August 16th is the perfect time of year for National Rum Day. It is smack dab in the middle of the dog days of summer, where rum fits right in. Below you’ll find a number of cocktails for celebrating the occasion, some of which include a few unusual ingredients. You can find most on Amazon.

To round out our rum celebration, try out the Rum Curry Chicken at the bottom of the page. The chef recommends cooking up more than you think you’ll need because it is that good. Who wants to disappoint folks asking for seconds?

Bacolod Breeze
1 1/2 oz. Don Papa Rum
3 Tbsp. Nata de Coco (coconut jelly)
3 large ice cubes
1 dash of Calamansi juice (this typically used in Filipino cooking and is nice on grilled chicken or pork)
guava juice
mint leaves

Shake rum and Nata de Coco with ice cubes. Pour into a highball glass (including ice). Fill to the top with guava juice Add Calamansi on the rim of the glass and garnish with mint leaves.

Piña Colada Old-Fashioned
courtesy of Touro – a trendy bar and restaurant in San Juan
1 oz. Don Q Coco rum
¼ oz. spiced pineapple shrub
3 dashes Angostura bitters
dehydrated pineapple
shaved coconut
orange twist or peel, for garnish

Fill a mixing glass with ice. Add both rums, pineapple shrub, and Angostura bitters. Stir until well-chilled—about 15 seconds. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with an orange peel or twist.

Spiced Pineapple Shrub
courtesy of MotherWouldKnow.com
1 pound fresh pineapple, cut into small pieces About 2 cups
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup Demerara (raw) sugar
4 cloves, crushed
3 cinnamon sticks, crushed
20 allspice berries
1/2 tsp. grated nutmeg (preferably freshly grated)
¾ cup red wine vinegar

Pour the pineapple pieces, the granulated and Demerara sugar together. Mix them, cover, and let them sit overnight in the refrigerator. Add the spices and let the mixture steep an additional day. Mix in the wine vinegar and refrigerate for another 3 days. When the mixture is done steeping, strain it into a pitcher or other container with a lid, pressing the pineapple pieces to get out all the juices.

Masskara
1/2 oz. Don Papa Rum
4 fresh blackberries
1/2 oz. St-Germain Elderflower liqueur
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1 egg white
grapefruit bitters
edible flowers

Shake all ingredients, except two of the blackberries, with ice. Garnish with blackberries and serve in a short stem wine glass.

Casa D’Aristi Banana Daiquiri
2 oz. Casa D’Aristi rum
½ oz. lemon juice
1 fresh banana
½ cup coconut milk
½ oz. simple syrup
3 cups of ice
Maraschino cherry

Shake all ingredients vigorously with the ice. Strain into a balloon glass filled with ice. Garnish with a maraschino cherry on top before serving.

Sailor Jerry Sangria
1 ½ parts Sailor Jerry Spiced rum
½ cup sugar
2 parts dry red wine
1 part orange juice
1 lemon, lime, and orange

Chill all ingredients. Slice citrus into thin rounds and place in a large pitcher with Sailor Jerry and sugar. Chill for 2 hours to develop flavors. When ready to serve, crush fruit with a wooden spoon; then stir in wine and orange juice. Serve topped with lemon-lime soda.

Cruzan Crush
recipe by Teddy Collins, Miami
4 parts Cruzan Vanilla rum
4 parts Cruzan Aged dark rum
6 parts pineapple juice
3 parts lemon juice
3 parts apricot simple syrup
fresh mint and thyme

Combine lemon juice, apricot simple syrup,and pineapple juice into a cocktail bucket or punch bowl. Lightly smack 10 mint leaves and drop into the bucket along with 2 stems of thyme and muddle softly. Add rums, crushed ice, and stir. Garnish with fresh mint, thyme and 4-6 straws. Enjoy!

To Make Apricot Simple Syrup
Over medium heat, combine equal parts sugar and apricot juice. Stir until sugar has dissolved. Set aside and cool.

Rum and Peach Cocktail with Chile Syrup
courtesy of Nicky’s Kitchen Sanctuary
2 peaches, one chopped into small chunks, the other sliced into 6-8 wedges
¼ cup caster or superfine sugar
½ cup water
½ jalapeño chile
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/4 cup good quality rum
Fiery ginger beer (We used Cock and Bull Cherry Ginger Beer)
1 small slice of fresh ginger
1 tbsp caster or superfine sugar
crushed ice
½ red chile or jalapeño cut into small slices

Place the small chunks of chopped peach into a saucepan along with the sugar, water, and jalapeño. Bring to the boil; stir and simmer for 10 minutes, mushing the mixture with a fork every couple of minutes. Turn off the heat and leave to cool.

