Name: Colonial Ties
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 2.5 ml Absinthe; 7.5 ml Brown sugar syrup; 2 dash Orange bitters; 30 ml Rye whiskey 50% abv; 30 ml Aged Jamaican rum; 10 ml Chilled water

Ingredients

¹⁄₁₂ fl oz

La Fée Parisienne absinthe

¹⁄₄ fl oz

Demerara/Muscovado/brown sugar syrup (2 sugar to 1 water)

2 dash

Orange Bitters by Angostura

1 fl oz

Straight rye whiskey (100 proof /50% alc./vol.)

1 fl oz

Jamaican-style aged blended rum with funk

¹⁄₃ fl oz

Chilled water/mineral water (omit if using wet ice)

How to make

Glassware

Prepare

Select and pre-chill an OLD-FASHIONED GLASS.

Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist.

Method

RINSE glass with absinthe, discard excess and set to one side.

STIR other ingredients with ice.

STRAIN into absinthe-rinsed glass. (No ice in glass.)

Garnish

EXPRESS lemon zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Flavour Profile

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

Health & Nutrition

Nutrition:

One serving of Colonial Ties contains 163 calories

Alcohol content:

1.6 standard drinks
28.2% alc./vol. (56.39° proof)
22.8 grams of pure alcohol

Review

Some like to muddle a bitters-soaked brown sugar cube until "smooth paste" to make this cocktail. Depending on your sugar cube, even with a splash of soda water, after what seems like an eternity you may still see sugar crystals rather than paste. Life's too short so I've used 2:1 brown sugar syrup to make this punchy nightcap of a cocktail. One person's paste is another's syrup!

Comments & Discussion

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Mookie Premium Member 30w

one of my favorites but I have to know: what the heck constitutes wet ice? regardless, I used a splash of water this time because I'm assuming my ice isn't wet, quite delicious. Knob Creek and Doctor Bird

Simon Sedgley Premium Member 30w

Our understanding is that 'wet ice' is most likely to be encountered in a bar, where the cubes are stored at a relatively high temperature...perhaps to make them easier for the bartender to deploy. Any cubes coming out of an optimally functioning home freezer are unlikely to be 'wet'.

Mookie Premium Member 30w

that's what I figured, thanks for affirming!

Simon Difford Verified User Premium Member 30w

Please click "Chilled water" in the recipe above for explanation.

Joseph McDonell 36w

I might change my mind but I had this with a lighter rum only aged 3 years. I think playing around with this it could make something very tasty.

Steven Kent 2y

Tried with Appleton Estate 12 year and Rittenhouse Rye. It's okay, but I prefer a regular sazerac. I'm starting to think I only like Jamaican rum in mai tais.

John Hinojos Premium Member 2y

I love a Sazerac.
Your issue may have been the Appleton. We are big rum drinkers and find that Appleton is a bit tame for a Jamaican rum. I would go with a Hamilton Black or Myer's Single Barrel. The Jamaican funk is needed to balance the rye.

Scott Edinborough 35w

I'm with John on this one. Made mine with Rittenhouse and Smith & Cross. The S&C brings that Jamaican funk that stands up to the Rittenhouse BinB. Need two heavyweights or one's going to overpower the other.

Giulio Motta 3y

This is good. But to get it to excellent you will have to experiment with a lot of specific rye/rum combination until you nail down the perfect mix.

John Hinojos Premium Member 4y

Great evening sipping cocktail. Very spirit forward. Flavours of rye and rum worked outstandingly together. Did back off the sugar syrup by half to make it a bit dryer. To capture more of the cocktails essence, we served in small snifters which concentrated the flavours as you drank.