What do you call a cocktail with a split base of apple brandy and banana rum? If you grew up with the songs of a certain children’s singer, a tune by Raffi is probably one of the first things to come to mind. The title of this post is a bit long for a cocktail name, but for our February menu at the Multnomah Whiskey Library we went with Raffi’s Daiquiri.

This drink came about from trying the new red banana oleo from Ron Colon. This is my favorite spirit in their line, which I started working with recently in Oregon. In brief, it’s a blend of Salvadoran and Jamaican rums flavored with red banana and lightly sweetened. It marries the funk of Jamaican pot still rum with the sweet aromatics of banana. Even if you’re the kind of person who would be skeptical of a flavored rum, you should try this one. Everyone I’ve tasted it with thinks it’s damn delicious.

While working on a different cocktail project I ended up making this pretty simple shaken drink with the red banana oleo. Give it a shot for your winter imbibing:

  • 1 1/4 oz apple brandy
  • 1 oz fresh lemon juice
  • 3/4 oz Ron Colon red banana oleo
  • 3/4 oz orgeat
  • 1 dash cinnamon-infused Angostura bitters
  • lemon wheel, for garnish

Shake all ingredients with ice, strain into a chilled coupe, and garnish with a lemon wheel.

Notes on ingredients: Any good apple brandy should work here, but we went with Laird’s bonded. If you can’t find the red banana oleo, you can probably approximate a substitute with some blend of Jamaican rum and good banana liqueur. For the bitters, infuse one 4-ounce bottle of Angostura bitters with two cinnamon sticks for about a week. This idea for making super-cinnamon Angostura bitters comes from my friend Banjo Amberg and appeared in my first book, Cocktails on Tap. If you don’t want to mess with that a dash of regular Ango will work fine.