Tiki Tuesday #2: Corn and Oil

I was looking for Dry Curacao*. Smuggler's Cove has a mai-tai recipe that calls for it and I had seen a bottle at the local liquor store, but when I went back to get it- do you think it was there? Of course not-- but there was a bottle of falernum on the shelf and recognizing that it was one of the "what the hell is that?" ingredients in Smuggler's Cove, I snagged a bottle and started to play around with it. One of the first drinks I stumbled across that calls for it is Corn and Oil.

The name endeared it to me: if there's a decent tiki bar in Iowa (a matter I need to investigate further) that doesn't have this on the menu they need to add it! (You could even call it 'Ethanol', which would be even more perfect.)

Hailing from Barbados, the recipe is dead simple:

1/2 oz John D. Taylor's Velvet Falernum

2 oz blended aged rum (Barbados rum preferred)

2-4 dashes of Angostura bitters

Add all the ingredients to an old-fashioned glass and fill with crushed ice. Still to combine until frost forms on the outside of the class.

(SC also adds a note: "Old Barbadians confirmed a preference for crushed ice. And please- use Barbados rum.")

Falernum is very aromatic and herbal- it actually smells pretty good and I'm assuming it's the 'oil' in the 'corn and oil' portion of this drink, because it does have that kind of oily viscosity and seems a little thicker than the rum is. (If that makes sense.) The combination on the rocks would work just fine by itself- it'd be like a Tiki Old Fashioned or a Tiki-Hattan- but it's the crushed ice that really makes this a fun time. I don't know if I over crush the ice (if such a thing is possible) but I go straight up for shaved ice/snow consistency and them shovel it into the glass. 

What results is almost a boozy slushie and I'll be honest: I'm more than okay with that. The amount and consistency of the ice smooth out the alcohol and bring more of the flavors out. Barbados may have given us Rihanna (for which are all, of course, extremely thankful) but this is another export of theirs that is well worth sampling.

Grade: 10/10 would make it again. It's dead easy, simple, and refreshing.

*I didn't know there was such a thing as Dry Curacao, but apparently there is. How it's different from blue curacao and just regular old curacao, I don't know, because, well, I haven't managed to get my hands on some yet. The quest, however, continues...

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