Review: Joe Gambino’s Bakery King Cake Rum Cream
Made in New Orleans by our friends at Cocktail & Sons, which is known for its line of exotic syrups, this collaboration with Joe Gambino’s Bakery is the outfit’s first alcoholic product, a rum cream flavored to taste like the inimitable NOLA classic: king cake.
The light brown — and vaguely pink — liqueur has generalized cream liqueur aromas, including brown sugar and a light, hard-to-place fruit note. There’s a little coconut in the mix too, emerging with time. On the palate, the sweetness takes on a slight bubble gum quality, with sweet pastry cream eventually dominating. Eventually there’s more of that sweetness, again with a bit of a strawberry note lingering on the finish along with a more traditional hint of cinnamon.
King cake can be made with a wide array of fillings, so “king cake flavor” doesn’t mean a whole lot, though again cinnamon and pastry cream are the most traditional elements. That’s all accounted for here at the very least, though on the whole the experience is somewhat less distinct, never quite taking me back to Big Muddy.
34 proof.
A- / $32 / gambinos.com
Joe Gambino's Bakery King Cake Rum Cream
$32
