Friday, March 5, 2010

[boston molassacre]

1 oz Smith & Cross Rum
1/2 oz Zacapa 23 Rum
1/2 oz Cruzan Black Strap Rum
1/2 oz Orgeat
1 barspoon St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram
1 Egg

Shake without ice and then with ice. Strain into a coupe.
At Eastern Standard on Sunday night, bartender Kit Paschal stepped up to craft a cocktail that would go well with our profiteroles. The drink he created was packed with rich notes from the Zacapa and black strap rums that complemented the dessert's caramel flavors rather well. This flip started with black strap molasses on the nose; the nutmeg that Kit debated adding would have supplemented this aroma rather well. The sip was replete with deep rum flavors with the allspice dram on the swallow. The egg toned down the rough notes in the middle of the drink; it was hard to determine if they originated from the Smith & Cross Rum or from the dram's botanicals. Unfortunately, the egg along with the other flavors drowned out the orgeat to the point that it was only barely detectable. When I gave Andrea a sip, her response was, "very pretty -- rich and smooth [and full of] Christmas spice."

2 comments:

SPS said...

Hey Frederic et al,

I'm a daily reader of your blog, infrequent comment contributor, and fellow cocktail obsessive. I'm heading up to Boston next weekend (from NYC), but I really don't know the scene at all. Could you recommend some bars to check out that will be relatively crowd free on a Friday/Saturday night and are somewhat close to the Harvard area?

Thanks much,

Sam

frederic said...

Relatively crowd free on a Friday or Saturday night, um... that's why we go out on Sundays through Tuesdays. But there are some options that will probably get you a seat at the bar or at least in the tables next to it.

In Harvard Square, there's the Rialto's bar which is decent, and Noir which is trendy but often crowded. I would travel down to Central Square (one T stop, or about a mile by foot/cab) where there are three good bars I have written about a bunch: Rendezvous, Green Street, and Craigie on Main. The first closes its doors early (10 pm or perhaps later on the weekend) since it has restaurant hours. Craigie can be rather crowded but seats at the bar seem to open up later in the night (after 10) and there are seats in the lounge area around the bar. Green Street has a long (6 page) cocktail list if you ask for it (otherwise you get the short 2-sided one) as well as great beers; Green Street has seats at the bar and at the tables next to it. You can easily peek in and hop around depending on your whim and how crowded things are.

If you get an early start on Saturday, it might help things out.