There’s nothing that says New Year’s Eve like conspicuous consumption.  You can assume I mean booze, because tuberculosis is generally not an invited guest to most holiday celebrations.  Pro tip: if I walk into your bar and ask you to serve me whatever you’ve been working on, there’s a fair chance I will rip it off pay homage to it months later on this page.  Oh hi, Connor from Rumba!

(Ok, this is actually a riff on what he served, but still.)

Hard Day’s Night

Hard Day's Night

3 oz rhum agricole (I used La Favorite Coeur de Rhum – oh, you fancy)
.5 oz agave syrup
Four dashes peach bitters (I used Bitters, Old Men Peach Basil bitters, because yeah, I fancy)
Absinthe wash

For the agave syrup, grab a bottle of light agave from your local hippie mart and dilute it with two parts syrup and one part water.  Or just use simple syrup if you want to live dangerously.  Won’t be as good, but hey. Booze.

Combine the rum, agave, and bitters in a Yarai mixing glass, or a pint glass if you forgot where you left your fancypants.  Add ice and stir, then strain into a rocks glass with an absinthe wash.  Cut a circle of orange peel, heat it, and flame it over the glass.  Throw the peel into the drink with abandon, as if it were a New Year’s resolution on January 3rd.  Or January 2nd, if we’re going to be real here.

Did you notice that this is basically a rum Sazerac?  You did?  Then why aren’t you reading a better blog?

Worth noting:  rum != rhum agricole.  You can’t substitute regular rum for this.  (Well, ok, you can, because hey, booze – but it is nowhere near the same drink.)  Rhum agricole is kind of the mezcal of rum.

Happy new year, everyone!  Baby Got Sauce shall return in earnest in 2014.