[nusshaus]

2 oz. dark rum (Myer's was used)
1/4 oz. almond syrup
3/4 oz. lime juice

I could swear he also put a few drops of orange blossom water in there.

This was my second drink of the evening at Drink. The subtitle of the drink could be "and now for something completely different" because that is what I requested from John. "Astringent?" he asked. Yes - lime! "Bourbon?" No... I furrowed my brow. He: "Rum!" "Dark," I nodded. Then we started talking about a cocktail that Fred made the other night from Chuck Taggart's Gumbo Pages. It was made with Falernum, which they do not have at Drink. But this got John to thinking about a sort-of deconstructed tiki-style drink, with almond syrup representing the falernum. They make their own almond syrup by combining slivered almonds and sugar with water and letting it sit. They add crushed almonds after the infusing is done, and during the filtration step they dump in a bunch of brandy to rinse down the infusion vessel. The resulting syrup has a lot of nut fats suspended, giving it a cloudy appearance. Cocktails utilizing it need to be shaken vigorously, since the almond oil is only grudgingly soluble in alcohol.

The cocktail he made was a brownish-greenish opaque color that might have put off a less dedicated tippler than I. It was pleasingly lime-scented. The almond flavor comes in after the lime in the first sip, and then it dominated. The rum offers a nice, solid backbone. I made the curious observation that I often confuse the flavors of cherry and almond liqueurs, and concluded that these flavors must reside very close together in my brain.