He waved the man away and turned to Charles Mason. “Now, my young buck,” he said, “I have ten shillings here that say I can beat you at your favorite game of billiards. Want to bet? Of course you do. Well, let’s go down to the Merchant’s Coffeehouse and try our skill. And before we start to play I’ll treat you to a rum fustian.”

“Rum fustian I May I inquire what that is?”

“Oh, I forgot that you are from the benighted land of Virginia, where your favorite drink is eggnog or mint julep. A rum fustian, my dear sir, is made of beer, sherry, gin, the yolks of eggs, sugar and a little nutmeg all stirred together and heated with a red-hot loggerhead.”

Mason reflected a minute. “That sounds like a strong drink,” he said. “But why do they call it rum fustian when there’s no rum in it?”

“That’s where the fustian part comes in, my inquiring lad,” said the Major. “Fustian as you know means an imitation.” ¹

While flipping through Jerry Thomas’ How to Mix Drinks, or The Bon-vivant’s Companion, I came across a curious egg drink served hot, the Rumfustian, which as the bit of history above describes contains no rum at all. Thomas gave the history as “a drink very much in vogue with English sportsmen, after their return from a day’s shooting.” ² Histories across the web did not confirm the sportsmen lore, but suggested it was a drink of English university students, American colonial settlers, and pirates dating back to the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century. The “rum” part of the name derives from the gypsy word for powerful, and evidence of its strength was written about in colonial America. There, the drink was often drank at breakfast and its consumption took a toll on the efficiency and character of the settlers.³

The recipe I used was from Thomas and I provide the volumes I used to make two servings in parentheses:

Rumfustian
• 12 Egg Yolks (2)
• 1 quart Beer (5 1/3 oz Mayflower Porter)
• 1 pint Gin (2 2/3 oz Beefeater)
• 1 bottle Sherry (4 oz Lustau Don Nuño Dry Oloroso)
• 1 stick Cinnamon (1/6)
• 1 Nutmeg (1/6)
• 12 large lump Sugar (2 tsp Turbinado)
• 1 rind Lemon Peel (1/6)
Heat sherry in a sauce pan with cinnamon, nutmeg (grated), sugar, and lemon peel. Mix egg yolks, beer, and gin. When sherry comes to a boil, pour (while straining) into bowl with the yolks, beer, and gin. Serve hot.

I mixed the yolk, gin, and beer in a cocktail shaker instead of whisking in a bowl (be careful to degas it every few shakes to save from making a mess as the beer decarbonates). I also left the shaker in a bowl of hot water to warm up the contents since it contained a larger volume than the hot sherry. In addition, I grated some nutmeg over the top of each cup before serving.
The beer I used from the Mayflower Brewery and was somewhat smokey; its flavors mainly came through on the first part of the sip. The cinnamon, nutmeg, and nutty sherry flavors then followed this initial malty wave. We debated whether or not we could taste the gin as it was rather well masked by the spices. Moreover, the egg yolk provided a thick, rich mouthfeel, but unlike egg white, it did not mute the drink to any degree. In addition, the Rumfustian was not as sweet as eggnog, or perhaps my interpretation of a “large lump” to be a teaspoons-worth of sugar fell short. Some might prefer this drink to be a bit sweeter so adjust accordingly. And interestingly, as the drink cooled, the spice notes diminished with the beer taking a greater prominence in the flavor profile.
Overall, the drink was pretty complex, heavy, and at first a bit bizarre. However, with successive sips, the drink grew on us and the taste became addictive. With the warmth and spice profile, I could see the Rumfustian being a great treat after coming in from the cold. And if Jerry Thomas’ lore is correct, it would most certainly help you to forget an unsuccessful day of hunting.

¹ Woodward, W.E. The Way Our People Lived: An Intimate American History. E.P. Dutton & Company, 1944.
² Thomas, J. How to Mix Drinks, or The Bon-vivant’s Companion. Dick & Fitzgerald, 1862.
³ History of Alcohol in America.

Cross-posted to the Cocktail Virgin blog.

Have you ever been at the end of a long meal and wanted a little something with alcohol, sugar or both, but yet you’re about to fall into a food coma? Or you just want a little extra something in your Saturday morning coffee? The French Nudge is a perfect marriage of all these desires. While I never got the exact recipe from the restaurant where I first had it years ago, the Brasserie Montmartre, this is what I re-created at home from memory after a few reconnaissance missions. One of the ingredients was creme de cacao, which I had none of. So I started playing around with ingredients and this is what I came up with. It was the first drink I ever named; I renamed it the Sylvan Nudge. You can guess why.

Sylvan Nudge

• 6-8 oz hot coffee
• 3/4 oz Grand Marnier
• 3/4 oz cognac
• 1/2 oz Kahlua

Top with fresh whipped cream or foamed milk. Grate a little fresh nutmeg on top.

MMM, warm deliciousness. Warms you up, gives you a pleasant feeling and a little jolt of caffeine. Whipped cream will float nicelty above the coffee (until it melts) making a crisp line between the light and the dark. The photo is of milk foamed with a Aerolatte-style milk frother.

Heck, it turns out that a lot of things are good in coffee (assuming you like coffee). I came across a recipe for Monk’s Coffee with a shot of green chartreuse in there and thought “No way.” But I tried it anyway and was amazed at how exotic and grown-up tasting it was. Frangelico, creme de cacao, Kahlua Coffee Cream liqueur, whiskey, and brandy all have their place in hot coffee drinks. And though Kahlua may seem redundant to use in a coffee drink, it really pairs well with it and adds a certain sweetness and depth that I find welcome.

The fragrance of nutmeg is very special, i cannot even really describe it, its spicy-woody and fresh, nutty and very satisfying.

Most often i connect nutmeg with either christmas drinks or libations from the caribbean both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. Nutmeg and carrot juice  is a common combo for instance among the non-alcoholic drinks. Nutmeg pairs well with drinks containing milk and cream, maybe that´s the reason its so common around christmas. Its also often use to top various punches.

The nutmeg spice itself is often ground – its a brown nut encased first by the red mace which is sweeter and then by a yellowish shell.

Nutmeg is one of the oldest spices known. It comes from an evergreen tree (myristica fragrans) native to the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, near Indonesia. This tree is bearing a nut with two separate flavors. Nutmeg is one flavor and the mace another, achieved by grinding the lacy outer covering surrounding the nutmeg.

It has a warm spicy flavor and as heat greatly diminishes its flavor its best added towards the end of cooking and should be grated fresh. Mace is often preferred in light-coloured dishes as it gives a saffron-like bright orange colour.

When i experimented with a drink for the Tiki TDN last Thursday i wanted to play with my bottle of Old New Orleans Cajun Spiced Rum that i brought home with me from the Tales. I found that this rum pairs well with aged agricole. For that drink i used one of my favorites which is Clèment VSOP – a smooth agricole rum with good flavour.The drink  Po`aha Punch (in Hawaiian Po`aha means Thursday) was dusted with nutmeg powder on top of crushed ice – a common way to crown many tiki (and other) drinks.

PO´AHA PUNCH

1oz Old New Orleans Cajun Spiced Rum
1oz El Dorado 15yo
1 oz Clemènt VSOP, 0.5 oz fresh lime
¼ oz simple syrup
0.5 oz coffee liqueur
1t cream of coconut,
Fresh pineapple juice to top.

Run in blender until smooth with crushed ice. Pour in tall glass, top with fresh pineapple juice and more crushed ice to fill, dust nutmeg on top and garnish with a cinnamon stick.