Cocktails that Replace Vodka with Rum

     The cocktail books are loaded with recipes that are made with vodka that can be greatly improved with the use of the right rum instead of vodka.   One rum comes to mind for this purpose.  That one is Brugal Especial Extra Dry.

     I was first introduced to the Brugal Especial Extra Dry rum a little over a year ago at the Miami Rum Renaissance Festival.   This is a great rum for cocktails that call for vodka or white rum.   Extra Dry is for the person that likes a very dry premium cocktail and not one with all of the added caramel, vanilla or sugar that many of the white rums are using these days.  Extra Dry is a clean pure rum perfect for your most discriminating cocktails.

     "A cask-aged white rum that lives up to the dry Brugal house style, Brugal Extra Dry invites one to rethink his or her perception not only of white rum, but of rum in general. Brugal’s proprietary double-distillation technique creates a dry and clean spirit with fewer of the heavy alcohols that lend other rums their sweeter profiles. This blend of rums – aged a minimum of 2 years up to 5 years in White American Oak casks – is triple charcoal filtered to achieve exquisite clarity and conjures a velvety mouth feel as a result of an exceptional aging process."

 

     Two Cocktails come to mind when I think about Brugal Especial Extra Dry, The Brugal Cosmo and a Extra Dry Dirty Martini.

 

Brugal Cosmo

• 2 oz. Brugal Especial Extra Dry Rum
• 1 oz. Cointreau
• Splash of Cranberry Juice 
• Juice of 1/2 Lime

Place all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice and shake until chilled.  Strain into a Martini Glass and garnish with an orange zest.

 

 

Extra Dry Dirty Martini

• 2 oz. Brugal Especial Extra Dry Rum
• 1 oz. Extra Dry Vermouth
• 2 table spoons of Olive Juice

Place all ingredients into a shake and shake until really cold.   Strain into a Martini Glass and garnish with two olives.