Rum

Expedition

Name: Expedition
Yield: 1 servings

Glass: Kuhiko Tiki Mug (Or Other 16-Oz Mug Or Glass)

Martin Cate's Smuggler's Cove original, bourbon, black blended rum, and New Orleans coffee liqueur over three house syrups, framed around Donn Beach's NOLA-to-Caribbean-to-Southern-California biographical arc.

rum bourbon tiki modern-craft blended lime coffee

Ingredients

fresh lime juice (1 oz)
SC cinnamon syrup (0.5 oz)
SC honey syrup (0.5 oz)
SC vanilla syrup (0.25 oz)
seltzer (2 oz)
Bittermens New Orleans Coffee Liqueur (0.25 oz)
black blended rum (2 oz)
bourbon (1 oz)
crushed ice (12 oz)
ice cubes (4)
edible orchid (1)

The Expedition is a Martin Cate house creation at Smuggler's Cove, published in the 2016 book on p. 140 and explicitly framed around Donn Beach's biography: bourbon for his New Orleans roots, rum and spices for his Caribbean travels, fresh citrus and honey for his Southern California years, and Bittermens New Orleans Coffee Liqueur for the full-circle-back-to-NOLA via Mariano Licudine's Black Magic at the Mai-Kai.¹ The drink is a cocktail-as-biography, layered through three Smuggler's Cove house syrups (cinnamon, honey, vanilla) over the bourbon-and-black-blended-rum split with a coffee-liqueur accent.

Brand recommendations. Best: a quality black blended rum (Hamilton Pot Still Black, Coruba, Plantation OFTD); a mid-shelf straight bourbon (Wild Turkey 101, Eagle Rare 10); Bittermens New Orleans Coffee Liqueur; Smuggler's Cove's house cinnamon, honey, and vanilla syrups per the SC recipes (book pp. 325–327). Economical: Myers's Original Dark for the black rum; Buffalo Trace or Old Forester for the bourbon; cold-brew-coffee-spiked simple as a Bittermens stand-in; homemade cinnamon, honey, and vanilla syrups.

Instructions

In a drink mixer tin combine fresh lime juice, SC cinnamon syrup, SC honey syrup, SC vanilla syrup, seltzer, Bittermens New Orleans Coffee Liqueur, black blended rum, and bourbon.
Add crushed ice and 4-6 small "agitator" ice cubes.
Flash blend and open pour with gated finish into a Kuhiko tiki mug (or other 16-oz mug or glass).
Garnish with an edible orchid.

Sources

Cate & Cate, Smuggler's Cove (2016), p. 140, Martin Cate's Expedition recipe, framed around Donn Beach's New Orleans → Caribbean → Southern California biographical arc, with Bittermens New Orleans Coffee Liqueur bringing the geography full circle via Mariano Licudine's Black Magic at the Mai-Kai. ↩