Spirit of the Seas: The Playmate Cruiser

you can’t sell out with a dirty shirt can you?

In the early autumn of 2013 I took over the cocktail club program at Elixir Saloon, a weekly event that features spirit tastings and a week long cocktail special highlighting that spirit by yours truly. What spirit you may be asking? Whomever you are asking does not know the answer, but I do, and I’ll simply tell you it changes week to week. Amongst the first such events I held sway over introduced Papa’s Pilar Rum, a new to market brand featuring two expressions; a three year old blonde rum and a twenty four year old dark rum. I’m not a big rummy to be honest with you yet I am certainly no youngin tossing back a two liter of coke with every couple pours of Captain Morgan’s like that’s whassup. I’m far below a connoisseur yet above a college student and even I could tell that these are quite nice rums. For real, there is a lot going on in each of them.

They came to market with a proper marketing game fashioning head to toe in the historical old hat that is Ernest Hemingway (Papa). Rum’s history on the open water is well represented in these rums from the bottling in the form of the canteens the British Navy used to supply their seamen (haha!) with their daily rations in complete with a compass top, inscriptions of Hemingway’s own verses to the ports of call sourced to blend the rums across the Carribean, South America and Central America. Of the many boats to sail those seas Ernest Hemingway’s Pilar–a Wheeler Shipyards model Playmate Cruiser–is arguably the most famous serving as the muse for much of his writing and used in his many fishing expeditions (he set record after record for the better part of a decade) and vast research (the head itchyoligist at the National Academy of Sciences once named a species after him in thanks). If I am to understand my research–and by that I mean a very brief internet search–Pilar is docked in Cuba these days so you’ll probably never see it.

Anyway, the rums themselves are broadly sourced and molasses based, slowly fermented, distilled from both pot and column stills and then blended through a solera process–think of a trickle down process of blending and aging used to match the oldest rum with the newest to maintain consistency–and aged in charred French Oak barrels, American Bourbon Barrels, port wine casks and then finished in Spanish Sherry casks. Got all that? Word, cause without a doubt this process and the time these spirits spend on wood is vital to understand their flavors.

The blonde has a citrusy nose of grapefruit and key lime with vanilla and crisp almond notes. It tastes like a buttery vanilla with hints of orange peel, mango and pineapple and its creamy texture finishes nutty and clean. The dark sniffs of baking spices like cinnamon and vanilla with almost an italian roast coffee and sherry and honey. It tastes sweet yet coats the mouth with an earthy and vegetal flavor with lots of spice and rounded with almond and apricot and finishes off bourbony. Most certainly robust and velvety.

When thinking on a cocktail featuring these spirits my mind started at the classic Hemingway Daiquiri, a slurpable blend of white rum, citrus and maraschino. Classic and delicious yes, but a riff off the recipe (I’ve listed below as well) would only highlight one of the Pilar expressions and wouldn’t do the spirits justice. Digging through my notebooks I came across several recipes from my old co-worker and de facto motivator cause he is a-supertaster-who-is-super-sensitive-to-bitterness-and-therefore-fucking-good-at-coming-up-with-drinks Tim Burt back at Tryst Coffeehouse Bar and Lounge. Dude was and probably still is great at the cornerstones of making delicious cocktails; balancing citrus with sweetness, blending flavors with bitters, pulling forth flavors that hide in the back with a garnish and the like. It is with these in mind that I decided to and eventually found a way to highlight both expressions of Pilar in one cocktail.

Gyeah, I know, I look like a dick in that fancy little marketing flyer they done up it is a complex drink and as one would expect has complex flavors; sweetness, cinnamon spice, citrusy sour, bitter orange all mixed together bringing to the front the rum flavors of vanilla bourbon and exotic fruits and nuts finished with a refreshing burst of mint. My homie from who frequents Elixir before the event on the day of cocktail clubs called it one of the best drinks I’ve ever created. I can’t say I disagree. My manager–whom I constantly am quizzing on his spelling capabilities–laughed when I asked if he could spell the scientists who study species of fish, so I named the drink after the vessel that was Papa’s muse and is the brand’s symbol.

Playmate Cruiser                                          Hemingway Daiquiri

1 oz Papa’s Pilar 3 yr blonde rum                     3 oz white rum

1 oz Papa’s Pilar 24 yr dark rum                      1 1/2 oz lime juice

1/2 oz Aperol                                              1 1/2 oz grapefruit juice

1/2 oz cinnamon syrup                                   1 oz Luxardo Maraschino liqueur

3/4 oz lime juice                                    Blend with enough ice to fill almost a 12 ounce collins glass.

1/4 oz passion fruit puree                        

2 dashes grapefruit bitters                      

6 mint leaves

set aside crown of mint and muddle remaining gently in a mixing glass, add spirits, syrup, juice, puree, bitters and ice. shake well and fine strain into a highball packed with fresh ice. garnish with mint crown and lime and/or grapefruit twists.

*don’t be lazy, use fresh juice

*if puree unavailable juice will suffice

*if using Bittermen’s bitters, use one full dropper

*for cinnamon syrup use a 1:1:6 sugar to water ration with 6 cinnamon sticks for each cup of sugar/water. bring water, sugar and cinnamon until a soft boil and simmer at most forty five minutes. allow to cool and strain cinnamon, syrup is good for up to three weeks.

*Hemingway Daiquiri recipe from Gary Regan’s Joy Of Mixology