Sinking Spell
Recipe:
- 60ml J.M. Blanc Rhum (or other 45-50% blanc rhum agricole)
- 15ml Chartreuse Jaune
- 1bsp simple syrup
- 2 dashes orange bitters
Stir everything on ice until sufficiently chilled, strain into a rocks glass on ice, garnish with a star anise pod.
The "Sinking Spell" is an exciting Rhum OF from the underrated "Cuban Cocktails" book, with actually quite common ingredients.
I made it for a friend and myself with J.M. Rhum and Isautier, both worked very well. The rhum should contain some terroir and grassy notes, Trois Rivieres for example I would say is already too crazy fruity, but could also work. In the original it is made specifically with J.M. and the accompanying text says that J.M. with the strict regulations is one of very few r(h)ums that can really speak of terroir.
An aroma of sweet grass, anise, pipe tobacco, licorice, candied ginger, fresh sugar cane and fresh flower honey.
In the mouth very elegant, beautifully fresh sugar cane at the start, honey and licorice as the other main notes, then anise, a touch of rosemary, pipe tobacco, pineapple chips, kiwi and lime zest, also some orange peel and a hint of nutmeg.
A round finish follows, herbal-sweet-dry like the whole drink, but nothing for people who do not like such hints of "medicine", it goes a bit into that territory. In this respect, it roughly reminds one of the Caribbean Cure / Cuban Heal, which I also liked.
My advice would be to add one or one and a half star anise directly into the stirring glass before stirring and let it sit for 5 minutes before adding the ice, so that the garnish is nicely integrated, then of course fine strain and a new pod as garnish.
Source: "Cuban Cocktails" - Ravi DeRossi, Jane Danger, Alla Lapushchik
