Rum & Onion Hair Loss Remedy:

The most common concoction involves rum and onions, although there is another potion where you mix rum and apples. So in the interests of any rum drinkers struggling with hair loss, I thought it only fair that I share what I know.

It doesn’t seem to matter what quality of rum is used so for goodness sake don’t go with the old adage the more expensive the better it will work! I am sure any old cheap rum will do. The rum and onion cure is simpler and involves adding chopping up a small onion and adding the pieces to a cup of rum. You leave this for 24 hours, strain the mixture then massage your scalp with the rum.

Rum & Apple Hair Loss Remedy:

The rum and apple one is similar but involves adding a cup of finely chopped, peeled apple to a cup of rum and leaving for 5 days before straining. You again massage the rum into your scalp, but you then cover it with a shower cap so it can penetrate your scalp. Leave on for an hour (and hope like hell no-one comes to visit while you’re sitting there looking like a geek!)

Does It Actually Work?

People on various blogs swear by these methods and as a Mum with a full head of hair I can’t say I have tried them to see if they work. But if all else fails you can lick the rum off your cheeks as it dribbles down your face from your scalp (though the onion/apple flavour might take some getting used to!)

Keep in mind I am making no promises and I must share the comment I read on a hair loss blog where someone wrote “I just picked up a fifth of rum down at the liquor store. What do I do now, pour it on my head?” The reply was “Yeah, so long as your head is tilted back and your mouth open!”

In a year of overseas travel for me, from riding camels through the Sahara desert in Morocco to weddings at the Pink Flamingo in Las Vegas (and the biggest pina coladas I’ve ever seen at Caesar’s Palace) and living the hustle of everyday life at work in the city like I do and regular interstate travel, its a rare opportunity when you get to spend an entire week on a remote island with nothing but your thoughts (and some rum and a good book) to occupy your mind. Where stark white sandy beaches stretch their limbs across the Island’s perimeter and crystal clear waters lap at the shores – there is no place quite like Kangaroo Island. The island where I was born.

Riding Camels in Morocco

Pina Coladas @ Caesars Palace

I’ve posted a few pictures of this magnificent place on my Twitter and also on our Facebook page – and it was the most unlikely place to meet a representative from one of the worlds leading spirits distributors. Amongst the consuming of red wine, beer and random conversation as to who was the better fisherman, Steve and I got to talking about rum.

He told me that his company was the distributor for the worlds best rum, and asked me if I knew what it was. I replied with, “Zacapa XO?”.

Steve’s face changed, his eyes widened and he looked at me as if to suggest I’d stolen the answer from his pocket. He was stunned. Amazed that I had guessed what he considered to be the worlds best rum straight out, he simply offered his hand and congratulated me on a fine guess – complete fluke mind you – but I do consider the Zacapa XO one of the world’s finest rums!

Steve promised me that if I return to KI next year at the same time, that he will be there, bottle of XO in hand. I told him that I’d make him a deal – if he brought the rum, Id help him drink it. A win-win situation or us both I’m sure you’ll agree!

New Years Eve at Emu Bay

The next day my mum and I gave the painkiller cocktail a whirl – fresh out of Pusser’s and nutmeg we decided to give it a new spin – and went with apple and cinnamon instead and named it the feel no pain… its wasn’t bad for a first go. I headed on out to the north coast of the Island to my cousins place.

NYE was a big night, we started out drinking Bundaberg Red Rum at my cousins beach house, which I had never had and was a bit of  step up from the standard Bundy I was used to drinking out of a can with coke. I happened to have taken a bottle of Mt Gay over to the island, it was a gift from a work colleague and friend, she knows I’m a bit of a rum nut.

I know, I'm Quite The photographer

It was a tough few days...

I grabbed my bottle of Mount Gay for the road and we headed on down to the beach and set up camp half way alone the 2km stretch of sand and watched the sun go down and sipped on rum. We met some french tourists who had only arrived on the island that day, we made friends and shared our rum with them too.

The countdown came, some home made (and I’m sure illegal) fireworks were let off by some strangers further down the beach, and any pet dog within a 5mile radius ran for the dunes.

Emu Bay NYE

After midnight I walked the 2km back to the beach house, up two giant hills (which were the finale to the 14km run we had done just days earlier) and eventually crawled into bed around 3am. The next morning I woke to the 41 degree heat and spend all morning swimming in the clear blue waters of Emu bay- no better way to clear the head from the previous night consumptions.