Meanwhile, dust the peach wedges in the brown sugar and grill/bbq or griddle each side on a high heat for 1-2 minutes until the sugar caramelizes. Remove from the heat and put to one side.

Take your two glasses and rub the rims of the glasses with a small slice of fresh ginger. Spread the one tbsp of caster sugar on a plate and dip the rims of the glasses in the sugar to coat. Fill each glass with crushed ice and pour 2 tbsp of rum into each glass. Sieve the peach-jalapeño mixture, squashing it down to get all the of the liquid out. Divide the liquid between the two glasses. Top with ginger beer and decorate the glasses with the caramelized peaches and chile slices before serving.

The Flaming Volcano
courtesy of Thrillist.com
1 oz. Dixie Black Pepper vodka
1 oz. simple syrup
1 oz. falernum
lemon lime soda
¼ oz. blue curaçao
151-proof rum
½ fresh lime

In a hurricane glass, filled with crushed ice, add vodka, simple syrup, and falernum. Top off with lemon lime soda and blue curaçao. Using a manual juicer, hull out a lime half and fill it with 151-proof rum. Float it in the drink. When the tip is lit with a match, the top of the drink is engulfed in flames.

This cocktail is very simple but popular in times past. It was used in place of Navy grog by pirates in the Caribbean and was given to voters during election campaigns in colonial British America. Our own George Washington was reputed to “swill the planters” with bumbo.

Bumbo
2 ounces rum
1 ounce water
2 sugar cubes
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Mix rum, water, and sugar cubes in a rocks glass. Sprinkle the cinnamon and nutmeg on top and serve. Garnishes are optional. A related drink is the Traitor, made with orange juice, rum, honey, and nutmeg,

The Macua (The National Drink of Nicaragua)
courtesy of BarNoneDrinks.com
1 1/2 oz. Flor de Cana Gold Label rum
1 oz. guava juice
1 oz. orange juice
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1/3 oz. simple syrup

Fill 3/4 of a cocktail shaker with ice and add Flor de Cana rum, guava juice, orange juice, lemon juice, and simple sugar. Shake well for 30 seconds, serve in a Tom Collins glass with ice and decorate with an orange slice. Raise your glass, hike through the rain forest, or surf down a volcano and celebrate Nicaragua’s National Independence Day on September 15.

Tschunk (a German cocktail)
courtesy of Tshunk.org
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 oz. golden rum or dark rum
1 lime
Club-Maté

Dice limes, put them together with the brown sugar into a high glass and crush both. Add crushed ice and pour the rum over it. Top off with Club-Maté and add a straw.

Club Maté is a caffeinated drink from Germany. It is hard to find in the U.S. Here are instructions to make your own. You can skip the boiling the tea steps if you buy Yerba Maté already brewed in bottles or cans. We’re including the complete directions in case you prefer to make it from scratch.

Club Maté Copycat
courtesy of instructables.com
3 Tbsp. Yerba Maté
2 cups hot water
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
½ tsp. citric acid
Refrigerated carbonated water

Fill the yerba maté into tea filter, add hot water and let it sit for at least 7 minutes. Then remove the tea filter, add the sugar and citric acid; stir until dissolved. At this point, the “maté base” may get a little cloudy and will taste way too sweet and sour at the same time. Don’t worry about that, as it will get fixed in the next step. Let the “maté base” cool down (add ice cubes if you’re impatient) and put it in the fridge for some minutes. Shortly before drinking, combine carbonated water and the cold “maté base” in a 1:1 ratio. This makes sure you always have a fizzy drink.

Coquito
courtesy of allrecipes.com
2 egg yolks, beaten
1 (12 fluid oz.) can evaporated milk
1 (14 oz.) can cream of coconut
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup white rum
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. real vanilla extract

In the top of a double boiler, combine egg yolks and evaporated milk. Stirring constantly, cook over lightly simmering water until mixture reaches a temperature of 160 degrees. The mixture should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Transfer mixture to a blender, and add cream of coconut, sweetened condensed milk, rum, water, cloves, cinnamon, and vanilla. Blend for about 30 seconds. Pour into glass bottles and chill overnight.
Note: This also makes a nice addition to coffee, in place of normal creamer.

Curry Rum Chicken
courtesy of cooks.com
1/4 cup light rum
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. chicken bouillon (granules or cubes)
4 chicken breasts
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup water

In a large frying pan, combine 1 cup of water, the rum, bouillon, garlic, curry powder, salt and pepper, and bring to a boil. Add chicken, reduce heat to medium/low, cover, and simmer 15 minutes. Turn over chicken and simmer for 15 minutes more. Serve on a bed of rice or noodles. (The “sauce” is great over cooked noodles and you can easily double the sauce ingredients initially and have lots to pour over noodles or rice).

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