Recipe

• 2oz raisin and cinnamon infused rhum agricole (left for 1 day, cinnamon removed after half a day)
• .75oz lime juice
• .5oz Giffard Banane du Bresil banana liqueur
• Few healthy dashes of bitters (I used a combo of Angostura and 5×5 Tonics vanilla barrel aged bitters)
• Leftover rhum soaked raisins (from the infusion)

Muddle a few rummy raisins with lime juice. Add the rum and liqueur, then vigorously stir with crushed ice (or use a swizzle stick). Splash abundant bitters atop, and drink without a straw.

About

Most people probably knew the flavor of rum raisin before they’ve ever had a drop of rum, and maybe that’s partially where our first bias of rum being innately sweet comes from. Either way, cinnamon rum raisin no doubt evokes thoughts of toasty buttery rolls, warm loaves of bread, and decadent ice cream.

Now…take that thought and flip it upside down. 

And so we have rhum raisin, by way of an infused agricole r(h)um (‘rhum’ is just the French spelling for rum – see #BarFaithAgricoleRhums for more on this unique spirit). Unlike the warm flavors most people associate with rum, the French style of the spirit is made using fresh sugarcane juice and tastes nothing like its more common molasses-based cousin.

What we end up with is the familiar taste of rum raisin, but probably the most extreme application of the combination. Rather than the warm vanilla and caramel flavors you get from a molasses-based rum aged in oak bourbon barrels, you get notes of rubber and grass. It’s an explosive combination…warm yet astringent, refreshing and crisp, yet fruity and funky.