It contains honey, so why not call it the Honeysuckle::
Shake all the ingredients with ice, the strain into a coupe. Garnish with a lime wedge.
- 2.00 ounces Flor de Caña Extra-Dry White Rum
- 0.75 lime juice
- 0.75 ounce Acacia Honey Syrup
I live in North Carolina, USA, where liquor sales are strictly regulated. This is both a source of frustration for me as a vintage cocktail enthusiast as well as a fun challenge. I was finally able to find the rum called for in this drink in Minnesota (the aged or golden Flor de Caña is easy to find but this one is much more difficult).
Now, I get teased a lot for wanting very specific spirits. “You have a white rum, so why do you need this white rum?”. I learned from making the recipes in Dr. Cocktail’s book that the choice of spirit can have a large impact on the flavor of the drink, and so when a particular spirit is called for, I try to find it.
I had never heard of the Honeysuckle before, but it is in the “vintage” section of the Death & Co. cocktail book and it looked interesting. I first heard about Flor de Caña in Wilson’s Boozehound book, and I’ve seen this white “extra dry” version used by a number of bartenders who specialize in vintage cocktails, so I was happy to finally get to try it.
The other odd ingredient, Acacia Honey, I ordered from Amazon. It is supposed to be sweet without imparting too much of its own flavor to the drink. One of my favorite vintage cocktails, the Bebbo Cocktail, also uses honey, and I like the fact that both spirits and honey are supposed to have an unlimited shelf life.
But honey can be hard to work with in cocktails. For the Bebbo I would put in the microwave for a few seconds, but occasionally I’d end up with a chunk of honey in the shaker. In this recipe, the “Acacia Honey Syrup” is made by taking two parts honey to one part warm water, putting that in a sealed container and shaking the bejeezus out of it.
For such a simple drink, I was surprised at how much I liked it (Andrea liked it too). I think a lot of the success can be attributed to the choice of rum, although the Acacia Honey may play a role. I plan to make it again with a different honey just to see how it changes.
Rating: 4/5