Haiti by way of Montreal: Rum Sour

A French not-so-simple syrup, made with vanilla bean, star anise, cinnamon stick, fresh ginger and raisins, adds a lovely complexity to this Haitian rum sour. Recipes for the syrup and the cocktail below.

BINGEWATCHING HAS BECOME THE NATIONAL PASTIME, as we all hunker down, just trying to get through everything. This cocktail is a direct result of our bingeing. No, not that kind. We’ve been bingeing on Somebody Feed Phil.

Phil is Phil Rosenthal, the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond. He is also a lifelong lover of food—and a smart, enthusiastic, genuinely warm human being. As he travels the world in this Netflix series, eating everything from street food to the latest chef-driven cuisine, he seeks out and embraces diversity in every city he visits.

Case in point, in Montreal, Somebody Feed Phil visited the restaurant Agrikol, where Haitian-born chef Paul Toussaint serves up a short menu of classic dishes of his homeland. The first thing he served Phil was a Florita Rhum Sour, named for the 132-year-old Hotel Florita. Agrikol’s version of the drink features Rhum Barbancourt 3-Star, made using the same method as when the Port au Prince, Haiti-based Rhum Barbancourt distillery began operation in 1862.

Another ingredient in Agrikol’s rum sour is sirop d’épices (spice syrup), a French not-so-simple syrup that infuses the basic sugar water with various spices and herbs. We looked at—and translated—numerous recipes before adapting a version that includes vanilla bean, star anise, cinnamon stick, fresh ginger and raisins(!). You need to make this a day ahead to let everything infuse.

For our rum sour, we managed to find Rhum Barbancourt 3-Star at our local liquor store (reasonably priced too!). You can use whatever dark rum you have on hand. And while Agrikol doesn’t add egg white to their cocktail, we do—to us, that’s one of the key ingredients in sours, giving them a foamy top and luxurious mouthfeel. You can leave it out if you choose.

The egg white and sirop d’épices make this rum sour a light, slightly sweet drink with a pleasant complexity. Oh, and if you haven’t watched Somebody Feed Phil, give it a try. It’s armchair travel at its coziest, funniest, sweetest best. Make sure to have snacks at your side, though. You will get hungry. Find it on Netflix.

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Rum Sour

A French not-so-simple syrup, made with vanilla bean, star anise, cinnamon stick, fresh ginger and raisins, adds a lovely complexity to this Haitian rum sour.

Course Drinks

Servings 1 cocktail

Ingredients

For the sirop d'épice—make a day ahead (makes about 2/3 cup)

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup water
• 1-1/2 ounces golden raisins or regular raisins
• 1 ounce fresh ginger not peeled, but sliced thin
• 1 vanilla bean sliced in half lengthwise
• 1 star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick

For the cocktail

• 2 ounces dark rum we used Haitian-made Rhum Barbancourt 3-Star
• 1 egg white (optional—see Kitchen Notes)
• 1 ounce fresh lime juice
• 3/4 ounce sirop d’épices
• fruit for garnish (optional—see Kitchen Notes)

Instructions

• One day ahead, make the sirop d’épices. Mix the sugar and water together in a small saucepan and heat over medium-low flame. As it warms up, stir occasionally to dissolve the sugar.
• When the sugar is dissolved and the liquid is simmering, stir in the raisins, ginger, vanilla bean, star anise and cinnamon stick. Reduce heat to low and let everything simmer, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.
• Let cool in the pan, then transfer to a bowl or glass measuring cup and refrigerate covered for about 24 hours. Strain into a lidded jar. You can add the star anise, cinnamon stick and vanilla bean to the jar for the visual effect (or not), but discard the ginger and raisins.
• The sirop d’épices will keep for a couple of weeks in the fridge.
• Make the cocktail. Combine the rum, egg white, lime juice and sirop d’épices in a cocktail shaker. Shake for about 10 seconds to froth the egg white.
• Fill the shaker with ice and shake until very cold, about 20 seconds.
• Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a chilled coupe. (You can also serve the drink over ice in a rocks glass.) Garnish with fruit, if you like. Serve.

Kitchen Notes

Egg white? No egg white? We like the froth and luxurious mouthfeel an egg white adds to this cocktail. But let your comfort level about consuming raw egg white be your guide.

Fruit garnish. All kinds of things work here—a citrus slice, a maraschino cherry, both. Agrikol uses a lime slice. We used a thin orange slice because that’s what we had on hand. You can also skip it.