Looking for more drinks for my new creme de cassis, and this popped up. Blackstrap is an interesting spirit. An ill-defined category of rum, it's very hard to draw a firm line around it, but you know it when you taste it. And on the rare occasion that it's called for, nothing else will do. This drink forwarded a strange combination of the two.

1 1/2 oz blackstrap rum (Cruzan)

3/4 oz creme de cassis (Massenez)

3/4 oz lime juice (fresh)

1/6 oz Grand Marnier

Shake all ingredients with ice, strain, serve up.

I saw a lot of buzz on this one, and frankly I'm not sure what they're talking about. It's not bad by any means, but it's really just... blackstrap rum and creme de cassis standing in a room not talking to each other, ostensibly with lime and Grand Marnier somewhere nearby. And both of those are fine flavors that I enjoy, and they don't go poorly together, but they don't really interact in any interesting way. As I got further into it I started to get some pleasant acidity from the lime that made the drink livelier, but this one didn't live up to expectations overall.

Recipe from:

I usually try to avoid drinking on adjacent nights, but a small celebration was in order this evening, so I'm bending the rule. I was talking black rum earlier tonight with a friend, and where black rum is being discussed, the Jungle Bird is soon to follow. And so it did.

1 1/2 oz black/blackstrap rum (Cruzan Blackstrap)

1 1/2 oz pineapple juice (Trader Joe's Cold Pressed)

3/4 oz Campari

1/2 oz lime juice (fresh)

1/2 oz simple (Portland Syrups Cane Syrup)

Shake on ice, serve up.

The Jungle Bird is often a surprise in tiki spaces, at least your first one. Unlike the balanced sweetness of most tiki drinks, the Jungle Bird is an all-out assault of bitter. Few not versed in blackstrap rum expect its maple syrup notes either. But once you have a handle on it, the Jungle Bird is a unique, fantastic cocktail, and a one-drink argument for keeping blackstrap on hand.

Recipe taken from:

Rum & Ruin—a poem aged in fire and served with dread The night poured thick, the silence cruel,He stirred his drink like breaking rules.A shadowed pour, blackstrap and bold,Distilled where dreams rot into mold. Fernet slithered, sharp and deep,Like secrets murmured in your sleep.No citrus here, no sugared cheer—Just bitterness grown old and clear. A syrup scorched, a past recalled,A voice once…

Sometimes you want a simple drink. Sometimes instead you want to be pulling unused bottles from every cabinet you own and ordering new syrups to try some deranged recipe. This is one of the latter.

1 oz Appleton 12 (I had 8, I used 8)

3/4 oz cognac (AKB6 VS)

1/4 oz Wray and Nephew Overproof

1/4 oz Cruzan Blackstrap

1/2 oz Campari

3/4 oz pineapple juice (Trader Joe's Cold Pressed)

1/2 oz lime juice (fresh)

1/2 oz cane syrup (Portland Syrups)

1/2 oz passionfruit syrup (Portland Syrups)

Shake on ice, strain, pour over crushed ice.

An interesting time! Not sure the flavor alone is worth all the effort, but with this sort of drink building it is most of the fun. The blackstrap dominates, despite only a quarter ounce being present, a testament to the sheer strength of its flavor.

Taken from: