ibo lele cocktail

2 oz Barbancourt 5 Star Rum (Coruba Dark)
1/2 oz Dubonnet or Port (Taylor Fladgate Ruby)
1/2 oz Grenadine
Juice 1 Lime (1/2+ oz)
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry (mint sprig impaled on a citrus peel raft).

Two Saturdays ago after my work shift, I was feeling the Tiki mood and reached for Trader Vic's 1974 Rum Cookery & Drinkery. There, I spotted the Ibo Lele Cocktail named after a hotel in Haiti. Since I lacked the Dubonnet option (I often substitute another quinquina instead until I can acquire some French instead of Kentucky-made Dubonnet), I chose the port route. Port appears in a few Tiki drinks like Martin Cate's Dead Reckoning and Trader Vic's South Sea Dipper, but it still feels like it is underutilized as a Tiki ingredient. The closest that I have come to using it that way is in my Josephine Baker cocktail riff, the Banana Dance.
The Ibo Lele Cocktail presented a funky rum and mint aroma. Caramel, grape, and pomegranate flavors were balanced by the lime's crispness on the sip, and the swallow gave forth funky rum, clove, and allspice notes with a dry finish.