The Sneaky Bastard.

The "Sneaky Bastard"

Spend any amount of time playing table top games with our friend Tuna, and you will quickly realize that he is something of sneaky bastard. He loves to sit back quietly with a disarming little smirk on his face, and build up points, or cards, or whatever the goal may be. Then with a flourish, he will play the most devastating hand or strategy to not just end the game, but to do it all in one brutal and demoralizing move. Think of the old card game Gin Rummy (always liked the name of that one) and you will know what we mean. I cannot count the times Mike and I have been pummeled by our quiet friend with his sly, cunning, and most of all sneaky, play style.

So, to honor our dubious friend, Tuna, I have come up with a cocktail that is aptly named "the Sneaky Bastard".

Essentially this drink is nothing more than an old school daiquiri made with dark rum rather than white and served on the rocks instead of in the traditional cocktail glass. I chose a really sweet, dark rum called Zaya, which is aged twelve long years in white oak casks and distilled no less than five times. This stuff is so smooth that it can be consumed neat, which many purists insist you do. Some may balk at my using such a fine stand alone spirit in a cocktail, on the grounds that there is no need to soften or dilute something crafted so beautifully. And you know? I agree to a point. Yet as Tuna is as fine a person you'd ever wish to meet, I decided to use top quality ingredients in his very own drink, so you pendants can simply "Piss Off".

Ingredients:

3/4 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice
1 & 1/4 ounce simple syrup
2 ounces dark rum (Zaya)
lime wheel, for garnish

Method:

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice, add lime juice, simple syrup, and rum. Shake vigorously. I like to shake drinks till I feel the metal of the shaker frost in my hand. Fill a rocks glass with ice, and strain your drink into it. Garnish with a lime wheel, or for Tuna two skewered pepperoni chunks.


What ends up in hand is a very smooth drink with a tart after twist due to the lime. It puts off a pleasing earthy vanilla bean scent that comes from the Zaya rum. Now, as not everybody likes heavy sweet cocktails you can alter the above ingredients a bit to create more of a tart pop by increasing the lime to 1 full ounce and reducing the simple syrup to 1 full ounce. Thus your count would be 1, 1, 2. Essentially you build to taste.

Our good friend Tuna: The original "Sneaky Bastard"

I not only served these up to Mike and Tuna last game day but to Valerie and Jasmine as well and they seemed to enjoy it too.

Lastly, just like Tuna, these little cocktails WILL sneak up on you if you are not careful, I know firsthand as I think my last one just hit me hard.

Cheers
AL