The Spirit World

I believe my first encounter with Falernum, was after a friend just got back from Bermuda, and asked me for the recipe for the “Bermuda Rum Swizzle” that they loved to drink while they were down there. I had never heard of this drink, and so did a little research to see what I could find. Eventually I located a recipe, and saw that it included “Falernum”. A little further research ensued, and I soon discovered that at one time it had been produced by the Sazerac Company of New Orleans (the same folks who make Peychaud’s Bitters as well as Sazerac rye whiskey), but they unfortunately no longer were.

It appeared as though there were a couple different brands of Falernum being produced in Bermuda, but nobody was exporting it to America, I can only imagine that it was some sort of secret conspiracy to keep visitors coming back since this was the only place they could then taste this mythical Bermuda Rum Swizzle.

I dug a little deeper, and soon discovered that a restaurant group right in my home city of Seattle (Restaurants Unlimited), had been using Sazerac’s Falernum in many of their restaurants to make Mai Tais, and had approached DaVinci Gourmet, a local company that makes many different flavored syrups for coffee, to see if they would be interested in producing it. I’ll ignore for a moment that a properly made Mai Tai shouldn’t include Falernum, and instead congratulate Restaurants Unlimited for creating a new source of Falernum.

Soon after this, another Falernum came onto the market, “Velvet Falernum”, which unlike the version from DaVinci Gourmet, included a slight amount of alcohol in it, much like the version that Sazerac used to provide. And even more recently, Fee Brothers began marketing their own version of (non-alcoholic) Falernum.

Since I’ve never had a chance to try the “original” Falernum, or the Falernums that are available down in Bermuda, I haven’t had a chance to compare these three different brands to see which might be closest to what Sazerac may have been previously selling. While each of these brands have a slightly different flavor characteristic, the overall flavor is of a sweet syrup flavored with lime, ginger, cloves and cinnamon.

And here then is the recipe for the Bermuda Rum Swizzle, which was provided to me by Gosling Brothers, makers of Goslings Black Seal rum:

Bermuda Rum Swizzle

• 2 ounces dark rum
• 1 ounce lime juice
• 1 ounce pineapple Juice
• 1 ounce orange juice
• 1/4 ounce falernum

Shake with ice. Strain into a highball glass filled with ice. Garnish with a slice of orange and a cherry.

And if you can find any of these brands of Falernum in your area, you could try making some of your own. My good friend Paul Clarke has been experimenting, and pasted his recipe for Falernum #8 on his blog “Cocktail Chronicals”.