Molly’s Childhood Friend is Tommy Bahama’s First Ever Rumologist!

Dried cherries flavor a delicious syrup in Jack Terry’s Rhum & Get It! cocktail. Mmmm…

A few months ago I watched as one of my very closest childhood friends, Jack Terry, fought his way to the top of a HEAP of bartenders all across America to become the first ever Tommy Bahama “Rumologist.” Here’s a link to the write-up in our hometown paper, The Hartford Courant.

Jack is a sweet bear of a guy, and I have many, many fond childhood memories that feature long soulful conversations and verbal hijinks. He’s been saying that he’s “been preparing for this job my whole life,” and I can affirm that his careful and compassionate listening style was developing even at age seven. The rum? That came later.

It’s pretty exciting that “my Jack,” as I once called him, won this contest, and now he has created some really beautiful cocktails for the Tommy Bahama menu (see below). Of course, I’ve been holding out hope that Tommy Bahama would send Jack to Maui’s Wailea store as part of his national tour … but so far, I’ve heard zippo. Bummer! I want Jack to make one of these cocktails for me, personally, during their excellent happy hour. (Happy hours are currently 3-6pm daily, and the restaurant is in the Shops at Wailea.)

For now, I’ll have to content myself with trying out Jack’s recipes myself. I’m really liking the cherry syrup in Rhum & Get It …

Post your comments below, and remember to please … enjoy responsibly.

Jack’s Rum-mery Summer-y Cocktails

Rhum & Get It!

1 ½ parts Rhum J.M. Agricole
½ part house made cherry syrup, cooled (see below)
½ part orgeat syrup
1 part scratch sour
1 part pineapple juice

Cherry syrup:
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
½ cup dried cherries
Combine ingredients in a sauce pan over low heat and simmer for 45 minutes. Strain and set aside to cool.

Mix all ingredients together and shake with ice. Strain into a glass over ice. Garnish with dried cherries and enjoy.

Raspberries & Rhubarb

2 parts light rum
4 fresh raspberries
½ part fresh pressed lime
¾ part simple syrup
2 dashes rhubarb bitters
1 part soda water

Simple syrup:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
Combine ingredients in a sauce pan over low heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Muddle raspberries with lime juice and simple syrup.  Add rum, rhubarb bitters and ice.  Shake to blend, and serve in a double rocks glass. Garnish with a rhubarb peel ribbon.

Note on “Parts”:

Using “parts” in recipes can confuse those who aren’t trained in mixology (or rumology, in this case). Here’s a great chowhound discussion on how to use parts to make your own drinks — for one or one hundred. The bottom line is that the word “part” is substitute for a liquid measurement of YOUR choice, depending upon how many/how big a drink you want to make. Then you use that as your guideline for ratios. For example, in Rhum and Get It!, if you choose to make 1 ounce “parts,” you would get a nice 6 ounce drink (including ice). That would be 1 ½ ounces of rum, ½ an ounce of each syrup, and an ounce each of the juices.

Enjoy!

Molly