Rum tinctures and Dominican Mamajuana

This article is primarily addressed to our reader, Georgy Lebedev, who took the path of the righteous and decided to prepare homemade drinks. Alcoholic, of course. George, we’ve found several uses for your rum canister. So, rum is an excellent ingredient for tinctures, especially spicy ones, as it itself has an unusual spicy taste, even light (if it is of good quality). Therefore, we will first prepare the so-called “spiced”, that is, spiced rum.

Rum tincture recipes – cooking spiced rum

First of all, I want to share with you the recipe for Velvet Falernum, a very famous liqueur in the Caribbean. In most cases, it is made just on an alcohol-containing mixture from sugar cane, while in 99% of cases this mixture is made from molasses. That is why liquor does not always require high-quality rum. Presumably, the drink is named after the Falerno wine (Falernum vinum), which was in great demand among the ancient Romans.

There are a lot of Velvet Falernum recipes and you can safely experiment with its ingredients, but the only right decision would be to insist all the ingredients on rum, and only then add sugar. To make the liquor stable and stable, it is imperative to use rum with a strength of at least 40%. The following recipe was shared with us by Alex Kratena, the famous bar manager of the Artezian bar. By the way, this liqueur is part of one of the tiki cocktails, namely the “Diamond Swizzle”

Velvet Falernum liqueur recipe

Infuse spices on rum for about 3 weeks. Add sugar, preferably cane. Take a sample. Filter through several layers of gauze and bottle. If the rum was of poor quality, we recommend cleaning it with activated carbon.

Approximately the same technology is used to make other spiced rums, while in most cases vanilla and cinnamon are used. By the way, you can make rum pepper – cayenne pepper is best for this purpose. From other recipes we liked the tincture Nui Nui:

First you need to cut the lime zest and mix it with sugar. Squeeze the juice with your hands, add the zest of 3 grapefruits and squeeze again. Leave the zest in the bank. Add rum (preferably a mixture of dark and gold, but plain will do), spices and peeled ginger root. Infuse for 2 days, then take out their jars of cinnamon and insist for another 3 days. Conduct a tasting, filter through gauze and bottle. Cook delicious Mai Tai.

Rum on cherries

Cognac and gin are very tasty on cherries, rum is even better suited for this tincture.

Fill a two-liter jar with cherries (without tamping), which should first be frozen – so the berries will give more juice. Add powdered sugar in the amount of 4 teaspoons. Pour rum and send to infuse for 2 weeks in a dark place. The tincture (or rather, the liqueur) is ready when the berries begin to float.

Mamajuana – the national tincture of the Dominican Republic

This is the legendary drink of the Dominican Republic, which in its homeland is considered a cure for all ills and a powerful aphrodisiac for both men and women. The composition of mamajuana includes various plants, their roots, tree bark and other gifts of the Caribbean flora. The mixture can be bought at almost every corner of the Dominican Republic or ordered on EBay – 1 bag will cost about $ 18 + delivery (I saw it on Avito for 1800 rubles). Expensive, but one serving can be poured up to 20 times or more.

Приблизительный состав следующий: Anamú (Guinea Henweed), Anis (Anise), Anis Estrellado (Anis Star), Bojuco Caro (Princess Vine), Cinnamon (Cinnamon), Bojuco de Tres Costilla (Basket Wood), Bojuco de Palo Chino ( China Root), Bojuco de Palo Indio (Chew Stick), Hoja de Canelillo (Rose Wood), Marabeli (Milk Worth), Clavo (Whole Clove), Guauci (Minnie Root), Manzanilla (Chamomile), Osua (Bay Rum Tree) , Palo Brasil (Brazil Wood), Raize de Coco (Coconut Palm Root), Timacle (West Indian Milkberry).

This mixture is flavored with honey, rum and red wine, infused and consumed overnight, if you understand what we are talking about =). There are many recipes, but the main thing is to find the mixture itself, which is called Mamajuana. Next, we do something like this:

1. Pour the mixture into a bottle. First you need to “cure” the composition, in other words, remove the bitterness that all plants give. To do this, the bottle must be filled with any strong alcohol (ideally cheap rum, gin or whiskey, you can use vodka) and hold for at least 3 days, after which the alcohol must be drained. What you drain can no longer be consumed, since all the bitterness goes into this particular alcohol. Some people think that alcohol after “treatment” can be used, sorry for the pun, for treatment – ​​to rub sore joints, etc. The Dominicans themselves laugh at this (see the video below).

Of course, you can’t just tell a Russian person to pour out a bottle of vodka, and even more so overseas swill. Therefore, we go to the store and buy the cheapest dry red wine. We fill them with our stick roots and wait 2-4 weeks – we pour out the wine.

2. Fill the “cured” set of plants with natural, liquid honey for 30% of the total volume of the bottle, fill the rest with rum. You can also use red wine, but this time a good one: 30% honey, 30% wine, 30% rum. We mix everything well for half an hour so that the honey dissolves, and let the drink rest for about a day.

Then we drink this miracle drink, enjoying its rich, not bitter taste. After emptying the bottle, pour mamajuana in the same way, up to 20 times. The drink is stored in a closed container for up to 3 years or more. You can drink it as you please, but you should not abuse it – headaches in the morning are inevitable. In general, it is better to use mamajuana for practical, medicinal purposes – as a powerful aphrodisiac a la Viagra or as a cure for colds.

In general, if you have acquired a “half-roma” canister, there will always be a use for it. In the end, it can be ennobled with lime and sugar, preparing something like a Mojito or Caipirinha.