Above: Flor de Caña (Photo: Compana Licorera de Nicaragua)

NICARAGUA’S Flor de Caña has long been a Rum Journal favourite among Central American rums.

As RJ discussed last year, Central America has developed into one of the world’s hubs of rum production, with leading lights like Ron Zacapa (Guatemala) and Ron Zafra (Panama — which we’ll discuss in a Rum Journal to come).

The Flor de Caña range includes five premiums and three super-premiums, topped by the 18-year-old Cenenario Gold, a rum that took nearly two decades to complete.

To help kick off Rum Journal for 2013, we bring you a cocktail mixed with Flor de Caña’s seven-year rum “Grand Reserve” that promises to bring your drinking experience to new heights.

And so we present the “Cloud Nine,” courtesy of Flor de Caña:

Ingredients
1 3/4 – Flor de Caña 7 Year Rum
Muddled 3 Mint sprigs
Muddled pinch of pickled ginger
2 oz Nigori sake
Splash of Pineapple juice
Half a Lime Juiced
Splash of Orange juice
Dash of Pomegranate syrup
1/4oz Flor de Caña 18 Year-old rum

Instructions
In a shaker muddle mint and ginger with juice from a halved lime (using rind is to personal preference of bitterness). In a highball filled with crushed ice add pomegranate syrup. Add strained mint, ginger, and lime juice.
Add Flor de Caña 7-year-old rum
Add Nigori Sake
Add splash orange juice
Add Pineapple juice
Add Float of Flor de Caña 18-year-old rum.

— CJ