Recipe
- 1oz white overproof Jamaican rum 63% (Rum Bar)
- .5oz Campari
- .5oz blanco vermouth (Yzaguirre)
- .75oz lime juice
- 2 dashes Angostura bitters
- 1.5oz grapefruit soda (from Whole Foods)
Shake all ingredients except the soda with plenty of crushed ice, then dump into a tall glass. Add the soda and give it a quick stir. Top off with more crushed ice.
About
The classic highball of ultra flavorful overproof white rum with grapefruit soda is the most popular drink imbibed in Jamaica. To welcome the start of Negroni Week 2019, I thought it’d be fun to mash this up.
Ting grapefruit soda is the typical culprit for the classic highball (more info here), but it can be hard to find, and I actually really love using the sparkling pink grapefruit Italian soda from Whole Foods for these highballs. Ting is made with white grapefruit, which tends to be more bitter and less sweet than pink, but any quality grapefruit soda should sub fine here.
For the overproof white rum, I used the beautifully fruity Rum Bar. Compared to similar products like Wray&Nephew and Rum Fire, I find the Rum Bar strikes a nice balance between them; more full bodied and richly flavored than Wray, but not as intense of a funk monster as Rum Fire. Each has their uses!