The indulgent flip cocktail includes a whole egg in each build, making for a thick, textured drink. And the holiday season is the perfect time for these creamy drinks, particularly when they’re inspired by rich, nutty spiced rum cake.
Nikolas Vagenas, beverage director at NYC’s Mr. Melo, channels this classic holiday dessert in his Jill’s Rum Cake Flip cocktail. He starts by infusing dark rum with Chinese five spice. The combination — typically including star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper, and fennel seeds — brings both classic seasonal spices and unexpected kicks of heat from the Sichuan peppercorns. Vagenas also incorporates pecans in both a custom-made orgeat and a candied pecan garnish for extra depth of flavor.
Ingredients
2 ounces dark rum infused with Chinese five spice
1 whole egg
½ ounce pecan orgeat**
Garnish: rum glaze*, candied pecans, and Chinese five spice
Directions
Dip a coupe or Martini glass into the rum glaze, and then rim the glass with candied pecans.
Add all liquid ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice.
Shake really hard to emulsify the egg for about 30 seconds.
Turn up heat and boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. (If more rum flavor is desired, stir in rum after other ingredients have boiled.)
Reserve half the resulting glaze for candying the pecan rim garnish.
Pecan Orgeat**
Ingredients
1 pound pecans
1 quart water
1 teaspoon sea salt
Sugar, as needed
Directions
Toast pecans in a saucepan over medium heat, moving constantly until warm and fragrant.
Remove from heat and let cool.
Wrap pecans in a cheesecloth and crush pecans with a muddler or rolling pin. (Don’t crush too hard as you'll be using the leftover nuts for candying at the end.)
Add to a large container with 1 quart of hot water. Let steep at room temperature for one hour. Then, refrigerate overnight.
Strain mixture into a large container through a nut milk bag and fine mesh strainer, squeezing out as much liquid as possible.
Place the bag of pecans back into the mixture and let sit for an hour before squeezing again.
Set pecans aside for candying.
Weigh the final mixture and stir in equal parts sugar.
Add one teaspoon of salt, and blend until sugar and salt are dissolved.
For candied pecans, take all the leftover pecans, place them on parchment paper with rum glaze drizzled on top. Let cool, and crumble them for garnishing.
