Banana Milkshake

What a fun little cocktail! I love it! At first glance, this milkshake drink seems like a dessert pudding of a cocktail. Maybe it is, but the addition of nutmeg and banana flavor comes across as tropical. This smacks of beach resorts and summer milkshakes sipped on yachts more than a nightcap or winter eggnog.

The big tip-off is the use of rum in the recipe. It connects it to the Caribbean sea and white rum makers that use tropical spices in their spiced rum recipes. And then there are bananas, of course.

For this one, I happened to have a banana rum by Cruzan which I substituted for the white rum because why not. It tastes a little artificial and has a good amount of sugar in it, so actually it is a good stand in for creme de bananes as well. I decided to go extra bananas with MurLarkey Distillery's banana whiskey as well. This is all natural and doesn't have sugar added so it balanced things well. The result was a rich and strong banana flavor that was more than just candy in a glass.

• 2 oz. light rum (1 1/2 oz. Cruzan banana rum used)
• 1 oz. creme de bananes (1 1/2 oz. MurLarkey banana whiskey)
• 2 oz. half-and-half
• dash grenadine
• ground nutmeg
• banana slice

Combine grenadine, half-and-half and spirits in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the banana slice and dust with nutmeg.