Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman
In hot and humid NYC last week, we were invited downstairs to our neighbors Tobin (of Hella Bitters) and Jourdan for a cocktail. "I'm mixing swizzles," he emailed.
A perfect summer cocktail if ever there were one. Born centuries ago in the Caribbean, the swizzle is nothing more than booze, sugar, bitters, and soda, with plenty of crushed ice. Ideally you spin the crushed ice with an actual five-prong swizzle stick, made from a native plant, to help the sugar dissolve. (You can buy them at our go-to cocktail supply store, Cocktail Kingdom.)
Tobin, a cocktail pro, used both Scotch and gin (in separate drinks; I requested gin, Donna had the scotch version below) along with a fiery Pasilla De Oaxaca bitters. But he noted that any spirit will work, and certainly rum would have been the spirit of choice in the Caribbean. Both cocktails are given below.
However you cool off—and how NYC has cooled off; the weather gods have given us a city-wide swizzle!—at the end of this fine week in July, hope yours is a happy Friday!
Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman
If you liked this post on the Swizzle, check out these other links:
- My past cocktail posts with rum: Dark and Stormy, Man About Town, and Key Lime Daiquiri.
- Portside Distillery, located in Cleveland, makes their own light rum, dark rum, vanilla maple rum, and hops-infused rum.
- Visit Tampa on August 16 to celebrate the Summer of Rum Festival.
- One of the best rum bars around is Smuggler's Cove in San Francisco.
© 2014 Michael Ruhlman. Photo © 2014 Donna Turner Ruhlman. All rights reserved.
BASIC SWIZZLE
Ingredients
- Juice of 1 lime (about ¾ ounce)
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 3 or 4 dashes aromatic bitters
- 2 ounces rum (or spirit of your choice)
- 2 ounces soda water (or as much as you wish)
Instructions
- In a highball glass combine the lime juice, sugar, and bitters. Add crushed ice about three-quarters of the way up the glass. Add the rum and club soda.
- Swizzle well. No garnish required.
SWIZZLE ME THIS, BATMAN
Ingredients
- ¾ ounce pineapple syrup*
- Juice of 1 lime (about ¾ ounce)
- 2 ounces Scotch (we used JW Gold Label Reserve—stay away from anything too peaty like Laphroaig)
- 3 sprays (or a dash) pineapple-infused Drambuie**
- 2 ounces club soda
- 5 drops smoked saline***
- 3 or 4 dashes Hella Bitters
- Pineapple leaf, for garnish
Instructions
- In a highball glass combine the pineapple syrup and lime juice. Add crushed ice about three-quarters of the way up the glass. Add the Scotch, Drambuie, club soda, smoked saline, and bitters. Stir the cocktail well, preferably with a swizzle stick.
- Garnish with a long pineapple leaf, pointy side up. Careful not to poke your eye out.
I'm excited to try these, as a dear friend recently gave me a true swizzle mixer-stick-thingy!
you are turning me into a lush...this reads enticing
Wow. I've never had this before. Time to get the mixing started!
still stuck on my sidecars!!!
Smoked saline?
Great neighbors to have. I'm curious what results a 5% brine would produce with homemade smoked salt.
Pineapple Drambuie, talk about East meets West.
That's some cool neighbors
On the smoked salt: it is amazingly easy to make your own if you ever have reason to smoke anything else. (I do a lot of backyard barbecue, so I'm always looking for things to throw in the smoker when the meat's out but there's still a little fire burning.)
Just lay out a layer of salt (I usually use a coarse salt) in a pan or on some aluminum foil and put in the smoker. An hour is enough to impart some smokiness, but you can go longer if you want more intensity. I wouldn't suggest doing it alongside any protein, as the salt can pick up some funky flavors that way.
Wow Mac thanks for the how to smoke your own salt, it gets pricey and it is soooo very good.
Thinking of using smoked salt brine for a brisket, making pastrami.
Anyone tried this?
Hi there, of course this paragraph is truly fastidious and I have learned
lot of things from it on the topic of blogging.
thanks.
Re- fresh, pure pineapple juice - it can be hard to find, buy Trader Joe carries it.