Episode 247

Modern Caribbean Rum with Matt Pietrek

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Modern Caribbean Rum with Matt Pietrek

Episode 247

What’s shakin, cocktail fans? Welcome to Episode 247 of The Modern Bar Cart Podcast!

This time around, we catch up with rum and cocktail expert Matt Pietrek (@rumwonk). He’s a New Orleans-based beverage writer and scholar known for his extremely popular first book, Minimalist Tiki, but he’s here to talk about his latest, epic project, Modern Caribbean Rum: A Contemporary Reference to the Region’s Essential Spirit. Pre-order your copy at Wonkpress.com.

In this fascinating deep-dive into the world of cane distillates with Matt Pietrek, some of the topics we discuss include:

How Matt and his wife Carrie collaborated to create an 800+ page self-published treatise on the rums of the Caribbean: through strategy, structure, and of course visiting so many of the incredible producers who pour their life into this spirit.
Then, we get into the weeds on a wide-ranging set of topics related to the classification of rum. And this is really the heart of the book. We talk about:
The broad-strokes differences between British-style, French-style, and Spanish-style rums
The impact of colonial history and economics on the timelines and styles that were propagated in different islands and regions
And why Matt thinks about Rum as a “Meta-category” of spirits that contains multitudes of styles and flavors.
Along the way, we cover the palletized nuances of self-publishing, the four main decision buckets that dictate the kind of rum that a given producer will bottle, the surprising influence of Canadians on overproof rum bottling strength, and much, much more.

Featured Cocktail: The Cobra’s Fang

This episode’s featured cocktail is the Cobra’s Fang (photo credit: Matt Pietrek). To make it, you’ll need:

½ oz each of: lime juice, orange juice, and passion fruit syrup
¼ oz velvet falernum, which is a spiced almond-ginger syrup
1 ½ – 2 oz Overproof British rum – something from Guyana or Jamaica (we’ll discuss this further in a second)
1 or 2 dashes of Angostura Bitters
6 drops of Absinthe

Combine these ingredients in a blender with about a cup of crushed ice, blend until smooth, then strain into your tiki vessel or highball glass of choice, grab a straw, and enjoy. Garnishes for this drink rum the gamut, some involving a cinnamon stick, some a mint bouquet, and some opting for more theatrical portrayals of this dangerous snake’s venomous bite.

The Cobra’s Fang is a 1937 creation of Donn Beach, creator of Don the Beachcomber, who makes a cameo later in this episode. But more importantly than this, the conversation about which rum or rums to use in this cocktail provide a lens into the diversity and influence of British style cane distillates.

The thing is: Jamaican and Guyanese rums are very different in flavor. The original Cobra’s fang was probably made with a Guyanese-style, namely Lemon Hart 151 (a number that also comes up later in this chat). But as different bartenders have explored this drink, some have chosen to use a split base of Guyanese and Jamaican rums, or even migrate entirely to the fruity, funky, Jamaican side of the flavor spectrum.

Suffice it to say: the rum is the nucleus of this cocktail, and the perfect Cobra’s fang formulation for YOU is going to entirely depend on your understanding of and preference for Demerara-style overproof Guyanese rums and Jamaican rums. And that is a project that may require a trip to the liquor store and some quality time with Matt’s new book.

This episode was made possible with editing and sound design by Samthana Reed, Modern Caribbean Rum insights courtesy of Matt Pietrek, and a little bit of interview magic by yours truly. This has been a Modern Bar Cart production, copyright 2022.

Modern Caribbean Rum with Matt Pietrek

Featured Cocktail: The Cobra’s Fang

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