Rumba – David Embury

1 Part Gin

2 Parts Jamaican Rum

1 or 2 Dashes Grenadine to each drink

Shake thoroughly with crushed ice.

Whoever thought up this snootful of liquid dynamite certainly liked his liquor hard! While the above is the original recipe, it can be greatly improved by adding 1 part lime or lemon juice and either an extra few dashes of grenadine or an equivalent amount of sugar syrup.

Rum is by far my favourite spirit and today was rum day at Goat. We had a training from an old friend from Mount Gay rum in the afternoon, which set the evening up perfectly. Mount Gay (Barbados) is the oldest rum distillery in the world, and has been making rum since at least 1703. It produces Mount Gay XO, the worlds most awarded rum, which is spectacular. This was followed swiftly with a blind beer tasting, so my memory was a little hazy at the beginning of the cocktail class.

I always start a rum cocktail class with Wray N Nephews. The first time rum appears in print is 1651, in Barbados, and its referred to as a ‘hot hellish terrible liquor’, I like to think that drinking straight Wray is a little reminiscent of this first spirit, and afterwards no matter how my drinks taste, they always taste better than that first shot to a unsuspecting palate.

And the Rumba? Dynamite was right. We tried this first with the original recipe (LHS), and I’d refer to this as undrinkable. To be fair we used a mix of rum, Wray n Nephews for the Jamaican  rum flavour, and Mount Gay Black Barrel, to tone down the Jamaican and add some age flavour, but its just to punchy. We then went back a little later and tried it with the lime, and two teaspoons of grenadine, which made a much more palatable drink (RHS).

Not a keeper.