While tasting through liquors trying to come up with a cocktail for MxMo this week, Andrew and I decided we really wanted to do a rum drink. We had won some bottles of Rhum Clement at Tipple Trivia hosted by Upstairs on the Square and Citysearch Boston, and I'd just picked up some Bittermen's Tiki bitters at The Boston Shaker -- the two liquids make a natural, delicious pairing.

The theme, as mentioned in our other, better theme-matching entry, is "Brown, Bitter, and Stirred," which this second cocktail isn't really in the spirit of. That said, it still turned out pretty delicious.

The Old Martinique

• 1 1/2 oz Rhum Clement VSOP
• 1/2 eyedropper (about a barspoon) Bittermen's tiki bitters
• ginger beer (Barritt's)
• mint sprig, for garnish

Stir the rum and bitters in a pint glass on ice. Strain into a coupe or cocktail glass, then top off with ginger beer. Garnish with a mint sprig.

This drink actually started close to the theme, as we tried out variants on a basic rum Old Fashioned. (Incidentally, the Clement, tiki bitters, and a few drops of simple syrup make for a delicious drink.) Drawing inspiration from our experiments there, the sweltering heat on Sunday, and from the deliciousness of the Old Cuban, we figured "hey, why not top that off with something bubbly?"

The result is somewhere in between an old fashioned and a mild Dark and Stormy. It's hardly brown, it's hardly bitter, and it's only stirred in the beginning.. but it sure is good. The drink starts with ginger, allspice, and cinnamon on the nose, followed by buttery vanilla flavors and the zing from ginger and carbonation in the ginger beer on the finish. Refreshing and delicious!

Oh, and there's a video for this one too, although there's a barking dog in the middle of it that makes it unintelligible -- our outdoor studio needs some tweaking, but it's good for a laugh at least:

Justice Kitchen: The Old Martinique Cocktail from Anthony Roldan on Vimeo.