Rum with Cold Brew Coffee

grade A X blackstrap molasses co fermented with cold brew coffee + rum dunder
750mL
40% Alc. by Vol.

Suggested Serve
 
1 oz rum + 0.75 oz amaro (we used Averna) + 0.5 oz sweet vermouth + 0.25 oz simple syrup (or to taste). Finish with soda water and an orange twist. 2 oz lime + 1 oz lemon juice + 1 oz pistachio simple syrup.
 
Into the Bottle
 




sul·try

/ˈsəltrē/


adjective















  1. (of the air or weather) hot and humid.

  2. (of a person, especially a woman) attractive in a way that suggests a passionate nature.


















Coffee + Rum, our sultry friends. Layers of big, hot, fruity and earthy flavors that can mark the start and end of the day. What a marriage to bring them together. Maybe in today’s age of flavor discovery - you’ve fallen down the rabbit hole of funky, estery, fruity, earthy rums from Jamaica, and the fresh, earthy, floral, fruity agricole rhums. The rum portion of this recipe takes its inspiration from those. Distilling coffee was something new for us - what happens when you distill coffee? You’re separating the fruity, floral and earthy notes from the bitter, astringent, and roasted flavors. Those are, no doubt, essential components of what we love about a hot cup of coffee when you want one. But what other flavors are hiding behind them, that may speak to a whole other flavor craving? That’s what we set to find out with this bottle.


We started with a blend of Grade A X blackstrap molasses. Grade A is a first boil molasses and blackstrap is what’s left after the final boil. The blend gives us the grassy fresh notes of the cane as deeply caramelized notes of deeply browned sugar. Dunder is made by aging stillage - what’s left over in the still after a rum distillation - mostly water, residual sugar, and acids. Aging it brings bacteria and the production of more acids. Acids and alcohols combine to create flavor compounds we know as esters. We then double the liquid, introducing cold brew coffee in equal measure. All together, our brew ferments. After about a week, the fermentation was finished and we distilled it once through our copper column still. The finished spirit is grassy, earthy and full with a light, long coffee finish, sans the bitterness.