Grapefruit Season – Smith & Cross Rum
Sometimes I have slightly crazy cocktail ideas. In this case, I asked myself how much grapefruit flavour I could get into a drink. So, besides some Jamaica rum I used four different grapefruit flavoured ingredients. Let us see how the drink turned out!
T he Smith & Cross Rum was again nominated by Punch Drink for the best well spirit in the category overproof rum. I took this as inspiration for reviewing the rum again. The rum is a blend of Jamaican Wedderburn and Plummer spirits distilled on pot-stills. The rum consists of an approximately equal mix of Wedderburn rum which was aged for one year and Plummer rum aged for 18 months to three years in white oak. In the end Smith & Cross bottles the rum at Navy Strength with 57 %.
Typical Jamaican funk
When tasting the Smith & Cross Rum, first get the typical Jamaica rum ester notes. The taste is accompanied by overripe fruit notes and bananas. Next you can also notice some spices reminding me of allspice and cloves. In the taste, also a slightly liquorice develops which I guess comes from the molasses used during distillation. I really understand why bartenders love the Smith & Cross . While its pungent taste might a bit too much on its own, it is just perfect in all sorts of tropical cocktails.
Grapefruits, grapefruits, grapefruits
So basically the idea for this drink started when I asked myself how I could use grapefruit eau de vie in a cocktail. Soon I reached the conclusion that I wanted it to pair with similar flavours. I chose the excellent Giffard Pink Grapefruit Liqueur . Apart from that, I used a mix with lime and grapefruit juice. To spice things up, I used a spiced syrup and some grapefruit bitters.
1,5 cl Liebl Grapefruit Eau de Vie
1,5 cl Giffard Grapefruit Liqueur
3 Dashes The Bitter Truth Grapefruit Bitters
1,5 cl Lime Juice
3 cl Grapefruit Juice
2,25 cl Spiced Syrup
Garnish: Grapefruit Wheel – Caramalized Sugar;
Song: James Vincent McMorrow – Grapefruit;
Obviously, grapefruit is the first flavour you taste. However, the Jamaica rum notes especially accompany the grapefruit eau de vie. The grapefruit eau de vie. and the acidity from the juice counterbalance the more alcoholic notes. Finally, the spices also add to the complexity of the drink, without taking the drink too much in a Christmassy direction.
*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. The rum was provided by Sierra Madre.
