In honour of Chinese New Year, we decided to turn our bowl of lucky mandarins into a pitcher of lucky cocktails. Excellent! But what to make? Well, after paging through endless recipes for mandarin mojitos and vodka-and-orange-juice-type drinks, I stumbled across a bunch that called, specifically, for Nicaraguan rum. We settled on Flor de Caña, Anejo Clasico 5 Year Old. Not only did it promise a rich mouth feel with notes of orange and vanilla, it also had rave reviews for being well balanced and remarkably smooth. Here’s what we did with it.
Ingredients
(makes 4)
- 10 oz freshly squeezed mandarin orange juice
- 6 oz light rum (Flor de Caña)
- 2 oz Grand Marnier
- 1 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 oz simple syrup
- Orange slices, to garnish
Add the juice, booze, and syrup to a pitcher, and place it in the fridge to chill. Once chilled, pour the cocktail into ice-filled tumblers, garnish with slices of fresh orange, and serve.
The verdict: This cocktail was a very nice surprise. With only one of us being a rum drinker, no-one’s hopes were terribly high. Alas, the rum was everything it promised to be, and the fresh mandarin juice was heavenly. A beautiful, beautiful pairing. Will definitely make this again.