Back to reality:

I’m back in the city now, and there’s only one place I want to be – and its not here let me tell you – I’m already planning my next trip – I’m thinking St Lucia at this stage or Barbados – to the part of the world where the real rum is made, but only time will tell where I end up, in the mean time – I’ll just keep day dreaming.

Until then, take care. LukeyJ

Last time I did this with my cousin he managed to get me 6ft in the air followed by several cartwheels across the top of the water before coming to a stop which caused me quite a bit of pain in the following days. This time however – I have a secret weapon – the Feel No Pain cocktails!

Feel No Pain

The feel no pain is a remix of the well know rum cocktail known as the Painkiller. The Painkiller is a cocktail which was traditionally made by mixing dark rum, orange juice, pineapple juice and coconut cream. It is served over crushed ice and topped with nutmeg.

The Painkiller is reputed to have been created at the wonderfully named Soggy Dollar Bar on an island in the British Virgin Islands, but is now trademarked as the Pusser’s Painkiller. How it came to be known as this is a fascinating story and told in detail in an article named The Legendary Pusser’s Painkiller Rum Cocktail by Robert Burr over at Examiner.com.

Because of this controversy  and due to the fact I rarely have any Pussers on hand - I call the cocktail we’re making here the “Feel No Pain” Rum cocktail- that way I can use any rum I have handy in my home bar!!

The Feel No Pain rum cocktail is similar in taste and nature to a pina coloda, in that they both have rum, pineapple juice and coconut, with the addition of orange juice to balance the sweetness of the pineapple juice and we’ve thrown out the nutmeg for a more spicey cinnamon and added in some slided apple for garnish. Just remember to shake the coconut cream if you’re using the canned variety – otherwise you’ll get a nasty surprise (like I did).

The ratio of the Pineapple Juice, Coconut Cream, and Orange Juice is always 4 : 1 :1, with the rum component varying from 1 to 4 parts depending on how soon you want your pain relieved, or the intensity of your pain!

The basic recipe is:

Feel No Pain Rum Cocktail

4 parts pineapple juice (fresh is best)
1 part coconut cream (or milk if you are on a diet!)
1 part fresh orange juice
1, 2, 3, or 4 parts dark Rum

Some ground cinamon and a few slices of apple.

To prepare, mix the juices and coconut in a shaker, then add the rum. Stir, do not shake. Fill a glass with shaved ice, and pour
the mixture over this. Finish with some grated nutmeg.  A couple of these and you will definitely not feel any pain!

I didn’ have any apple or cinnamon when I made one this morning, but please enjoy the view in the background instead!

Enjoy!

Img Source: Cellar It

After a question on on our blog, we decided to do some research to find out just what is better to top off your bottle – a screw cap or a cork!

Most rum enthusiasts in my experience prefer a screw cap to cork. Screw caps are better because they do not crack or dry out like the odd cork is prone to do. Because they provide a tighter seal, they also prevent leakage.

Some rum lovers however prefer the look and feel of cork for traditional reasons, and because it looks classier & is historically associated with good rums. Personally I just like the squeaky pop is it leave the bottle neck! However as rum doesn’t age any more once it is out of the barrel and into the bottle the idea of allowing it to “breathe” like wine is a bit pointless!

If you are collecting rums, screw caps are definitely the way to go. Corks aren’t designed to be removed many times so the seal will lessen with time and the rum leak/evaporate or even worse oxidize! There is nothing worse than buying expensive rum and then having it spoilt because the cork leaks.

As in the wine industry I think screw caps are here to stay. They are environmentally more friendly, cheap, plentiful and the best means of sealing a bottle. Whatever your preference, once it’s in the glass you won’t care how the bottle was capped- you’ll just savour the flavour!

This is a controversial topic though so if you want to find out views of other rum drinkers you could browse the following blogs:

http://www.rndrumreviews.com/RnDRumReviews/Screw_Cap_vs_Cork.html

http://www.ministryofrum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1592

Leave your thoughts below, I’d love to hear them!

