Robson Cocktail

People describe the Lyon dark rum as smokey. I find that it has a very distinctive roasted caramel brûlée flavor. This is not a spiced rum, but there's some vanilla flavor in it. The trick to using it well is to use it sparingly or in sweet drinks where it's sweet and glass-coating caramel does not stick out too much.

Ben Lyon told me that black strap rum is made (like all rum) from fermented molasses. But to get the dark color, molasses is added back to the distillate. Lyon makes his dark rum with caramel, because "most people really don't like molasses in their rum."

The Robson is a rum drink I've been looking forward to making for about as long as the Mandeville, but this is a much more palatable use of Lyon's rum. The flavor is like a rich blood orange with caramel--a real rum cordial of a drink.

• 2 oz. dark rum (Lyon dark rum used)
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. orange juice
• 1 tbsp. grenadine

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.