Recipe

• 2oz Barbados rum (Doorly’s 12)
• Barspoon of Barbados sugarcane syrup (substitute with a light molasses)
• 2 dashes of Angostura bitters

Stir all ingredients with ice, and strain into a glass with fresh ice. Add a twist of fresh orange peel.

About

In this Rum Old Fashioned, I used a sugarcane syrup I picked up from my trip to Barbados at St. Nicholas Abbey. The resulting drink has a deep molasses flavor that is almost savory.

Sugarcane is a grass-like plant that is rich in sugars, hence its name. It’s an important crop for manufacturing processed sugar, by pressing the plant to extract its sweet juice and boiling the juice to create sugar crystals (the diff between “cane sugar” and “sugar” is that the former indicates it originated from sugarcane, as opposed to other common sources such as sugar beets). Sugarcane syrup is the liquid result of boiling the cane juice. And after several boilings (and separation of sugar crystals), you’re left with molasses, the minerals and substances that aren’t pure sugar. With the amount of remaining sugar, molasses can still be fermented and distilled to make rum.

To accompany the sugarcane syrup, I paired it with Angostura bitters and a Bajan (Barbadian) rum. Bajan rums are known for being very balanced, not too “heavy”/funky, nor too “light”/flavorless, and welcomingly with no sugar added to distract from the true spirit.