Properly Sauced: Orange Barb

By Rob Christopher in Food on May 12, 2009 6:00PM

We recently received a sample of Mount Gay Extra Old, a fine aged rum from Barbados we'd never tried. On the rocks it's superb: a true sipping rum with hints of burnt sugar and spice, and a subtle floral scent. Actually it reminded us a lot of bourbon. That started us thinking ...

The Manhattan is one of our standby cocktails. So what would a "rum Manhattan" taste like? Would the Mount Gay XO take kindly to our favorite vermouth, the Carpano Antica?

And how!

Orange Barb

2 oz. Mount Gay Extra Old
3/4 oz. Carpano Antica
3 dashes Regans' Orange Bitters No. 6

Fill a tumbler with ice and then douse the ice with the bitters. Add the rum and vermouth, stir gently, and serve.

The bitters are what make the drink work (in fact, we first tried it out with Angostura and it just wasn't happening). They bring out the body and spice of the rum while adding a pleasantly bitter orange finish to every sip. If you don't have any Regans' yet, buy some now; once you have them at your disposal you'll never want to be without them. A 5 oz. bottle is around $5 and will last you a long time. We liked this drink best over ice, but you could also serve it straight up in a chilled cocktail glass.

As we've said before, Carpano Antica is hands down the best vermouth we've ever tried. You can pick up a bottle at Drinks Over Dearborn. Mount Gay is widely available. Incidentally, they've been distilling rum since at least 1703, making it one of the oldest liquor companies in the world. And yes, everyone thinks the name is hilarious.