One Last Before Midnight: Toast The New Year With A Modern Rum Cocktail
Crafting cocktails is a dynamic business. Mixing drinks involves playing around with different ingredients to craft unique and exquisite cocktails which thoroughly study a spirit and stretch the contours of the ways in which it can be used as a base in mixology. This means a lot of trial and error, experimentation and some faux pax too, to arrive at that perfect concoction. There are a lot of happy accidents as well, which lead to the birth of some stunning ingredient pairings that are totally unexpected but quite tasty.
When New York-based bartender Meaghan Dorman decided to mix rum instead of rye whisky or bourbon to make a manhattan, she performed a similar exercise of working with some ingenious means to craft an interesting spin on the classic cocktail. This recipe has been worked and reworked to create a delicious rum infused One Last Midnight, the perfect drink to usher in the New Year’s this festive season.
Bartending is an evolving art and contemporary mixology has been largely focused on revamping and reimagining classic spirits to bring them out of their erstwhile stodgy reputations and reintroducing them as dynamic and modern drinks with versatile uses. Incorporating rum into a classic manhattan recipe is but one such take that borrows from modern mixology to create a recipe that is inventive and refined.
One Last Drink At Midnight
When you are home hosting during the holiday season, you can turn mixologist yourself and create this “spirit-forward” drink designed by Dorman to present a delicious rum infused take on a classic cocktail. Usher in new beginnings using a bottle of premium Captain Morgan Dark Rum and pour the spirit in a rocks glass topped with two Italian sweet vermouths to produce a curiously balanced drink.
The bitterness of the rum is nicely eased out by the presence of the two fortified wines that add just a tad bit of oomph and lushness to the cocktail. Vermouth is a type of fortified wine made using botanicals like herbs and spices to flavour a premium grape for a notoriously sweet or even a dry finish.
The sweet vermouths that go into making the One Last before midnight are of two kinds, a really lush variety for a feel akin to syrupy goodness and the other, a slightly bitter version, almost like an amaro. This one is an Italian liqueur made from herbs, barks and citrus peels and carries a hint of bitter but sweet notes making it a slightly spicier herbal mix. Vermouth of a similar kind would be packed with identical citrusy notes, with hints of sugar for an aperitif like texture and taste.
Making The One Last Midnight
Swapping whisky for rum, the One Last becomes a cocktail that thoroughly celebrates the flavour profile of this dark, bitter and slightly smoky spirit made out of cane juice or molasses. Along with quality rum, also make use of two very indulgent vermouth varieties to blend this drink in a rocks glass. Following Dorman’s recipe, you can also add a bit of coffee infused salt to the drink for an elevated flavour and a bit of caffeine induced freshness to counteract the intensity of rum.
Spritz some quality scotch like a Johnnie Walker Black Label in the glass before pouring the other drinks in order. You can serve this delicious cocktail garnished with a lemon or orange peel. The drink will take on a deep golden hue that would reflect the soft lighting of your drawing room where you host your midnight soiree.
So, the next time you draw up a list of cocktails to serve at your New Year’s gathering, put a little bit of pzazz into your mixology game and serve One Last Midnight to be savoured as the ball drops.
