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 So, maybe you never made the tonic, or perhaps limoncello isn’t your thing. Did you at least make simple syrup? Here’s a recipe for something that’s really easy. It’s a delicious ingredient for tropical cocktails that you can buy, but it’s hard to find and making it only takes minutes. Chances are, the flavor will be better and you’ll have fun doing it.
Falernum is an exotic rum-based liqueur from Barbados that is infused with flavors of lime and spices. The simplest recipe comes from Rick at Kaiser Penguin, but I added some toasted almonds to the mix. He breaks it down into two basic steps. First, you prepare the rum infusion that sits overnight. Then, you prepare a rich simple syrup. Strained and combined, your falernum is ready to use.
Falernum Infusion: 8 oz overproof rum (or any rum you like) 8 limes, zest only 50 cloves 1
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 There’s a good reason I am not referring to the Drink of the Week as a “Dark ‘n Stormy®”—I’m using “and” in my drink name because because the “n” version is a registered trademark owned by Gosling’s Brothers Limited, makers of Gosling’s Black Seal Rum. Gosling’s is made in Bermuda where the this is their official drink, but it’s actually popular throughout the British Commonwealth.
It’s certainly not a complicated drink by any stretch. The official version requires that you add 1.5 ounces of Gosling’s Black Seal rum to a tall glass of ice and top with their brand of ginger beer. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with doing that. Nothing wrong at all. In fact, this official recipe is both simple and delicious. Even if you can’t get your hands on Gosling’s brand of ginger beer, Reed’s is always available at Trader Joe’s, and I expect others would
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  This week I am featuring a cocktail that has been a long time coming and usually ranks as a favorite among cocktail enthusiasts. Actually, I posted the original recipe for this cocktail last year, but this version is a little more accessible. In fact, it includes one of the first homemade ingredients I ever made. Once you’ve whipped up a batch of special syrup, you can finally mix the Drink Of The Week, the delicious Mai Tai.
Trends come and go, and this was certainly the case with the Polynesian tiki craze of the 1950s. However, in the current mixolgy movement there is plenty of room for tropical cocktails, and with so many rums and other ingredients available, tiki culture is bigger than ever! And why shouldn’t it be? Tiki cocktails are among the most complex, most ambitious, and most flavorful concoctions out there. Multiple rums in one drink, unusual homemade syrups, fruit juices and exotic garnishes are all part of the game—but with all of these options both old and new, the Mai Tai is still the big kahuna.
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Those of you who live in the Twin Cities might already know that this Sunday is Grand Old Day, the largest one-day festival in the midwest that takes place every June along St. Paul’s Grand Avenue. It’s a fun time with a parade, lots of food, music, art, sporting events and so on. They even created their own iPhone app for the event. What does all that have to do with the Drink Of The Week? Well, as a St. Paul resident, I like to host a backyard barbecue every year to coincide with the huge festival, and for several years running I have served a rum punch—in fish bowls, no less! This year is no exception, but instead of my regular basic fruit juice medley, I decided to make an honest-to-history punch that would make Jerry Thomas proud.
So, who’s Jerry Thomas, you might ask? Only the most
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 A selection of apothecary bottles at House Spirits Distillery
It may not look Like much from the outside—if not for the name painted in large letters across the building you might drive right by. You won’t see rickhouses stacked with aging oak barrels. There’s no farmland in sight and no thoroughbreds at pasture. It’s just another commercial building on a regular city block of Portland’s east side. But there’s a little bit of magic happening behind this unassuming facade.
House Spirits Distillery was started in 2004 by Lee Medoff and Christian Krogstad, both of whom were beer makers in a town where you can hardly throw a handfull of malted barley in the air without it landing on a microbrewery. These guys took it to another level. Building upon their combined experience brewing and wine making, they started distilling, and within a year they launched Aviation, a successful
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  It seems like every week when I mention a drink, I have to qualify it with the fact that this one is different than what you are used to. Take the Whiskey Sour—until you have had it prepared properly and with fresh ingredients you are really missing everything that made this cocktail popular in the first place. Yet another example is the Daiquiri. It seems that these days any cocktail with rum in it is either a “fill-in-the-blank” mojito or daiquiri. But it wasn’t always so.
They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and I suppose that also could apply to cocktails. It certainly does for me. I mean, have you ever wanted a mixed drink—at home or otherwise—and you were forced to invent something based on the ingredients at hand? Well, it’s likely that this is exactly how the Daiquiri came into existance. Some things Cuba has in abundance are fresh limes, sugar cane, and rum. It doesn’t take much to imagine a thirsty Cuban simply taking what was available and mixing them together to make one of the best all-around cocktails ever created.
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 Chimp In Orbit, huh? This ought to be good! I admit, it’s a really odd name for a drink. So, why monkeys in space?
This week in history. . .
I was researching this week in history and found a few things that seemed thematic to me, although not every story has a good ending. First, on this day in 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. I know, it’s not a happy event, and it’s certainly not an image most of us will forget. So, let’s just get the sad stuff out of the way first. In the coming week on February 1, 2003, the world watched in shock and disbelief as the Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart on re-entry. Again, it’s another sad day for the space program. Meaning no disrespect to those brave spacefarers who lost their lives, there were a couple positive achievements that also occurred.
