Sharkbait’s Cocktail of the Week: The San Francisco Treat

We made it to another Friday friends. Time to rejoice and relax. This week was a slog and a half so I’ve been looking forward to writing and posting this as a sort of waypoint/mile marker on the path to the weekend, and it’s finally here.

National Rum Day happened to fall on last Tuesday (8/16), so naturally I had to break out the rum again this week. I came across the Cable Car in my google feed this week, and thought it sounded fantastic and decided to try it, especially since I went to the tiki well last week, and figured a little variety in my rum drinks would be a prudent move. There are apparently a few different versions of this San Francisco born drink floating around the web, but I settled on the one linked above for ease of preparation, and I’ve found that in cocktails, simple is usually better. We’ll see won’t we?

Cable Car

1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/8 cup sugar

1 lemon wedge

1.5 oz spiced rum

.75 oz. Marie Brizard orange curaçao

1 oz lemon juice, freshly squeezed

.5 oz. simple syrup

Garnish: orange spiral

Stir together the cinnamon and sugar in a wide-mouthed bowl or on a saucer. Rub the rim of a chilled cocktail glass (or half of the rim) with the lemon wedge and dip the rim in the cinnamon-sugar mixture to coat. Set the glass aside. Add the spiced rum, orange curaçao, lemon juice and simple syrup to a shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled. Double-strain into the prepared glass. Garnish with an orange spiral.

The aroma reminds me of fall. That’s where my mind automatically goes when I mix cinnamon and sugar. It’s definitely not a bad thing though. It is giving me some pumpkin spice PTSD though. I’m not ready for that to be a thing yet, but it is getting to be that season…

The flavor is mostly sweet, with a little bit of sour that comes in at the end. Not at all what I would have expected here, but in a good way. The mostly sweet and slight sour plays well with the rum, somewhat making the flavors until the very end. That’s when the cointreau, simple, and the lemon abate just enough for more of the rum flavor to come out. Now this might be my favorite part of the drink. I wish the rum flavors were more prominent, because they work so well together. Personally, I think this drink needs the rum bumped up to two ounces from the ounce and a half called for.

As for the extra sweetness, I wonder if the blended rum is the culprit. I don’t think it has as much of a punch as a single barrel (is that how you describe non blended rums?) spiced rum. An extra spicy rum might cut through the front half of the drink easier than this blend. So, maybe instead of adding another half ounce of rum, I should change the base.

Why not indeed

I do like this cocktail, I just wish the sweetness was toned down a little bit, and the sour from the lemon was a little more pronounced. Also, I would skip the cinnamon sugar rim. It can be nice when you’re ordering it out somewhere, but cinnamon sugar rims at home I always find to not be worth the hassle and cleanup. Plus I can never get a decent amount on the glass itself, so it just ends up mostly being a waste of spices.

(Banner image courtesy Matthew Tetrault Photography)

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Sharkbait
Sharkbait has not actually been bitten by a shark, but has told people in bars that he was for free drinks. Married to a Giants fan, he enjoys whisk(e)y, cooking, the Rangers, and the Patriots.
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Brick Meathook

I think this drink would be best served in a Fells Point pint glass, if only such a thing were available or even existed. With a cinnamon sugar rim, of course.

Brick Meathook

I know that a lot of people enjoy cinnamon sugar but won’t make it at home due to the expense, the specialized equipment required, and the outside contractors needed. So I found this great imported premixed product that is available for under $10000 per metric ton:

comment image

Last edited 2 years ago by Brick Meathook
Brick Meathook

Actually, I did the math on this. It costs $6.99 for a 6 ounce tin (as seen above). Let’s round this off to $7.00, as one does. Therefore, at that price:

$112/lb
$224,000/short ton (U.S.)
$250,880/long ton (British)
$246,915/metric ton (the rest of The Third World somehow not including Britain)

So $10,000 per metric ton is a ludicrous figure! It completely kills the joke and I have great shame now. Also, at these rates, rounding that $6.99 up to $7.00 for convenience probably added a significant amount to the total, and this is before taxes and excise fees and shipping and also import quota tariffs particular to the spice trade, which has been an ongoing concern for centuries, in addition to which “ton” to use which is also a figure completely tied to import taxes and tariffs about the shipping of wine which is an alcoholic beverage so this is all about booze and spices and so tobacco must be in there somewhere.

Last edited 2 years ago by Brick Meathook
ballsofsteelandfury

I love this analysis.

blaxabbath

Is Dick E. Phuck still around these parts?

blaxabbath

Mostly sweet, with a little bit of sour that comes in at the end is how Sugar Land masseuses describe an appointment with Deshaun Watson.

Horatio Cornblower

As opposed to the San Franciso Twink, which I somewhat awkwardly learned is not in fact a terrible Hostess spin-off.

WCS

/Buddy Reacts Reasonably

ballsofsteelandfury

Where does the Rice A Roni go?

Game Time Decision

if you have to ask, you don’t want to know

BrettFavresColonoscopy

I think the very appeal of tiki drinks is someone else making them for you. So I’m duly impressed you keep making them at home.

borisnow

Cinnamon hater

BrettFavresColonoscopy

Funny, i thought that was supposed to feel good in the ass

ballsofsteelandfury

comment image

Horatio Cornblower

It is a treat named after San Francisco

BC Dick

When they stuff a whole Cinnabon up there? Now the name makes sense.
Buy a dozen for a party they kept telling me. Said I wouldn’t need the extra icing.

WCS
Gumbygirl

I like real cinnamon, but the artificial cinnamon flavor they use gives me ginormous mouth hives. Dentyne gum, Colgate toothpaste, nope!