the 1776
The 1776 is a drink that I made for the Walton Arts Center to be sold during the Broadway series production of Hamilton. The drink is a nod to Alexander Hamilton’s roots in the West Indies. What better way to celebrate this than with a rum old-fashioned.
Starting this off, the first flavor that was built off of was a nice vanilla-forward rum. Sugar Island Spiced rum is one of the best available for this. From there we went for a dark rum to add cocoa notes and complexity. For this, Plantation Dark rum was selected. Now we need to add diversity and complexity. For this I used a combination of peanut butter and banana through the use of Skrewball peanut butter whiskey and Giffard’s Banane du Brasil. Finally, to mesh and round out the flavors, Angostura bitters was added.
You might notice that there is no sugar being used in this “old-fashioned”. There is, but it is coming from a less obvious place. All liquor in this drink is sweet. The bitterness from the bitters and the dark rum allow the drink to balance out and come across as a well rounded drink. The final form of this drink presents notes of vanilla, caramel, nutty flavors, sweet fruit, and spices. Truly one of the best sipper drinks I have ever tasted.
The 1776
Ingredients
.75 oz Sugar Island Spiced Rum
.5 oz Plantation Dark Rum
.5 oz Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey
.5 oz Banane du Brasil
1 dash of angostura bitters
Instructions
Combine all ingredients in a mixing tin or mixing glass with ice. Stir for 30 seconds
Strain into a rocks glass with fresh ice.
Optional: Garnish with an expressed orange or large dehydrated banana
Enjoy!!