This Classic was done in association with Mount Gay Rum – It featured in the May issue of Australian Bartender.
Written by Simon McGoram
Photography by Steve Brown
The team here at Bartender, it is no secret, are partial to well construed rum cocktails. The Airmail is a delicious concoction that certainly fits this bill though it’s one we only came across but recently. We whipped one of these bad boys up after discovering it in The PDT Cocktail Book, but it first appears in 1941 in a book called Here’s How by W.C. Whitfield.
“Way back when, airmail was the last word in getting something from point A to point B. And in fact, this one’ll do just that to you, but quick.” – David Wondrich
The cocktail we originally thought to be a little obscure, but no sooner had we stumbled upon this beaut did we find that it’s a potion well loved by many. Melbourne’s diminutive Bar Americano has it featured on it’s list of half a dozen drinks and apart from printing it in his marvelous cocktail book PDT’s Jim Meehan has also been touting this drink’s merits on the airwaves on Martha Stewart’s ‘Living Radio’. The inimitable Professor David Wondrich is also a fan – this is what he had to say about the drink on one of his esquire.com posts: “Way back when, airmail was the last word in getting something from point A to point B. And in fact, this one’ll do just that to you, but quick. So quick that, if we were inclined to take such liberties, we’d rename it the ‘Email.'”
The not so secret, secret ingredient? Honey syrup – an oft overlooked sweeting agent that takes little fuss to prepare – simply add one part hot water to two parts honey.
Airmail Cocktail
- 30ml Mount Gay Extra Old Rum
- 15ml fresh lime juice
- 15ml honey syrup (2 part honey mixed with 1 part hot water)
- 30ml brut champagne to top
Method: Add all ingredients (except Champagne) into an iced shaker. Shake and strain into a chilled champagne saucer or coupe glass. Top with champagne and garnish with a lime wheel.
Notes on Mount Gay Extra Old
- Mount Gay is the oldest ongoing rum producing estate in the world with written evidence dating rum production at the Mount Gay estate back to 1703.
- Mount Gay begins its life like many rums in the form of molasses which then undergoes a fermentation process which takes up to 72 hours before being distilled in both column and pot stills.
- The rum is aged in 200 litre ex-bourbon casks, with some of the rum in Mount Gay Extra Old being up to 17 years of age.
- Polished amber in colour, Mount Gay Extra Old, displays honeyed aromas, with hints of toasted coconut, caramel, and creamy vanilla. It’s warm and full-bodied on the palate with yet more sweet caramel balanced by a spicy oak finish.