Rum, orange curacao, lime and ginger beer, built straight in the glass. A five-minute highball with more structure than it has any right to have — the curacao does the work that fruit juice usually does, without the sweetness.
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 oz Bombarda Culverin
- 1/2 oz orange curacao
- 1/4 oz fresh lime juice
- 2 oz ginger beer
- 2 dashes Angostura bitters
- Lime wheel and orange slice, to garnish
Method of Attack:
- Build in a highball glass over ice: rum, curacao, lime juice.
- Fill with ginger beer and stir once.
- Add the bitters over the top.
- Garnish with a lime wheel, an orange slice, or both.
About This Recipe:
The powder box — the magazine — was the most carefully guarded space on a fighting ship. Below the waterline, lined in copper, lit only through glass from an adjoining light room so no flame ever entered. Powder monkeys, often boys of eleven or twelve, ran cartridges up to the gun decks one at a time. Nobody kept more powder on deck than the next few minutes required.
A drink built in the glass, in about a minute, with nothing held in reserve.
Why this rum:
Ginger beer and curacao are both sweet, and a highball is a long drink — whatever is in the glass, you are drinking a lot of it. Sweetness that seems fine in the first sip becomes cloying by the last third.
Culverin finishes dry and peppery, which is what keeps a long drink drinkable to the bottom. No added sugar, no caramel colorant, no chill filtration.
Battle Notes:
Build it in the glass rather than shaking. Shaking flattens ginger beer and you lose the carbonation that makes a highball a highball.
For a similar build with sherry and ginger ale, see Devil To Pay.
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