Skip to main content

Justin Noel’s Top Five Rum Cocktails for Summer

You know we love to talk bourbon! But during the hot and humid summer not much can beat a damn good rum drank.

Shellback Rum is a new brand on the market and they are coming out of the gate a winner. Working with Barbados-based West Indies Rum Distillery (established in ye olde 1893) they have two products, a silver rum and a spiced rum.  The spiced is a blend of unaged rum with a portion that has spent at least 12 months in a once-used American bourbon barrel (hey, looka there!). Once blended, Shellback is flavored with  Cinnamon Bark Oil (Sri Lanka and Ceylon); Ginger Oil (China and Africa); Clove Oil (Madagascar and India); Nutmeg (Indonesia); Cassia (Vietnam and China); Vanilla (Madagascar) and Allspice (Caribbean). Dang, it sounds like Christmas!

Recommended Videos

Recently Shellback made a splash at the epic Manhattan Cocktail Classic event. They hired famed New York bartender Justin Noel (of Pranna, Breslin, Royalton and Goldbar fame) to come up with some thirst quenching rum based cocktails that he has shared below.

Let us know if you make one and send us a photo on Instagram at @TheManualStyle

The Olive Blossom:

2oz Shellback Silver Rum

.75 oz St. Germain

1 oz Pink Grapefruit Juice

.25 oz Simple Syrup

2 dashes of Lavender Bitters

Champagne Coup Glass

Edible Orchid Garnish

Twilight In Negril:

1.5 oz Jamaican Rum

1 oz Fresh Pineapple Juice

.5 oz Lime Juice

.5 oz Agave Nectar

.25 oz Apricot Liqueur

Shaken with ice

Strained into a coup

Pineapple Leaf for a garnish

Stout and Stormy:

2 oz Dark or Spiced Rum

.75 oz Fresh Lime Juice

.75 oz Demerara Syrup ( 2 cups of Demerara Sugar to 1 cup of water)

.5 oz Fresh Ginger Juice

Highball Glass

Crushed Ice

Dry shake contents

Pour into a empty highball glass

Add crushed ice to the top

Top with Abita Turbo Dog Brown Ale

Garnish with a Lime Slice and Candied Ginger

Don’t Tell Babo (From Employees Only):

Bacardi 8 Rum

Bianco Vermouth

stirred with Meletti

Dashes of Chocolate Bitters.

Served over ice

Cana Brava Hemingway:

2 oz Cana Brava Rum

.75 oz Lime Juice

.5 oz Fresh Pink Grapefruit Juice

.5 oz Maraschino Liquor

1 bar spoon of simple syrup

Lime wheel

Cator Sparks
Former Former Digital Trends Contributor, The Manual
Cator Sparks was the Editor-in-Chief of The Manual from its launch in 2012 until 2018. Previously, Cator was covering…
Labor Day Weekend calls for a Pineapple Smash
A tropical cocktail with bourbon shining front and center
Basil Hayden Pineapple Smash.

Labor Day Weekend is coming right up, the last gasp of summer for a lot of folks. It's a great weekend for camping, relaxing, or having a refreshing summer cocktail. Fortunately, we just got a recipe in our inbox that caught our attention.

Now is prime cocktail time. As we speak, fans are sipping on Honey Deuce drinks at the U.S. Open and making Aviation Gin cocktails to celebrate Wrexham's new season in the Championship. Some of us are just looking for the ultimate cool-off in backyards, decks, and hammocks across the land.

Read more
2 must-try bourbon cocktails for Bourbon Heritage Month in September
Drinks that spotlight bourbon and the brand's Tennessee roots
Cortado cocktail.

There's a lot of talk of autumn these days. Really, we're still living in the moment, embracing summer beer releases and eagerly awaiting fresh hop season. But alas, fall is in fact on its way.

It's bittersweet, but the new seasons brings with it some pleasant transitions. One is the pivot towards more substantial food, whether that's a pot roast in the kitchen or a rye whiskey cocktail at the bar. So, when Bib & Tucker dropped a new bourbon infused with coffee, we couldn't help but excited about some of those transitional beverages that move seamlessly from one season to the next.

Read more
The unwritten cappuccino rule in Italy every tourist should know
Why Italians consider the cappuccino a morning-only drink
cappuccino

The unspoken rules of coffee in Italy are hard to navigate as a tourist -- and I learned that the hard way. During a recent trip to Italy, I discovered that Italian coffee culture is quite different than coffee culture in the U.S. In the U.S., no one questions you if you order a cappuccino at Starbucks at 5 p.m., because anything goes. Yet, in Italy, I got some interesting stares when trying to order a late-afternoon cappuccino.

After I was asked, "Are you sure?" by a woman behind the café counter in Rome, I soon learned of the unstated "cappuccino curfew" in Italy. Here's what to know about this cappuccino "rule" and why you won't catch many Italians drinking a cappuccino after 11 A.M.

Read more