Drink: Different Drum rum
Coffee and sugar are a classic combination. But La Colombe's gonzo guy, Todd Carmichael, is taking the duo to an unexpected place - a bottle of Port Richmond-made coffee rum called Different Drum.
Coffee and sugar are a classic combination. But La Colombe's gonzo guy, Todd Carmichael, is taking the duo to an unexpected place - a bottle of Port Richmond-made coffee rum called Different Drum. That'll be a Fishtown rum by this summer, when the coffee icon opens a new cafe-bakery complex on Frankford Avenue - with the added bonus of a distillery pumping out white spirit from Haitian sugarcane juice. And that's where it gets interesting. Unlike most coffee liqueurs, which are syrupy-sweet blends, this one gets a high-tech infusion - "cavitation" - in which pressurized inert gas disrupts the coffee-bean cells, releasing the flavors of Panama Geisha and Indian Monsoon Malabar beans. The result is dry but smooth and haunting, with notes of citrusy jasmine and toasty vanilla, plus an amber hue despite not much barrel time at all. It's even better with flan. Debuting Thursday at La Colombe's cafes, Different Drum rum should roll off shelves as fast as they can make it.
- Craig LaBan
Different Drum rum, $49.95 for 750 ml, La Colombe cafes (130 S. 19th St., 1414 S. Penn Square).