subtly sinister

1 1/2 oz Planteray Xaymaca Rum
1/2 oz Smith & Cross Rum
1 oz Ancho Reyes Chile Liqueur
1/4 oz White Crème de Cacao (Bols)
1/4 oz Demerara Syrup
2 dash Smeby's Black & White (chocolate/vanilla) Bitters (2 dash Savoy Society Chocolate-Chicory + 2 dash Savoy Society Orange-Vanilla)

Stir with ice, strain into a double old fashioned glass with a large ice cube, and garnish with mint (chocolate mint) with drops of Black & White Bitters (3 drops of each of the two bitters above on the mint sprig).Two Thursdays prior, I revisited the online recipe flashcards for The Violet Hour in Chicago. There, I spotted the Subtly Sinister from the Fall 2021 menu that I had previously skipped over when I lacked Ancho Reyes on my shelf. While Ancho Reyes has generally been paired with agave spirits in the recipes that I have tried, it did work rather well with funky Jamaican rum in Shameful Tiki's No Woman, No Crime and in the night before's split-base Bootlegger's Barrel. The cacao-chili pairing had been already set in my mind when I first had it in 2015 with the Battle of Puebla, so that was also a plus. In the glass, the Subtly Sinister approached the nose with a rum funk, mint, chocolate, and vanilla bouquet. Next, a caramel sip turned a bit more aggressive with funky rum, chocolate, and chili flavor on the swallow.