January 31st marks the anniversary of the 1971 Apollo 14 launch, the third mission to land men on the moon. This anniversary coincides with the launch in 1961 (here it comes) that sent a chimpanzee named Ham into space! Is it a crazy excuse to feature this drink? Well, that’s not all! In addition to the space references, the tropical nature of this cocktail is represented in history by the TV show, Fantasy Island which first aired on January 28, 1978. Finally, this day is also Elijah Wood’s birthday. I know, Frodo was a hobbit, not a chimp, but it’s close enough.
Ok, enough with the goofy historical references—let’s get to the drink.
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  These days, not many people can justify spending $100 on a bottle of wine, and for most of us, even $20 is enough to feel pretty uncomfortable. The same goes for cocktails. While retail establishments might offer drink specials to keep customer’s “happy” to spend an “hour” or more after work, it’s no surprise that the rest of us are spending more time drinking at home. So, how can the mixologist save even more when trying to build up a home stock? The short answer: Rum.
Retail Comparison
First, you need to consider the fact that bars and restaurants provide a lot more than just a markup on cocktails—they offer a service that includes mixing the drink (sometimes with expert precision), serving it in appropriate glassware, fancy garnishes, and an unbeatable selection of spirtits, modifiers and mixers that can be hard to match when you stay at home. Of course, they also clean up after your done! Clearly, there’s value in all of it, but if you like mixing cocktails yourself, you already take on that extra work and may find your limitations are inventory-related.
Stocking Your Liquor Cabinet
According to industry trends, hard alcohol makers may be immune to the price crunch due to brand loyalty. Customers are still willing to pay the established price for their favorite whiskey or gin—perhaps because it’s always cheaper to buy a bottle for home consumption than to buy a bottle’s worth of cocktails at a bar. Expanding your cocktail repertoire requires you to build your own inventory, but how do you do it on a budget? I recommend starting with a cocktail you love to drink, research recipes and buy the ingredients for it. Learn to make that one drink until you are ready to move on. Then, on whatever schedule fits your pocketbook, try another cocktail to add another spirit or liqueur to your cabinet. Over time, you’ll have a nice inventory and a good selection of cocktails to offer guests.
 Directions To Grow
Once you have your favorites or a few classics under your belt, where do you grow from there? With so many bottles to choose from, there’s always a better version of your favorite spirit to try, or an unusual liqueur or amaro you may have missed, but some enthusiasts (and bar managers) are turning toward rum. Yes, that’s right. Good old rum. You might say that rum has earned something a reputation as the forgotten spirit.
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 Make your own Ginger Syrup and use it to make homemade Ginger Beer and to build incredible cocktails like the Moscow Mule and the Dark & Stormy.
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  If you have been reading along, you have probably seen me mention simple syrup. In most cases, I try to briefly explain, but you may be wondering, What is it? Can I buy it somewhere? Is it hard to make? Why don’t I hear more about this stuff? For the cocktail enthusiast, simple syrup is almost taken for granted. It’s a necessity—an ingredient that you must have on hand. But the average cocktail consumer may not even know why they need it. It’s crucial to so many recipes and yet so basic that it is rarely explained. I’d like to show you what simple syrup is, how to make it, and why you should have it around.
It’s Sugar, of course!
It really is that simple. The most basic recipe for simple syrup is to measure one part sugar and one part water and combine them. When the sugar dissolves in the water, you have simple syrup. But why go through the trouble? You could buy simple syrup—there are bottled versions at grocery stores and liquor stores—but there’s little point when it’s so easy to make. Again, you might ask, why bother? Will I ever really need it? If you start to research some of your favorite cocktails (mojitos, margaritas, sours, juleps, mai tais, to name just a few) you’ll find that simple syrup, gum syrup or sirop de gomme (I’ll explain these names shortly) creeps into many recipes. In fact, the original historic definition of the cocktail is a drink that includes spirits, sugar, water and bitters.
Good Enough For Coffee and Tea
So, you recognize that many drinks contain simple syrup, but why not use plain old white sugar? I mean, if it’s good enough for coffee and tea, why not cocktails? This is where we really get down to the science of the matter. Sugar in it’s dry, crystalized form needs to dissolve in order for you to taste the sweet flavor. This happens very quickly in hot beverages like coffee or tea where the water acts as a solvent and the heat helps melt the crystals. However, you may have seen how sugar takes a long time to dissolve in iced tea. Cold temperatures are also working against you in a cocktail. Simple syrup, on the other hand, mixes easily because it’s already in liquid form. Think of simple syrup as a pre-dissolved version of a sugar cube. But it’s more than just a time saver for busy bartenders. Alcohol actually inhibits sugar crystals from dissolving, so using a syrup makes it possible to sweeten a spiritous cocktail easily, even if it contains little to no water or juice.
Some recipes may indeed call for granulated sugar or a sugar cube. In the case of an old fashioned, for instance, versions that call for sugar instead of syrup will include wetting the sugar cube with bitters or with a small amount of water and then muddling the crystals, breaking them down into tiny bits until they are basically dissolved anyway. I find that using simple syrup is just easier.
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