Sorrel Rider

We are calling this the Sorrel Rider.  There are a few bourbon drinks out there using the name red rider. That's what I wanted.

This drink is a variant on the classic Jamaican Christmas drink.  You can find the original recipe at Epicurious.

What got this drink started was our visit to Agrifest on the West End of St Thomas.  A few of the vendors were selling whole sorrel flowers.  I also make plenty of sun tea with sorrel tea packets.  Finding the whole flowers was really fun.

The recipe in the link I provided is basically what we did.  We threw in 2 liters of water, part of a ginger root and a whole pound of sorrel.  I brought it all to a boil and then let simmer for 30 minutes. From there it went into the fridge to cool.  24 hours later I out it all through a strainer leaving just the sorrel tea.

Now that one has the tea one can do a few things with it.  Add a cinnamon stick, add a whole bunch of sugar or simple syrup or just drink it as is.  We left it sit till the weekend and then proceeded to make a refreshing drink out of it.

Our ingredients to put with the brewed tea:

• Lemon
• Lime
• Orange
• White rum
• Flavored rum (we used black cherry in one drink and mango in another)
• Sugar

Now you can use raw sugar, white sugar or even simple syrup.  It all depends on how sweet you want it.  Your simple syrup will be the sweetest while the raw sugar will be the least as it doesn't dissolve quickly.

As far as measurements are concerned it was a slice of each fruit, 1 shot of white rum and 1 shot of flavored rum for each glass.  We made it with two teaspoons of raw sugar in each glass.  Add some ice and you are set!

I would also like to mention that you don't have to use fresh sorrel flowers.  That could be hard to come by outside your sub tropical or tropical areas.  Brewing some tea and letting it cool will work as well.  I use a Carlo Rossi 1.5 liter jar, 2 packets of sorrel tea and a slice of orange.  I just leave it sit outside for a few hours and then refrigerate it when I'm done.

I hope others find this as refreshing as we do.

Mojito with simple syrup instead of just sugar

Mojito made with simple syrup instead of just sugar

We had some Mint Juleps the other day and needed to make some simple syrup for them.  We only use natural sugar as the stuff is cheaper than white granulated sugar. The side effect of this is the sugar seems stronger.  Same goes for simple syrup.  Now, the syrup will come out a very dark brown but don't let that brown color fool you.  It tastes better to.

I decided to make Mojitos instead of Mint Juleps today to use up the simple syrup and we have tons of mint growing in the garden.  It might have been one of the best mojitos I've ever made.

It was just your normal Mojito recipe except I swapped out the sugar for a shot of simple syrup.  I muddled the lime, mint, rum and simple syrup before I added the sprite.

We use green colored goblet cups so it's not like you can see the color of the drink.

Ginger Fresh

Ingredients:

• 1/2 can or bottle of some good Ginger Beer
• 2 shots of white rum
• 1 lime wedge

Combine ice and 2 shots of white rum into a glass.  Top off with Ginger Beer and squeeze some lime into it.  Serves 1

You won't be able to taste the rum and it will come off as an amazingly refreshing drink due to the ginger beer.

Drink at your own pace!

Amalie Iced Tea

1 cup of hibiscus tea (cold)
1 shot of white rum
1/2 shot of Tequila (habanero infused)
1/2 shot of Vodka (peppercorn infused)
splash of fruit juice - ours had orange, peach and passion in it
1/4 cup of ginger beer (barritts)
teaspoon of sugar

blend it and mix it..serves 1

Brinley Gold Rums

I wrote the post about the Christmas Eve drinks and I forgot about the drinks the day before.


I almost forgot that we did some experimentation the previous night.  A quick background to start off with: A few months ago we bought some Brinley Gold Shipwreck coffee Rum.  The company is based in St. Kitts.  The bottles have more of a sophisticated look to them and certainly cost more than our regular rum selections ($17).

We decided to try the coffee rum first. It was very smooth and creamy.  Drinking it on the rocks was perfect.  I can assure you the bottle didn't last long.

For our 2nd bottle we picked Mango Rum.  Personally, the key to the mango being good is smooth yet not overpowering.  Unfortunately it made half the requirments.  It is smooth but very strong in terms of the mango flavor.  Due to this I will not be drinking it on the rocks.  However, my wife loves it.  She does love everything mango but that is another story.

Mango Rum
Coke
Lime

That's it.  Those three ingredients make it taste great.  It still has a touch of sweetness but it is still very smooth.  I had wanted my wife to mix it with Sprite but we had an open can of coke zero.  You have to love that kind of logic.