Breadfruit owner Dwayne Allen describes “The Special,” a classic Caribbean cocktail you can order from any bar stool in Jamaica, as a rum drinker’s rabbit hole. It typically entails a measure of Wray & Nephew white rum and a bottle of Ting, a Caribbean grapefruit soda clouded by a bit of pulp. But the two never quite equal out – you always need more rum to finish the Ting and then more Ting to finish the rum.
And down the rabbit hole you go…
Allen elegantly evokes The Special with his effervescent Late Night In Rio cocktail, first by lightly muddling a strip of lemon peel with one bar spoon of raw sugar to release the citrus oils. Second: He adds 1 1/2 oz. of grassy Ypióca Prata Brazilian cachaça, a rum-like spirit distilled from sugarcane juice, and 1/2 oz. bitter Averna amaro, then packs the glass with ice and stirs until chilled. Finally, he decants the elixir into a glass filled with fresh ice and tops it with 1 oz. of grapefruit soda. Garnish with fresh lemon peel to get the balance right.
– Shelby Moore