Source: http://www.esquire.com/

It’s that time of the year again! The carols are in the stores, everyone’s talking about the big fat guy and how he’s going to fit down the chimney, so it must be time to make up a batch of hot buttered rum batter.  Apparently hot buttered rum has its origins in Europe, which makes sense because it surely had to be invented in countries where it was freezing outside, and a nice, warm alcoholic drink was needed to thaw out the bones as you sat in front of a warm fire. It basically consists of butter, rum, sugar and spices combined with hot water, though there are many variations on this theme.

The simplest recipe consists of putting a small slice of butter, 1 tsp of brown sugar and a pinch of cinnamon in the bottom of a pre-warmed ceramic cup. Top this with 30ml of dark rum and add boiling water.

However you can make this basic mixture in bulk too to save time. I often make the base for the rum butter (the “batter”) in advance and store it in the freezer. This way it is ready to go when unexpected guests arrive (or when I need a pick-me-up on a cold winter’s night!) The mixture consists of one cup of butter, blended with two cups brown sugar, one teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon nutmeg, and ½ teaspoon cloves. Blend the ingredients in a food processor and keep them in the freezer until needed. To make the hot buttered rum I simply add a shot of dark rum along with 1 tablespoon of the batter to a mug of boiling water.

If I am entertaining I make a more sophisticated version. This replaces the water with hot apple cider, and uses cinnamon sticks instead of ground cinnamon.

Ingredients (Serves 6)

• 6 cinnamon sticks
• 250ml (1 cup) dark rum
• 1L (4 cups) apple cider
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 12 whole cloves
• 1 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter

Method

1. Divide the cinnamon sticks and rum among heatproof serving glasses or mugs.

2. Place the cider, sugar and cloves in a large saucepan over medium heat and stir until
the sugar dissolves. Simmer for a few minutes. Strain through a fine sieve into a large
heatproof jug. Throw the cloves out.

3. Divide the cider mixture among the glasses. Top each with a teaspoon of butter to
serve.

Voilà!

Anyway how you have it, hot buttered rum is the ideal drink to serve on a chilly winter night. Enjoy!

Img Source: Ocado.com

Who doesn’t love a good punch, and what better punch than a Rum Punch! As it is summer here in Australia at Christmas time, Rum Punch is the perfect summer drink.

Don’t be put off by thoughts of the watery punches in glass bowls, with brown bits of bananas & sad cherries floating on top, you may have seen in the past.

There are some excellent punch mixtures around and a glass of ice cold punch will soon make your Xmas seem merry indeed!
And the good news is that a Rum Punch never goes out of fashion and is an easy way of providing drinks to the masses without having to clean out your
local liquor shop or run around topping up drinks all night!

A bit of background information. You may not know, but the basic ingredients of any good punch follow the ratios:

1 part sour
2 parts sweet
3 parts strong
4 parts weak

I have no ideas where this is derived from, but it rhymes, so it must be true. There was a song kicking about in the 1900s that followed a similar tune:

PLANTER’S PUNCH

This recipe I give to thee,
Dear brother in the heat.
Take two of sour (lime let it be)
To one and a half of sweet,
Of Old Jamaica pour three strong,
And add four parts of weak.
Then mix and drink. I do no wrong —
I know whereof I speak.

Sounds like someone drank a bit much punch to me! So what exactly does “1 part sour, 2 parts sweet, 3 parts strong, 4 parts weak” mean?

One part sour means a tart citrus juice, most commonly freshly squeezed lime juice
Two parts sweet means a simple syrup (sugar + water) or an over the counter syrup
Three parts strong means rum –of course! Though you can use white rum I only ever use golden rum in my punches
Four parts weak means it can be served over ice, or diluted with water.

A nice rum punch that I use regularly for parties is based on the Bajan Rum Punch recipe from Barbados.

1 part fresh lime juice
2 parts grenadine syrup (or equal parts white sugar and water, heated until sugar dissolves)
3 parts Rum (golden or dark- your choice-but Jamaican is best!)
4 parts water

Chill for at least 1 hour before serving. Combine the lime juice, syrup, rum, water, and bitters, and stir well in a tall pitcher. Pour into ice-filled glasses and grate nutmeg to garnish.

As your female friends may prefer “bubbles” in their drink, an alternative is to combine the juice, syrup & Rum & chill. Then serve over ice with a sparkling water.

Ho ho ho and a bowl of rum punch! Merry Christmas!!

