Planter’s Style: Coffee Love
Contributed by on Jul 15, 2013
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One of my favorite things about Tiki Planter’s Punches is how easy they are to modify to the mixer’s personal taste. Here at Rated R Cocktails we love strong bold cocktails, and I am partial to coffee and mild bitterness. This week’s cocktail expresses both the strong side of Planters as well as it’s ability to take on the maker’s personality.
We began with simple Starbucks Sumatran Coffee made from a single cup dispenser. Now I love refined french press coffee and home ground coffee house brews. But some of these intensely bold coffees can sometimes, in my experience overwhelm a cocktail. For my current purposes this coffee works just fine and is very pleasing and accessible to the home or professional bartender. It has a nice earthy funky character, and the drink is named after the Sumatran province that grows most of Sumatra’s Arabica coffee.
To that I add come of my favorite rums. For the Dark Jamaican we chose Blackwell for it’s dark molasses flavor and subtle warming spice notes. Coruba or Appleton 12 year would also be great in this. We also gave it a kick with overproof Cruzan, and lip smacking temptation with Cruzan Blackstrap. If your missing blackstrap bitters you could use Angostura, but I encourage you to seek them out.
Lintong Punch
¼ oz coffee syrup
¼ oz Domaine de Canton
½ oz Sumatran Coffee
½ oz fresh lime
¼ oz pineapple juice
1 oz Dark Jamaican Rum
1 oz Curzan Blackstrap Rum
½ oz Cruzan 151
1 dash Bittercube Blackstrap Bitters
Shake with ice and pour into a chimney glass. Garnish with an orange parasol and if desired a small piece of pineapple.
To make the coffee syrup we simply make a pot of stove top espresso and while it’s hot pour it into a saucepan with an equal amount of sugar. We simmer it till it bubbles slightly stirring constantly. This is to make sure the sugar is fully dissolved. Be careful not to cook it to long or it will taste burnt and lose some of it’s delicate notes. Then simply cool and bottle it for further use.
The nose has fragrant wafts of brown sugar, molasses, and dark funky coffee. Infact the baseline flavor of this punch defines dark and funky. I love the way lime and coffee play together in drinks. It lends a light sourness and an earthy bitterness that’s lovingly smoothed and supported by the blackstrap rum. The 151 gives a nice background kick in the pants. It starts out spicy, and rummy before quickly building to a bright, earthy, coffee/citrus funk. The finish is almost nutty with light twangs of ginger and burnt molasses spice.
Those that desire abit more sweetness may use ginger syrup instead of Domaine de Canton. Or add abit of honey mix to the recipe to soften the coffee bitterness. Personally I find this quite the refreshing and revitalizing potion as is.
We hope you’ve enjoyed playing with Planters Punches this month, which has been your favorite so far? Let us know, and until next time…
“You get hammered America!” – JFL