A cooling summer cocktail: Pomegranate Rum Rickey

The Pomegranate Rum Rickey is a summer cooler that’s hard to beat.  A Rickey is a cocktail made from a liquor, some lime juice, a little sweetener (optional), and soda water.  The Pomegranate Rum Rickey fills the bill and adds a little pomegranate juice to boost the flavor.  I had my first Rickey – a Gin Rickey – ages ago at a favorite campground in Wisconsin.  After a hot day of rock-climbing (and sometimes a cooling swim) we would repair to the campground for a short (well, not always) cocktail hour before dinner.  Ice-cold beer, Rum and Coke, Gin and Tonic, and (of course) Gin Rickeys were regular items on the cocktail hour menu, along with a delicious variety of hors-d’oeuvres destined to ruin our appetite for dinner.

Rickeys are as thirst quenching today as they were back then.  Their simplicity makes them an ideal cocktail for mixing and drinking as you’re running around getting the grill ready for  ribs, or just sitting and listening to the ribs cook, and they’re just as great for relaxing on porch or patio any hot afternoon after work.

 Like all of my cocktail recipes, the Pomegranate Rum Rickey has plenty of room for improvisation.  If you like your Rickeys a little less sweet, you can cut back on the pomegranate syrup or substitute a splash of pomegranate juice.  If you like them a little less tart, decrease the lime juice, and you can always adjust the amount of rum.

 

Pomegranate Rum Rickey

1 ½ oz gold rum (white will do)

½ oz freshly squeezed lime juice (optional)

1 oz pomegranate syrup

4-5 oz soda water

Pour the rum, lime juice, and pomegranate syrup into a cocktail shaker half full of ice.  Shake long enough to hum a few lines of Summertime.  Strain into a Collins glass ¾ full of ice, fill with soda water, and stir lightly.  Garnish with a lime wheel, serve with a straw, and enjoy.    You may also build this drink in the glass, but that will melt more of the ice.