Single Barrel Sour

Tasty & Delicious!

In the last three weeks I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy two extended private tours & tastings at the Cruzan Rum distillery with one of their QA chemists (and all around great guy) Steve Couture. While, in a later post I will break down the tour, operation and tasting notes, here I want to showcase the remarkable mixability of Cruzan’s top shelf Single Barrel rum.

Normally, I would be reticent to add more than a couple ice cubes to this fantastic rum, but after tasting several high end rums side by side against Single Barrel, I found that this 12 year blended rum from Cruzan still maintains most of its delicate notes, while the other brands fell flat, after dilution. So with February upon us and Bitter Oranges falling off the trees in my backyard, I bring you the

Single Barrel Sour

2 oz Cruzan Single Barrel Rum

2 oz Fresh Squeezed Bitter Orange juice

1/2 oz Demerera Syrup

1 egg white

Combine over ice in a tumbler and shake hard, (the goal here is to emulsify the egg white with the Bitter Orange juice, which in turn gives you that great foamy texture of a true sour)  pour into a rocks glass and enjoy! (Blood Orange garnish optional)

(If you really want to have fun with this drink, make some Bitter Orange juice ice cubes and use them instead of regular ice. As your drink melts the “ice” it just gets more delicious!)

I love the way the subtle caramel and vanilla of the rum still shine through in this drink. The obscene tartness of the oranges seems a bit overwhelming in the nose, but the rich Single Barrel spice is the flavor that lingers with you.