Yo Ho Ho- It’s National Rum Day!
Oh Rum, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways
The pirates were on to something. Something deliciously sweet made from sugar cane.
Turns out, when I started thinking about my favorite rum treats, it wasn’t just a list of drinks.
Bananas Foster. My favorite dessert ever. I always make it for my family at our Christmas and Thanksgiving get-togethers. I just don’t set it on fire. The dark rum mixed with brown sugar and butter poured over warm bananas and vanilla bean ice cream is D-I-V-I-N-E.
Malibu and Coke. Good ol Malibu Rum. Basically, it’s like smelling Hawaiian Tropics suntan oil (yes in the 80’s we didn’t call it sunscreen because the point was to get as dark as you could by lathering yourself up in oil with absolutely no SPF).
I came across this one night at a bar-a girl had ordered it and left while the bartender was getting it for her. The bartender gave it to me and I was hooked.
No- I wasn’t worried about roofies back then in the ’90s.
To this day it’s my guilty pleasure since the smell/taste takes me back to my younger years in San Diego and spending the day at the beach. It’s summer and youth in a bottle-and the only thing with coconut flavor that I like.
Rum Cake. I LOVE rum cake-especially chocolate. Extra points when it’s nice and uber moist. I know I know, I used the word moist-sorry.
Rum Balls. True story-once I was making rum balls with my mom and they came out way too dry. So she put some rum in a spray bottle and sprayed the hell out of them. Yep- she sure did.
Mojitos. My fave was a pineapple mojito at a fusion bar I visited in Sugarland TX. Delish. I still remember during Hurricane Ike, I sat in the closet all night because I was sure the windows were going to shatter, and I had a bottle of premade mojito to sip on for liquid courage. It kept me calm for sure!
Long Island Iced Tea. The first drink I ever ordered when I turned 21 and went to my first bar. I hated it, but apparently, my bold 21-year-old self wanted to go big right off the bat and try several drinks at once.
Pina Coladas. Ok, I personally don’t like these but I love the song “If you like Pina Colada’s, and getting caught in the rain…”.
You’re welcome if that song is in your head now!
Daquiris. When I was younger, my father managed a hotel on a harbor in San Diego. He made the mistake of teaching me about virgin banana daiquiris (really just a banana slushy for a kid) and I soon fell in love with them.
Now of course I like the real thing, not a kids slushy version. Something about bananas and rum-just yum.
(He also taught me about grown-up chocolate milk, AKA Baily’s Irish Cream, but that’s whiskey so doesn’t belong here).
Even Mary Poppins agrees that rum is delicious. Remember-she chose rum punch for her spoonful of sugar that helped the medicine go down.
To celebrate, tonight I’m going to sip on some Malibu and Coke to escape this pandemic boredom of staying in every night. Cheers!
