Cocktails without syrup: the taste of the fruit is already in the rum

Open any rum cocktail recipe: it starts with white rum, and the second line is a syrup. Sugar syrup, fruit syrup, cane syrup. That is the very structure of the genre, because a white rum brings only alcohol and vegetal notes, and the fruit has to come from somewhere.

With an infused rum, that line becomes unnecessary. The taste of the fruit is already in the rum. Which changes the way you build the drink: you are no longer trying to add flavour, you are trying to lengthen and balance.

Here are five recipes based on that principle. Proportions are given for one glass.

The highball, the base to know

5 cl of infused rum, 10 cl of sparkling water, plenty of ice, a twist of zest.

It is the simplest and the one to start with, because it hides nothing: you find exactly the bottle, lengthened. If an infused rum is good neat, it is good in a highball; if the highball disappoints, the bottle was not up to much.

Pour the rum over the ice, add the water gently down the side of the glass to keep the bubbles, and stir only once, from bottom to top. Maléfice is particularly good here, and its colour does the rest.

The daiquiri without syrup

6 cl of Epidemic, 2 cl of fresh lime juice. Shaker, ice, serve without ice.

A classic daiquiri is rum, lime and sugar. Here the sugar goes and Epidemic's strawberry-coconut-pineapple profile takes its place. The lime must be squeezed at the last moment: bottled juice is flat and bitter, and with two ingredients there is nowhere to hide.

Shake hard for about ten seconds, strain into a chilled glass.

The winter spritz

4 cl of Rictus Frénétique, 8 cl of dry sparkling wine, 2 cl of soda water, a slice of orange.

Rictus is our only spiced bottle: cinnamon, clove, ginger and mandarin peel on a base of tropical fruit. With a dry sparkling wine, it makes a late-season aperitif that has nothing in common with a classic orange spritz.

Build the glass in this order: ice, rum, sparkling wine, water. The other way round knocks the bubbles out.

The dry tonic

4 cl of Valse Vaudou, 10 cl of tonic, ice, a sliver of lemon.

Valse Vaudou is the driest in the range: green rooibos, white hibiscus, lemon peel and marigold flowers. Against the bitterness of the tonic, that dryness holds up, where a round, fruity rum would be flattened.

Choose a tonic that is not too sweet. This is the only recipe on this list where the brand of tonic really changes the result.

The mango-ginger

5 cl of Mangomancien, 10 cl of ginger beer, a dash of lime.

Le Mangomancien is our fruitiest bottle - mango, grape, papaya, pineapple, orange, lemon - and at 40% vol it is the most approachable in the range. The ginger beer brings the heat the fruit lacks, and the lime keeps the whole thing from going flat.

Ginger beer, not ginger ale: the former is much more pronounced, and it is the one you need here.

Three principles, if you want to improvise

Never add syrup before tasting without it. That is the reflex to unlearn. Nine times out of ten, you will find nothing is missing; and if you do add some, you will be back to an arranged rum in a glass.

Use less rum than you think. An infused rum brings the aromas of the fruit on top of the alcohol, so it takes up more room than a white rum. Four to five centilitres is enough where a classic recipe calls for six.

Look for acidity, not sugar. Lime, tonic, dry sparkling wine, ginger beer: the balance of a cocktail without syrup is built on sourness and bitterness, which bring out the aromas of the fruit instead of smothering them.

To try without committing to a bottle

Every item is available as a 50 ml vial, which is exactly enough to make one cocktail and keep some to taste neat. The discovery pack lets you try four.

And to understand why these bottles behave differently from an arranged rum in a cocktail, it is explained here. If you would rather get to know them neat first, our tasting tips are there.

Sales name: rum-based spirit drink. Alcohol abuse is dangerous for your health. Please drink responsibly. Sale to persons under 18 is prohibited.