Rum. Falernum. Bitters. Maybe Lime.
As this is a stirred drink, served on ice, I would simply add all the ingredients to the intended rocks glass and stir in situ, as it were. However, if you:
Want to make multiple drinks
Wish to serve it with different ice to that you’re stirring with (ie cheap party ice to stir, fancy clarified block ice to serve, you fancy bastard).
Simply prefer to.
Then use a mixing vessel. This can be a purpose built mixing glass, a shaker tin, a pint glass, or frankly anything that hasn’t got a hole in the bottom. Use a salad bowl for all I care.
1. So, add to your mixing thing:
50 ml (2 parts) Rum. This can be your favourite rum, or a mix of two rums, or whatever you like. Depending on how nerdy you are about rum, and how many tiresome opinions you have on still types and added sugar.
25 ml (1 part) Falernum. This can be any old falernum, however if you’re currently wondering what the fuck falernum is, see notes below.
2-3 hefty dashes Angostura Bitters.
As much ice as you can fit.
2. Stir it until it’s cold. If you’ve done this in a glass, you’re good to drink. Otherwise:
3. If in a mixing vessel, strain (pour the liquid into a glass(es), using something to keep the ice in the vessel) and add your fancy ice, or normal ice or whatever.
Some Notes:
Falernum – a spiced cordial, sometimes alcoholic. It is basically sugar, citrus, some spices and booze (where applicable). You can find lots of recipes to make your own, and many brands are available. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum (pictured) is probably the most prevalent.
Lime – A lot of recipes call for some lime wedges to be muddled in with the drink. Feel free to give this a go, but I find this muddies the whole thing and kinda ruins the mouth feel. But to each their own.
Ratios – This recipe is slightly heavy on the Falernum, which I counter by adding a fair whack of bitters. If you find this too sweet, or you’d prefer to get more rum flavour come through, maybe aim for something closer to a traditional Old Fashioned spec: 50 ml Rum, 10ml Falernum, couple of dashes Bitters. All these ratios are malleable, so make it how you like; you’re drinking it. You could do 50 ml Falernum, 25ml Rum if you wanted. It’d be terrible, but you could do it.