A Cocktail Like The Caribbean: Save & Sound

Sometimes I put a lot of thought into my cocktail creations: Which flavors work well together and how to give them the right balance. And then there are times when it’s easier: I combine new things and suddenly I end up with a drink that works.

I admit I didn’t thoughtlessly throw ingredients together. Otherwise I would have ended up with a disgusting mess vaguely tasting like pineapple. However, the reason for creating this drink was pretty simple: I had made some rum soaked pineapple wheels and was left with the pineapple flavored rum. Rather than flushing it down the toilet, I instead created a drink that makes good use of it. I must have started off with a simple sour recipe, though I can’t remember exactly. What I can remember is, that I had some rhum agricole blend on the shelf and wanted to get rid of use it. The blend consists of leftovers from a tasting mixed together. You can think what you like on blending spirits yourself, but I needed the small bottles for something else. Besides, the resulting rhum mix is quite delicious. I also use it in Mai Tais and if I run out eventually I am going to try to reproduce the flavor.

Shake – strain – chilled Old-Fashioned or cocktail glass;
Garnish: Orangen wheel – vanilla pod;
Song: Capital Cities – Save & Sound

Now before I get to the cocktail’s taste some thoughts about orange juice in sours. First of all I think a sour should contain only three ingredients: a base spirit, lemon or lime juice and a sweetener, preferably simple syrup. If you use orange juice to reduce the acidity of the drink it’s perfectly fine. – As long as you give it another name. This problem is similar to the one with the notation of the Mai Tai. If you want to mix a drink containing rum, Orgeat, lime and pineapple juice, knock yourself out! But for Pete’s sake don’t call it a Mai Tai!

You can check out this month’s Mixology Monday recipes for some other sour style recipes! Doug for instance used Crème Yvette and honey vanilla vodka in his Regal Daiquiri. That’s usually not my kind of thing, but it’s Tiki month after all so I forgive him.

Ok enough rambling about cocktail names no one cares about. On to the taste of the drink: it starts off with a hint of pineapple and followed immediately by more than a hint of rum. After that the sour sweet combination of the citrus juices will hit your palate. Depending on the vanilla syrup its taste will linger on throughout the whole drink. (Need I remind you here that homemade is always better?)
A brief remark on the cocktail’s name at the end: Of course it’s the title of a song. While it is not your usual Tiki song it seemed fitting. If you sip the drink you will feel save and whole. Maybe you will dream about your summer vacation in this cold and rainy weather.