Classic Combinations

Rum, Goldfish, and Peanuts

Peter's summer, summer, summertime nostalgia laced article got me thinking about summer. For me, there are few summers that can compete with the summer when I was twelve. Ok, I will grant you the first summer with a driver's license was pretty stout and summers in college weren't bad. But picture this.

You are twelve, too old for camp, but not old enough to work. You have a Dyno VFR BMX bike and an entire neighborhood to explore. You have approximately 1200 Time-Saver Free Icee coupons saved up from Halloween and your report cards. You have a best friend whose brother just got his license and a hand me down Suburban.

You wake up at 10 am, watch SportsCenter repeats until noon, then go swimming until baseball starts at 4 pm, then head back to the pool and swim under the night sky. By the time you get home, a quick game of Tecmo Bowl or Wednesday Night Baseball was enough to rock you to bed. Throw in a growing awareness that girl's most definitely do not have cooties, and that is a magical summer.

The place where my sisters, friends, and I would swim, always put out Goldfish and peanuts at around 5 pm. Our parents, and the parents of all the other pool rats, would show up, grab a cocktail, kibbitz, and watch us swim. In between trying to execute the Triple Lindy and playing Marco Polo, we would run over to the table dripping wet and grab handfuls of peanuts and goldfish, all the while inhaling the sweet smell of a rum and coke.

My dad has very few rules in life but one rule is this: in the summer you drink rum. Like white shoes and seersucker, rum was only drank between Easter and the first cold snap of fall. Light, dark, or aged, when the temperature rises ice, rum, coke, and lime mix together to produce the perfect afternoon cocktail.

With summer winding down, it is time for one last rum drink. Based slightly on the Dark & Stormy, this cocktail hypes up the subtle creamy, vanilla flavors of a well made rum. Hope you enjoy it.

Adult Cream Soda

Three Fingers Vanilla Dark Rum*
Two Fingers Ginger Ale
Twist of lemon rind

Serve over ice in a tall, cool glass with Goldfish and peanuts for maximum effect.

* If you can not find dark vanilla rum, make a simple syrup and add to it 1 scant splash of vanilla extract. Add a teaspoon of this to the drink. Or if you got the time, soak a few vanilla beans in dark rum for a week or two. You could try some hip designer, vanilla flavored, "light" rum. But then again you could jump off a bridge cause your friends are doing it or stick a fork in your eye. Either way friends.