Yup.
Pink lemonade.
This ain’t Newman’s.

Since our fall was summer, winter was fall, and we seem to have skipped right to summer this week, I figured it was time for some happy rum drinks. I found this one in a book I scored from the fantabulous Building 19 called The Rum 1000 which is a book full of, well, rum recipes. 700 of them, despite the name. Anyway, this one looked apropriately tasty, and not as girly as some (I’m looking at YOU, “Passionpolitan”).


Pink Lemonade

– 1.25 oz spiced rum (They suggest Captain Morgan’s but I went with the far superior Sailor Jerry, and upped it to 1.5oz)
– 3 oz cranberry juice
– 2 oz club soda (top)
– Juice of 1/4 lemon (I HATE when they do this. I used about 1/2 oz of fresh lemon juice.)
– Lemon twist for garnish

Here’s the deal: this is a BUILT drink. The book just says “in a glass over ice” which I interpreted as a highball glass. Fill it with ice. If you don’t, then you’ll wind up with way too much club soda in the end. Just ask the Lady Friend who has a strange aversion to ice in cocktails. Anyway, in your ice-filled highball, pour in the rum, cranberry and lemon juice, then top with the club soda. It should come out to about 2oz of soda if you did it right. Give it a good stir with a bar spoon and serve with a straw, allowing you to stir it up again at your leisure.

Well, it’s pretty. More red than a “pink lemonade” but looks purty with the bright yellow lemon peel. I can certainly smell the vanilla bouquet of the Sailor Jerry, and there’s a cranberry tart that comes through. The lemon peel makes itself known, especially since I made a rather large twisty slice. It tastes pretty mild and fruity. The sweet Sailor Jerry really adds a dump truck load of vanilla, but the cranberry give it some tart snap. There’s a bit of lemon fruit, and the whole thing comes together quite well. In the future, I think I’d add a dash or two of Angostura bitters, as it just seems to cry out for a little more complexity. I doubt it would be as good with a lower-class rum, as there’s not a lot of flavor to hide behind, and you’d get an alcohol zing from a cheap rum. The Sailor Jerry is tasty enough to sip neat, so it really shines in this drink. Not too fruity, but very tasty. Light and refreshing enough to sip on a summery March day.