151 swizzle

1 1/2 oz Lemon Hart or Hamilton's Demerara 151 Proof Rum (Lemon Hart 151)
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Simple Syrup
1 dash Angostura Bitters
6 drop Pernod or Herbsaint (St. George Absinthe)

Flash blend with 8 oz crushed ice for 5 seconds, and pour into a flared metal Swizzle cup (build in a Julep cup, fill with crushed ice, and swizzle to mix and chill). Garnish with a cinnamon stick and freshly grated nutmeg.

Two Tuesdays ago, I met the call for the 151 Swizzle Challenge. The challenge was the rebirth of a series started by Instagrammer El Nova that fizzled out at the end of 2015, and he described this year's inaugural event as, "Here's the first challenge of 2019. The 151 Swizzle Challenge... The rules are simple. Make a 151 Swizzle using the original recipe or come up with your own mix. Hashtag it, post it up, but most of all make your swizzle shine. Cheers and good luck!" Since I had never had the original, I started with Don the Beachcomber's recipe (attributed to his bartender Tony Ramos) that Beachbum Berry shared in the Grog Log and Remixed books and later on his site, instead of making up my own or delving into the more spice-driven Mai Kai and Tiki-Ti versions. I probably passed over this recipe on numerous occasions for fear that the drink would come across as too hot, but it was time to experience it first hand. For the rum, I made use of an older Lemon Hart 151 rum circa 2012, and I utilized a swizzle stick to mix the drink instead of a blender.
The 151 Swizzle's garnishes offered up much of the nose with cinnamon and woody spice aromas. Next, lime and the rum's caramel mingled on the sip, and the swallow came through with rum, cherry wood, allspice, and anise flavors. While I was expecting the sip to be rather potent, the dilution through swizzling tamed this into a relatively easy to drink number (albeit with a surprising 2.8 oz equivalent of 80 proof spirit).