White Zombie

Rum cream isn’t an ingredient I use a great deal of (unless I’m feeling rather decadent when getting my Saturday morning coffee).  Last Fall, however, Rob V. Burr (aka Robert the Younger) of Gifted Rums asked me for my opinion on a Zombie recipe he had been working out, the White Zombie.  The goal of his recipe was to start with 4 oz of rum cream.  That’s a lot of rum cream, but Rob’s initial recipe intrigued me.  I told Rob that I’d think it over and maybe work on it a bit.  I put it in the back of my mind and quickly did almost nothing with it except for the occasional experiment when Rob would ask me if I had spent any time with the drink.

Well, I finally decided to get my act together and work on a recipe.  The original was OK, but it needed some tweaking.  Rob and I chatted online and via text over the course of a week and both came up with some recipes that we liked.  You can find Rob’s here.  My own White Zombie recipe is still a work in progress, but I’m getting happier and happier with it as I move forward.  Rob’s original concept was, as he put it, a spicy milkshake, and I tried to stay true to that.

White Zombie

2 oz Rum Cream (Cruzan Rum Cream)
1 oz Jamaican Rum (Appleton Estate V/X)
1 oz Rhum Agricole Vieux (Clement VSOP)
1 oz J. Wray & Nephew Overproof
.5 oz Cointreua
.5 oz Absinthe (La Fee)
.25 oz Allspice Dram

Combine ingredients in a tin and shake with ice.  Strain over crushed ice and dust with fresh nutmeg, garnish with a cinnamon stick.

Bringing the rum cream down to a more manageable 2 ounces instead of 4 was critical, keeping the drink much lighter and easier to sip.  The absinthe and Cointreau both add a nice contrast to the cream, while the allspice and nutmeg keep the “spicy” part of the concept in play.

So how about you?  Wanna take a stab at a White Zombie recipe?  Post your ideas in the comments or try out both recipes and let me know whether you prefer mine or Rob’s!

You might also like (automatically generated):

• Zombie Punch
• Santa’s Whiskers
• Egg Nogg

Tagged as: Cocktails, orgeat, Rum, rum cream, zombie