Gantt’s Caipirissima

This week I was happily awarded runner-up status on one of the drinks I submitted to Forbidden Island‘s cocktail competition. The competition was open to Tiki Central members as well as recipients of Forbidden Island’s newsletter.

I along with the other winners will be on Forbidden Island‘s Fall specials menu. I’ll be enjoying having someone other than myself make it when the Mrs. and I attend Tiki Central‘s eighth annual Tiki Crawl, the crawl that started it all.

If however you are far from Alameda or Portland, I share the recipe with you below. I hope you enjoy it as much as I.

Gantt’s Caipirissima
¼ Grapefruit, cut into 3 or 4 pieces (White grapefruit if seasonally possible)
1 oz Cinnamon Syrup (or 2 Tbs Cinnamon Sugar)
2 oz rhum agricole (Clément VSOP preferred)

Muddle grapefruit and cinnamon syrup in a double old fashioned glass. Add 4oz of crushed ice and rhum. Stir to mix and garnish with cinnamon stick.

I name it thus because I’ve long noted the similarties in vegetal flavors (and methods) between cachaça and rhum agricole. Donn Beach had a warm spot for cinnamon and grapefruit — and with good reason: They love each other. Donn also liked the martinique paired with his Mix (Donn’s mix, 2:1 grapefruit juice to cinnamon syrup), so I thought all these separate points of information needed to come together in a cocktail. I name it a Caipirissima (a Caipirinha with rum instead of cachaça) because I’m pedantic. Rhum agricole may be simmilar to Cachaça, but not enough to pretend it warrants the position under the caipirinha umbrella.