2021 Let’s Get Blitzen: Cocktail Advent Calendar – Day 15 – Freshly Baked Old Fashioned. This cocktail celebrates the complex palate of Nicaraguan Flor de Caña Centenario 12 Year Rum. Boasting notes of vanilla, clove, dark chocolate, and dried fruit, this rum pairs perfectly with a splash of gingerbread syrup and baking spice bitters.
This post is sponsored by Flor de Caña.
Flor de Caña Centenario 12 Year Rum is a full-bodied rum in a reddish amber hue with aromas of red fruits, honey, and toasted nuts. On the palate you’ll discover wood, vanilla, and baked apples with a smooth and balanced finish. This ultra premium rum is best enjoyed in a spirit-forward cocktail like this Freshly Baked Old Fashioned.
Flor de Caña is a family-owned business now being managed by the fifth generation. Founded in 1890 at the foot of the San Cristóbal volcano, the tallest and most active volcano in Nicaragua by Alfredo Francisco Pellas Canessa, an Italian adventurer who left the comforts of the continent to explore the New World. Since then, the brand, the company, and the family have lived through a plane crash, a civil war, nationalizations, hyperinflation, fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.
That is a serious commitment to crafting beautiful rum. Not only do they make beautiful rum, but they do so while offsetting 100% of carbon emissions.
Flor de Caña is actually the world’s first spirit to be Carbon Neutral & Fair Trade certified. They have implemented a whole host of sustainable practices throughout the lifecycle from field to market. For instance, Flor de Caña rum is distilled with 100% renewable energy and CO2 emissions during fermentation are captured and recycled. In addition, the company has been planting 50,000 trees annually since 2005 and are part of a reforestation campaign in partnership with One Tree Planted – $1 = 1 tree.
They are also on a mission to reduce food waste in cocktails with their sustainable cocktail challenge that promotes the creation of zero waste cocktails amongst bartenders. That’s why I’ve kept the garnish on this Freshly Baked Old Fashioned to a simple orange twist – allowing you to get the scent of fresh citrus oils in your drink and use the flesh of the orange in another recipe.
Talk about a drink you can feel good about. Those initiatives are just a few of what the company does to cherish our environment and the communities in which it operates. Head to their website to get the full rundown of how Flor de Caña gives back.
I hope you’ll join me on my Instagram stories tonight at 5 pm Eastern as I stir up this Freshly Baked Old Fashioned.
Freshly Baked Old Fashioned
This cocktail celebrates the complex palate of Nicaraguan Flor de Caña Centenario 12 Year Rum. Boasting notes of vanilla, clove, dark chocolate, and dried fruit, this rum pairs perfectly with a splash of gingerbread syrup and baking spice bitters.
- 2 oz Flor de Cana Centenario 12 Year Rum
- 1 tsp gingerbread syrup
- 2 dashes fig & cinnamon bitters
- Garnish: orange peel
- 1 cup demerara sugar
- 1 cup water
- 2 tbsp molasses
- 2 tbsp fresh ginger thinly sliced
- 1 tsp whole allspice berries
- 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
- 5 whole cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
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Add all ingredients to a mixing glass and stir over ice until well-chilled.
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Strain into a chilled double rocks glass over one large ice cube.
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Express citrus oils from orange peel onto the surface of the drink. Rub the peel around the lip of the glass and drop into the drink for garnish.
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In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine all ingredients listed. Bring to a boil, stirring to make sure the ingredients blend together.
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Reduce heat to medium low and let simmer for about 20 minutes until syrup is slightly thickened.
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Cool to room temperature.
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Carefully strain the whole ingredients out of the syrup. Once cool enough to handle, store the gingerbread syrup in a swing top bottle or mason jar and keep in the fridge. Syrup will keep for at least a month.
Delicious!