Mixologist Colleen Hughes reminds us that Zacapa 23, like most of our favorite rums, is a dark liquor.
But dark liquors generally don’t make for pretty spring-y drinks. Still, when Haberdish’s Colleen Hughes, ever the visionary, set out to make us an experiment – the prettiest, springiest daiquiri possible – she was set on the Zacapa. So she spent 48 hours clarifying the rum with milk, sugar, and lime to create a pale, sweet rum that’s almost a cordial.
Clarifying anything with rum gives your drink a creamy richness,” Colleen explains, “and that’s exactly what I was looking for.
But that’s just the base. She joins the rum with Peychaud’s bitters and her favorite prickly pear liqueur, Don Ciccio & Figli’s Fico d’India, for a complex smattering of flavors and All fruity sweetness and silky mouthfeel, the drink is founded in the flavor profile of a Hemingway-style daiquiri with all the whey-y richness of your favorite creamy libations.
NOTE: Colleen made this cocktail as a little experiment for us, so you can’t order it, exactly, at Haberdish. The menu does offer the Endless Summer Daiquiri, though, a variation that uses Muddy Rivers coconut rum. It’s very much in the spirit of this one, just without the demanding two-day clarification process.
