Category: Rum

The carol for today's cocktail is Mary's Boy Child written by the great composer and somtime actor, Jester Hairston. He originally wrote the melody of this calypso-tinged carol for a party that was attended by people mostly from the West Indies. Years later, when asked to compose a Christmas carol for the Hollywood Choir, Hairston returned to this melody and changed the lyrics to what we now know as Mary's Boy Child. The song became even more popular when the likes of Harry Belafonte and Mahalia Jackson recorded it.

The melody's original title was He Pone and Chocolate Tea.  He pone is a type of cornbread (mmmm … corn pone!) After some research, we learned that there is a drink from the West Indies called St. Lucia Tea that is made from steeping grated pure cocoa. We used the tea as a base and added some booze to make it a little more festive.

Mary's Boy Child Cocktail
2 cups water
1 cup almond milk (or regular milk)
1 cup cocoa nibs
1 stick of cinnamon
5 cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cardamon
1/2 cup brown sugar (or to taste)
1 tsp vanila
1/2 cup rum
5 oz Galliano
5 Tbsp coconut cream
mug or heat-resistant glass

This recipe is a little more involved than most of the ones we do, so we're breaking down the steps:

• Tie the cloves and cinnamon into a piece of cheesecloth.
• Add it, the rest of the spices, the water, almond milk and cocoa nibs to a heavy pot. Simmer the mixture over a medium-low heat for 40 minutes. Allow to cool slightly.
• Add the brown sugar and stir to dissolve.
• Remove the cheesecloth containing the cloves and cinnamon from the pot.
• Pour the mixture into a high-quality blender. Pulse on high until the cocoa nibs are broken down.
• Strain the liquid through a fine sieve and return it to blender.
• Add the vanilla, rum, Galliano and coconut cream.
• Pulse until well blended and frothy.
• Adjust sweetness as desired.
• Serve hot, room temperature or chilled.

Cocktail Notes
As we were making this, we kept wondering if this was going to turn out to be any good. Surprisingly, it's delcious. It is definitely NOT hot chocolate but very much a tea-like drink.  And the great thing is that everything can be adjusted to personal taste.  The ratio of liquid to cocoa nibs (3:1) seems to work, but the quantities or types of spices, sugar or booze could easily be changed.

For a creamier drink, switch out more milk for the water. We added the coconut cream to give it a creamier texture and help emulsify the drink but isn't vital to the drink if you don't like coconut. The drink also gets better as it sits and the flavours mingle togther.

Listen Along

Welcome to Advent and to Day 1 of our 2014 Cocktail Advent Calendar. The themes of the carols in the first week of the calendar all revolve around the Christ Child.  The first carol on our list is The Coventry Carol, sometimes known as Lully, Lullay Thou Little Tiny Child.  It dates from around the 14th century and has regularly been performed in nativity plays in Coventry, England since at least the 1500's. In the plays, the carol is sung by three Bethlehem women who enter on stage immediately after Joseph has been warned by an angel to take his family to Egypt to avoid Herod's Slaughter of the Innocents.

Kate loves this carol largely for the melody which incorporates a Picardy third (a crazy awesome mysterious chord) considered both the most musically and emotionally consonant chord (take that, flattened sixth chord!).

We wanted a drink that would match the mysterious and resonant sound of this carol as well as play to its heritage in Coventry. One of the biggest discussions we had was whether we could make a drink that was good both cold (like Kate wanted it) and hot (like Drew preferred). So we decided to start with a rum base and build from there.

The Coventry Carol Cocktail

3 parts rum (we used Havana Club)
1.5 parts Suze
1/2 part fresh lemon juice
1/4 part lavender syrup
1/4 part lemongrass syrup

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake over ice. Strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a few lavender buds and a piece of candied ginger.

To make the hot version, pour the mixture into a mug or other heat-tolerant glass. Add 2 ounces of boiling water.

Cocktail Notes
We were originally going to make this with Galliano instead of Suze, but the Galliano was sweeter than we wanted and without a bitter note. The Suze was perfect.

The first version didn't have lemon juice, but it proved too sweet, so we added the lemon juice to freshen it up a bit. If you are not using fresh lemon juice in your cocktails (fresh lime juice, etc), you really need to start. Seriously. Why aren't you?

We also did a version with only lavender syrup (in an effort to cut the sweet), but there is something magical about the lemongrass, so we ended up cutting the ratios down on each syrup by half but kept them both. It may seem a bit fussy to make two syrups, but seriously worth it.

We tried a few different types of bitters, but none of them hit the right note as the Suze. They all substantially changed the nature of the drink and didn't really add the extra dimension we were looking for.

Listen Along