Try the Rye-Rum-Brandy Triangle on the Vieux Carré

Rum and cognac make a great pair.

In last week’s newsletter, I wrote about the rye-rum-brandy triangle of substitution and combination as applied to the Sazerac. But of course, the same triangle works in other cocktails as well. For example, earlier this year, I wrote about a drink I call the John Le Carré. 

It’s a riff on a Vieux Carré, which traditionally relies on a split base of rye and cognac, that drops the cognac in favor of rum, and then makes two other relevant substitutions (orange bitters instead of Peychaud’s, and St. Elizabeth’s Allspice Dram instead of Bénédictine). 

But if you keep the rye-rum-brandy triangle in mind, you can immediately see that this drink could easily work another way, dropping the rye and swapping in rum, leaving you with a rum-and-cognac-based drink. The triangle doesn’t always work, but it works often enough that if you’re looking for substitutions, or trying to create something new, you should probably give it a try. 

Not every rum and cognac combo will work here. But quite a few will produce something tasty and interesting.

In this case, my preference is for the dark, aged El Dorado 8 year — a staple of the five bottle tiki kit — in the rum slot, since it drinks almost like a whiskey. And, as in a Sidecar, I’m fond of Pierre Ferrand 1840 for the cognac. But if you don’t have these specific bottles, you can make many other rum/cognac combos work too. Part of learning to make cocktails at home is learning to work with what you’ve got on hand. 

The rum and cognac base makes for a very different but still quite delicious cocktail. It’s smoother, less peppery, with the fruity aromas of the cognac tempered by the sugary richness of aged, dark rum. 

This is also a bridging drink, in the sense that it’s the sort of cocktail that might help whiskey diehards expand their horizons. We’ve all met this person, someone who almost always hates gin, and who inevitably goes straight for the obvious whiskey drink on any cocktail menu. To be clear, there is nothing wrong with that. I firmly believe that you should drink things that you like! But if you’re trying to help your whiskey-cocktails-only pal appreciate rum or cognac, this is the sort of drink that might serve as an effective introduction. 

As always, I like cocktail names to refer somehow to their inspirations, and this one was a bit of a hack, customized to my tastes and preferences, so I’ll call it…

Tinker, Tailor

• 2 dashes orange bitters (Regan’s)

• 2 dashes Angostura bitters

• ¼ ounce St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram

• 1 ounce sweet vermouth (Cocchi di Torino)

• 1 ounce cognac (Pierre Ferrand 1840)

• 1 ounce aged dark rum (El Dorado 8 year) 

INSTRUCTIONS 

1. Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass.

2. Add ice, then stir until chilled. 

3. Strain into a rocks glass over ice. 

4. Garnish with an orange peel. 

I like this drink because it is complex and delicious, uses relatively easy to find ingredients, and — if you understand how it was designed — explicates a functional theory about how to make and modify cocktails. 

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