• Preparation Time: 10 minutes
• Cooking Time: 5 minutes
• Ingredients (serves 4)

200g dark chocolate, finely chopped
200ml thickened cream
1- 2 tablespoons white rum (for a subtle taste) or dark rum (if you like living dangerously!)
Fruit slices (strawberries, orange segments, banana) and/or marshmallows for
dipping.

Preparation

1. Place chopped chocolate in a heat-proof bowl and set aside.
2.Prepare fruit and chop into bite size pieces
3. Heat cream over medium heat, stirring to combine, until hot but not boiling. Stir in rum
4. Pour hot cream/rum mixture over chocolate and whisk until smooth. Pour into a warm bowl or heated fondue pot.
5. Serve warm chocolate rum fondue with fruit slices or marshmallows for dipping.

Invite some friends around because fondue is better off shared!!

Another explanation is that it is derived from the Dutch word roemer, which means large glass. In English this is pronounced rummer. As the Dutch visited the Barbados a lot in the 17th Century and sailors would have undoubtedly been heavy rum drinkers this is a strong possibility too.

Another theory holds that the word is derived from rummage, this was a word used for the ship’s hold, where the rum would eventually be stored for the long journeys across the Atlantic.

The most likely, however also the most boring, suggestion is that the word rum comes from the Latin word for sugar cane saccharum officinarum.

Although you can’t ignore the fact that there was a drink called brum being produced by the Malay people many years ago. It is accepted that fermented drinks from sugar cane were around in the earliest ages so it is likely that this could be a source for the name also.

Other people are certain that the name rum originated from Barbados, where the first rum exports came from as the first recorded written usage of the word “Rum Bullion” appeared on the Island in 1651.

Other names for Rum

Some of the many other names for rum are Nelson’s Blood, Demon Water, Red Eye, Pirate’s Drink, Navy Neaters, Devil’s Death (or Kill Devil), Rumbo and Barbados water. All these names are around the theme of rum being fiery & strong, and leading the drinker into sin or worse!

Richard Ligon wrote in 1647 that slaves on plantations in Barbados would consume kill-devil and described it as a “hot, hellish and terrible liquor”. It was obviously pretty rough in the old days!

The reason it is called ‘Nelson’s Blood’ by some is that it was believed that Admiral Nelson’s body was carried back to England in a barrel of Rum to preserve it, though this is now disputed.

So how did rum gets its name? Who knows, but just like any good night on the booze – there’s a few good stories to tell.

Australia’s Rum Island

Australia’s Rum Island is an island lying in Bass Strait north of Tasmania. It is the site of the 1797 ‘Sydney Cove’ shipwreck. This ship ran aground in relatively shallow water so a lot of the cargo could be salvaged. Noticing that the crew members were partaking of part of the cargo- (namely the rum!) the Captain had the spirits removed to a small nearby Island for safe keeping. This island subsequently was named Rum Island!

Falkland’s Rum Island

Falkland’s Rum Island is close to Sea Lion Island. Other nearby islands are called Brandy Island and Whisky Island! As it is cold and windy down there perhaps these names reflect the need for a warming drop of sustenance to live there.

Gulf Islands called Isle-de-Lis

There is also an island in the Gulf Islands called Isle-de-Lis which is also known as Rum Island. This name was given to it during the prohibition when it was used as a base by rum runners to smuggle spirits into the US (because it was close to the US/Canada border).

Scotland’s Rum Island

Scotland’s Rum Island – “Rùm” is one of the small islands in the New Hebrides, Scotland. For much of the 20th century it was known as Rhum because the owner didn’t want to be known as the “Laird of Rum”!

Rum Point – Cayman Islands

Although not actually a rum island, there is a places named Rum Point on the Cayman Islands, described as “a lovely getaway on Grand Cayman’s north shore. The lifestyle here is laid-back, focusing on swimming in the calm blue sea, swinging gently in a hammock and sampling the fine island food.” sounds like a nice place to visit!

If you know of another “Rum Island” somewhere in the world, comment below and we’ll include it above!

• 1oz (30ml) of El Dorado Spiced Rum
• 1oz (30ml) Cointreau
• 1.5oz (45ml) fresh orange juice
• Juice of half a fresh lime
• 1tsp raw sugar
• Dash of orang bitters
• Orange zest

Add liquid ingredients and sugar into a shaker with ice. Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass. Add the orange zest to garnish. Enjoy responsibly!