resulted in a very smooth drinking experience, the milk could not take away the power of the Rum Fire altogether. Yet, the resulting drink still is more mellow than without the milk clarification. You can taste the ester notes of the rum, accompanied by a mixture of bitter gentian notes, a whiff of pink grapefruit and the familiar orgeat notes of a Mai Tai. I cannot really tell you which of the two milk punches I enjoyed more. However, what I can tell you is that layering both of them on top of each other did not work. The flavour profile got all messed up and the taste can be best described as the equivalent of mixing too many colours.

*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. Additionally, the rum was provided by Kirsch Whisky and the liqueur by Giffard.