bringing drinks to life

I don't know about you but I love October. Yes I know it marks the end of summer and signals the departure of what little sunshine we get here in the UK, but with the leaves turning colour and the weather turning a touch colder it reminds me of the forgotten joys of Autumn drinks. In this case I am not talking about hot drinks (although start warming some ale and talk to me about a rum flip and I am all ears...) although they have their place, but I am thinking more about those flavours I associate with autumn: apples and spices, honey and ginger, rum, cognac and bourbon... you know the stuff, all warming and comforting!

October makes me think specifically about rum of course as London gets ready for Rum Fest. www.rumfest.co.uk If you happen to be reading this blog from somewhere outside of the UK... well what are you waiting for? 2 days of rum in all its versatile glory should be a good enough excuse to book travel tickets! Yes a bar show for both consumers and trade, dedicated entirely to all things sugar cane... what could be better? Rum Fest is in its third year now and this year is shaping up to be its best yet. In fact if you are willing to bear with me and keep reading, we will be putting a couple of tickets up for grabs along with a bottle of rum to one lucky reader.

Since rum has been on my mind for the past few days and I have been harping on about it to anyone who will listen, I decided to shake some autumnal rum-based cocktails last night, just to get fully prepped for Rum Fest. After taking a look at who's exhibiting this year and having a flick through Trader Vic's bartender's guide, I reached for the Appleton's, El Dorado and Santa Teresa as they are three of our favourites.

With a bottle of Santa Teresa 1796 in hand I got busy creating a rum crusta, guided by Trader Vic... I don't usually use maraschino in my crustas, but then again who am I to argue with Vic? So with a little tweaking of proportions and the addition of a sugar rim to the glass (a nod to tradition as really a crusta isn't a crusta without the sugar rim) I was pretty pleased with the result.

• 50ml Santa Teresa 1796
• 10ml lemon juice
• 10ml maraschino
• 1 dash orange bitters

Moisten the rim of your favourite glass and dip in sugar to form a frosted rim, add a long peel of lemon into the glass and one good chunk of ice. Add all ingredients into a cocktail shaker and shake hard then strain into the prepared glass. This one looks as good as it tastes!

Now I am particularly looking forward to catching up with Stef from El Dorado www.eldorado-rum.com at Rum Fest as I hear she's bringing the master distiller over for a few days and I know they'll be officially launching El Dorado 8 year old. Despite having managed to get a taste of the 8yo I have yet to lay my hands on a bottle, so for the sake of last night's drinking I turned to the El Dorado 3yo. Now as I am sure many of you know this is a lovely rich, nutty, creamy white rum that doesn't need to hide behind citrus, so with that in mind I went searching for a recipe to show off the rum, not hide it and with Autumn in mind the Roulette cocktail sprang to mind only with slightly tweaked proportions once again.

50ml El Dorado 3yo

25ml Calvados

15ml Swedish Punsch

1 dash Angostura bitters

Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. This drink needs no garnish, just an elegant glass will do. The balance of rum, dry apple and spicy swedish punch made me forget all about summer and embrace the first chills of autumn instead! In fact just writing about it is making me thirsty!

Last but by no means least we reached for the Appleton's Estate and their 8 year old rum that has proved a bit controversial amongst bartenders. Some love it, some don't see the need for it, and others think it's to 'different' from the rest of the range. For me, I embrace any new product that is well made, has balance and can be mixed or enjoyed straight. Appleton 8yo ticks all those boxes for me and is a welcome addition to the B&T drinks cabinet. In fact one of my favourite Daiquiri variations is Appleton's 8yo, maple syrup and lime... but I've had plenty of those before and last night was all about new drinks and Autumn flavours. So once again a recipe adapted from Trader Vic was in order, the Hop Toad Cocktail (only substituting apricot brandy in place of apricot liqueur and tweaking the ratios slightly).

• 50ml Appleton's 8 year old
• 30ml Apricot brandy
• 25ml lime juice
• 1 dash Angostura bitters

Shake all ingredients with cracked or cubed ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass, the addition of a lime twist doesn't hurt this drink at all, although the original was ungarnished.

I mentioned earlier that we would have some goodies up for grabs, so here's a little competition for you. Ian Burrell has kindly donated a pair of tickets to Rum Fest and Stef from El Dorado has promised to throw in a bottle of rum for good measure, so let's make this easy for you... simply send us an original cocktail recipe featuring any one of the El Dorado range, but with an autumn twist to it. We'll narrow the entrants down to a shortlist of those we'd love to see added to the Bitters & Twisted database and from that shortlist a lucky winner will be drawn at random. All entries to be sent to dan@bittersandtwisted.com

As always, if your drink is added to our database you'll of course be credited alongside, when our full site goes live. Now what are you waiting for? £40 worth of tickets and a bottle of rum has got to be worth a shot!