A Rum Punch Recipe For The Winter Blues
Oualie Beach Resort Hotel
December 27, 2009
In need of a rum punch recipe, I called down to the Oualie Beach Bar as I always do every Christmas, and was complaining about the cold and snow in Ohio. Quick as a wink, my favorite bartender Moy, sent me a recipe to cheer me up, or at least warm me up. Now all I need is some string band music, and a hammock.
Hot Rum Punch Recipe
Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons whole cloves
3 Medium blood oranges
½ Gallon apple cider
2 cinnamon sticks
1 Star Anise (#ad)
2 Cups Cavalier Gold Rum
Cooking Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Press cloves evenly into oranges. Place in a baking dish. Bake 45 minutes. In a large saucepan, heat cider, star anise, and cinnamon sticks. Prick hot oranges with a fork. Place in a punch bowl and pour the hot cider over the oranges. Stir in rum. Serve hot with a garnish of orange peel or cinnamon stick.
Be careful not to get the rum punch mixture too hot, or all of the rum will evaporate…what’s the point then? :)
A Brief History of Cavalier Rum
In the early 19th century, the first rum’s produced in Antigua were concocted by individual estate owners using crude “Pot Sills” to distill their home brews. But even in those rollicking days, Antigua Rum was known for it’s lightness and rather elegant flavour.
With the demise of of rum production on the estates in the early 20th century, the trade shifted to individual rum shops whose owners concocted their own blends and sold them under colourful names like Red Cock, House and Silver Leaf. In 1932 a number of these rum shop owners joined together to form the Antigua Distillery Ltd.
In the early days the company sold two types of rum and an aged “mature” rum known as Caballero Rum. In 1934 the Company purchased a number of estates and a sugar factory and began to produce its own molasses. The factory produced a very high quality and distinctive grocery sugar known as Muscovado.
The residue of this sugar, known as muscovado molasses, contained a wonderfully pleasant sugar flavour and was used to produce the Company’s first bottled product in the early 1950’s; a unique full-bodied aged rum called Cavalier Muscovado Rum.
In the 1960’s there was a world wide shift in consumer preferences towards lighter bodied spirits. In recognition of this trend, the Company changed its distillation process to produce a much lighter-bodied rum. Thus, Cavalier Antigua Rum was born.