Short & Sweet

A Brief Tale of the Bombo

Smuggler’s Cove Bombo

A post of few words

Once we’d sucked down our Falinums — which sounds kind of like a euphemism — Kevin clapped his hands together. “Okay, what’s next?” he asked. We decided on the Bombo.

The Bombo recipe is perhaps the simplest in Smuggler’s Cove. So simple that we’re not bothered about sharing the recipe: stir a quarter ounce of SC Demerara Syrup into two ounces of №3 rum. Put it on ice. Grate some nutmeg over it. Ta-da.

As a result, the Bombo is only as good as the rum you put into it. As we were getting to the bottom of a couple of bottles, we decided to saucily blend the dregs of our Plantation 5 ($24.99, Total Wine) with the last of an experiment that we picked up a while back: Alleyne Arthur’s Special Barbados Rum ($12.99, Total Wine).

Forgot to take a photo of the Plantation 5 before we killed the bottle. Oops. Photo credit: https://thecasks.com/2018/06/12/plantation-five-year-old-barbados-rum-review/

Despite the bottom-shelf price tag, Special Barbados is really pretty good, if not complex. Distilled by Foursquare, it is a blend of two- and three-year-old rums and, according to master distiller R.L. Seale, is “pretty close to its origins.” (Notably, it’s what usually goes into the flask that we smuggle into the movie theater to spike our soda.) There’s a pretty interesting article about the brand on The Rum Reader.

Sipping history

The Bombo is a Colonial-era rum drink, and Smuggler’s Cove suggests making it with a pot still unaged (no number classification in Cate’s system) or a №1 (pot still lightly aged) rum for a closer historical approximation. As it happens, we have one of these: the house rum of Paradox Distillery in Phoenix ($33.99, Total Wine).

Check out the bottle number! We ended up with the next in line! Photo credit: @paradoxdistillery on Instagram

While we haven’t had much of a chance to play with Paradox, we have sampled it. And… it’s pretty rough. We decided that we owe the Colonists nothing, and if we’re going to be sipping on what is but a mere step up from neat rum, we’d stick to our Special Barbados/Plantation 5 blend. We do hope to employ Paradox in something more appropriate to its station.

Verdict

If you like rum, as we do, it’s hard to dislike the Bombo. However, we decided we won’t likely make it again. We’d rather sip on some Plantation Stiggins’ Fancy or Rum Cooperative Vol. 1, blended by Bully Boy Distillers in Boston. The charm of the Bombo is in its historical significance, and for that reason it was worth making this one time.

Colonially yours,
Kevin & Hazel