almond molasses flip

2 oz Amber Rum (Lemon Hart 80)
3/4 oz Cream
1/2 oz Simple Syrup
2 tsp Almond Butter
1 barspoon Pimento Dram (St. Elizabeth)
1 Egg Yolk

Shake with ice and strain into wine glass. Garnish with grated nutmeg.

On Sunday night while waiting for the pizza dough to finish rising, I gave one of my ideas a try. During the nut-themed Thursday Drink Night at Mixoloseum, I chatted with Kaiser Penguin about the concept of using muddled nuts as a flavoring. At the time it was whether I could use walnuts muddled in spirit to give a Nocino Liqueur-sort of flavor. While that experiment failed, it got me thinking of nut butters and how delicious the Peanut Malt Flip was. In contemplating a variant, the idea for using almond butter to work akin to orgeat popped into my head, and in paralleling the Peanut Malt Flip, the pairing with rum seemed to make sense.

The recipe's result was a rich rum-flavored sip, allspice notes on the swallow, and almond on the aftertaste. The almond flavors blended in well with the cream and were a lot more subtle than the peanut flavors in the other drink. Unlike the peanut butter once shaken, the almond never fully entered the liquid phase with a lot of particulate matter settling out after the drink was poured. With the sediment was perhaps a lot of flavor. I have no clue if it had to do with how well ground the almond was or whether it is a problem inherent with almonds (i.e.: impossible to make something as creamy as peanuts can). Perhaps using a less flavorful rum, dropping the Allspice Dram level, decreasing the cream amount, or increasing the nut butter might help sway the balance a bit. The Almond Molasses Flip was tasty; however, it was not as big of a win as the Peanut Malt Flip.