Had some fun helping out Black Liver Project, who will be posting an episode on the Navy Grog soon. By help, I mean the following steps: 1) looked up cocktail recipe in 3 places 2) ignored the books on my shelf by accident 3) decided on a build to try 4) made it for Cameron while we talked about the wacky world of cocktail history. Check back here and at Blackliverproject.com for the episode.
I built mine by re-imagining the 3 rums that blend for this cocktail. Various recipes ended up calling for Demerara rum, Cuban rum, and jamaican rum, but calling it gold, white, and dark respectively. Using what I had access to at Grand Central (my new bar, located here!), I went with a combo of Demerara white, Cuban aged, and Jamaican funky high ester: El Dorado 3 Year, Bacardi 8, and Two James' Doctor Bird Jamaica Rum. I also decided to let the grapefruit juice be a little more forward in my version, with a little more grapefruit juice than lime, though I've seen recipes that called for equal parts of the two citrus elements. Finally, in tribute to versions that called for allspice dram, I used a heavy hand with Angostura as part of the garnish, floating about 8 heavy dashes across the top to add spice and color.
1 oz El Dorado 3 Year Cask Aged White
1 oz Bacardi Ocho
0.5 oz Two James Doctor Bird Jamaica Rum
0.75 oz grapefruit juice
0.5 oz lime juice
Shake, strain over cracked ice. Garnish with lime wheel or wedge, mint, and 6-8 heavy dashes of Angostura.