This recipe is my own twist of a drink of the 50s: the Bourbon Special, featured at Steve Crane’s Kon-Tiki restaurant chain. This tiki drink was created for Bourbon drinkers…and I used it like inpiration to make a drink based on the Cruzan Blackstrap Rum, a totally black colored rum with a strong flavour of molasses and liquorice. I love that rum combined with ginger beer, and I think that this recipe with some modifications could work…and I think that I wasn’t wrong.
Blackstrap Special
Author: Oriol Elias
Ingredients
- ½oz Lime Juice
- ¼oz Cinnamon Syrup
- ¼oz Falernum
- 1oz Ginger Beer
- 2oz Cruzan Blackstrap Rum
- 1dash The Bitter Truth Jerry Thomas Own Decanter Bitters
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients and a half of the squeezed lime in the shaker with crushed ice.
- Shake it.
- Pour unstrained in a double old fashioned glass.
- Garnish with 3 pineapple leaves and two speared marraschino cherries.
Try it and say me what do you think about!!!! Cheers!!!

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This post is also available in: Spanish
This drink looks awesome! unf i don`t have any Cruzan Black Strap and it`s not sold here but i will buy a bottle when i go to Nola. In the mean time i think i can make a twist with Lost Spirits Navy Style rum 🙂
Mmm…I don’t know if it could be similar…LS Navy Style has a high molasses flavour?
Maybe it could not be the same flavour profile, and of course your version could have a higher proof than may…but try it and tell me how it works!!! 😉
Yeah, i wasn`t thinking of making it as similar as possible, rather to make a twist that is a different drink:-) but when i think about it, i do have molasses at home, both pure molasses sugar and liquid molasses.
I love the rum twists in the cocktails…that make new flavour profiles on the drinks…tell me when you do your version!!! 😉