Walking into my house, you’ll immediately be greeted by the folks who run the place. My three cats, Truffle, Peppercorn, and Teeny Black-Toe, look and play the part. At gatherings at our house, we often set up extra folding chairs in the great room to give everyone a place to park. While Peppercorn isn’t the fondest of company, preferring the sanctity of her lair, Truffle and Teeny immediately join the party and grab a chair for themselves, sit, and interact with everyone as if they were, in fact, the hosts and the ones in charge.

Growing up in Appalachia, you’ll hear folks call their cats a “Wampus cat” or “Wampus” for short fairly often. The Wampus cat is an old Appalachian legend, a large, mountain-lion-sized cat with six legs, borrowed from Cherokee mythology. Thus, multiple cats become “Wamps,” and their servant is the “Wamp Herder.” I can remember the first time I moved away from home in Appalachia and referred to a couple of cats as such. I was met with much confusion, if not derision. I quickly found myself explaining something that is difficult to explain. If you’re from Appalachia, you know this is a common occurrence when we travel “abroad.”

This week’s cocktail is the Wampus cat of rum drinks. It comes to us from the O.G. of American mixology, Jerry Thomas. His life is well-covered in David Wondrich’s Imbibe, which is well worth the read. Thomas includes the drink in his 1862 Bartender’s Guide. This is an old one. Originally, the drink was built in a glass over shaved ice. Later versions prepped it as a shaken cocktail. As late as the 1940s, some sources used grenadine instead of raspberry syrup — a real tragedy. Here, we’ll build the shaken version served up (above) and a highball (below) served over ice. Either way, this is not a cocktail that will leave you stopping at one.

Let’s tip one. 

Thoroughly chill your glass. This is a shaken cocktail. Load one half of your tin with ingredients and the other with ice. Bring them together for a standard shake, then fine-strain into your glass. Garnish with fresh berries in season. Enjoy!

As we discussed above, this drink is traditionally made with rum from St. Croix. Today, the most prominent rum maker in St. Croix is Cruzan. It’s probably debatable how closely it resembles the rums Jerry Thomas would have been using from St. Croix in the 1860s. It is, however, very easy to procure. The island’s other distillery is also an easy find - Captain Morgan. Do you absolutely need rum from St. Croix to make this drink? No. 

If you switch up the rums, stay with a Spanish-style, column-distilled rum. Pot distillation adds funkier, heavier flavor to the rum (or any other spirit). Spanish-style rums are mostly light and delicate with a touch of spice. So look for Spanish-style rums like Bacardi, Havana Club (made by Bacardi), Don Q, or Flor de Caña. Of these, I really like Bacardi 8 or Flor de Caña Gran Reserva 7.

The recipe calls for Orange Curaçao. I think the richness of a Curaçao fits the drink, but you could certainly opt for a Triple Sec like Cointreau if you want a brighter, drier, fresher orange flavor. You can also adjust the acid-sweetness profile by altering the ratio of citrus to liqueur and syrup. Would grenadine sub well for the raspberry syrup? Probably, but we all know raspberries are superior to pomegranates. 

In terms of technique, and with a full ounce of lime juice, you could definitely clarify this cocktail. If so, I’d surmise that coconut milk would work out better in the flavor profile than would whole milk. And, you could definitely lengthen this drink to a highball with some club soda and ice for a low-ABV summer lawnmower cocktail. See just above this section.