Episode 247

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.