Cap Haitien Rum & Honey Recipe

Let's start the weekend right--with a cocktail recipe from Paul Clarke (The Cocktail Chronicles). Need more than one? Hit up the archives. Cheers!

While sometimes a night calls for a drink with plenty of flourishes, some of the most satisfying drinks in the mixological pantheon are also the simplest. The Cap Haitien Rum & Honey is about as easy to prepare as it sounds, but when made with care, the drink is even more complex than its moniker implies.

First printed in Charles H. Baker's The Gentleman's Companion, published in 1939, the Cap Haitien Rum & Honey was originally formulated with a raw, white Haitian rum in mind. Barbancourt is the primary producer and importer of Haitian rum, which is made from fresh sugarcane juice rather than molasses, as is used in most rums on the market. Available styles include a grassy white rum, along with 8-year-old and 15-year-old varieties.

Baker suggests lending richness and mellowness to the drink by mixing white Haitian rum with the smoothness of aged Bacardi. At Heaven's Dog in San Francisco, bartenders reach for another stage of flavor by mixing the elaborate character of 15-year-old Barbancourt with a locally sourced honey, and by adding a dash or two of Angostura bitters.

Rich and flavorful, the Cap Haitien Rum & Honey proves that simplicity is sometimes the best approach when deciding on a drink to start the weekend.