Cocktail Chronicles blogger Paul Clarke sets a well recognised 'Falernum baseline' with his recipes #8 and #9, however for us, #10 is the clear winner. For starters, it calls for toasting both the cloves and the almonds first (helping release their flavour), but most importantly it removes the lime juice from the base mix, which is the main ingredient that reduces its shelf life.If you leave it in, it will continue to ferment and start to become ‘funky’ around 2-4 weeks. Without it, we’ve heard claims of up to 5 months (in the fridge)… but at The Lost Tiki Lounge it’s easily consumed within a month so we’re unable to fully verify that one ;)
Zest the limes with a microplane grater, zester or vegetable peeler, making sure to leave all the white pith behind. And watch those knuckles! Adding human flesh really won’t enhance the flavour.
Toast the cloves in a dry pan over a medium heat, shaking frequently, just until they begin to become aromatic, then remove from the heat.
Toast the almonds, shaking frequently, until they begin to turn light brown, then remove from the heat.
Peel the ginger and either slice it into thin batons or julienne it.
Add the lime zest, cloves, almonds, gingerand the rum in a pint-sized jar and allow to macerate for 24 hours. Every now and then, take a moment to review your creation. It looks green, strange, almost luminous. Give it a shake. Awesome.
Strain the infusion into your final container through a muslin or a moistened cheesecloth. Make sure to give it a good squeeze at the end to get every last drop of potent liquid out. If it’s still a bit ‘gritty’, run it through a second time, or if really stubborn try something like a coffee filter to help refine it.
To make the rich simple syrup, add 2 cups of sugar (preferably super-fine) and 1 cup of cold (or slightly tepid) water to a large jar. Seal the lid and shake until the sugar is completely dissolved. If you're struggling to get it to liquefy, add it to a pan and put it on a very low heat, stirring every few minutes until the liquid is clear.
Measure 14 ounces of your syrup and pour into your final container along with the rum infusion and the almond extract, give it a shake to combine, and you’re done!
Notes
Something to bear in mind is that as we’ve removed the lime juice from the base recipe you’ll need to compensate by adding it back in when you mix your drink. If the drink already has lime juice in it then you don’t really need to add any more. But if it doesn’t, then squeeze about a 1/4 of a lime in for every ounce of Falernum used.
An additional tweak that we make at The Lost Tiki Lounge is to drop the cloves back down to 40 (rather than 50) and bring the ginger up to 2 ounces. Plus we grate the ginger rather than slicing it. This keeps the profile in roughly the same area but helps bring some of the other flavours to the fore.
Storage and Shelf Life
As mentioned, shelf life is around 1-2 months if kept in the refrigerator, but it can be extended by following certain practices:
Removing as many ‘floaters’ as possible in the filtering process
Sterilising your bottles and equipment beforehand
Using a vacuum wine bottle stopper
And always ensuring you use over-proof rum. Once diluted by the sugar syrup, a standard rum will lose its preservative properties due to the lower ABV.
Infusion Time
Most recipes you find are driven by a bars’ need to make a batch and have it ready for the next day. Hence the technique of using greater quantities of ingredients to reduce the infusion time. However if you’re a home enthusiast, you don’t need to perform to the same pressures and can run your infusion over a longer period - just remember to reduce the amount of ingredients you use - for instance, try a quarter of the amount of aromatics, but let them sit in the rum for triple the time.