I love food, which is why it’s difficult for me to lose weight, but it’s not. Stress is why I have trouble losing weight, but that’s another story. I’m also a native Hawaiian and love the islands, but so does everyone who’s ever visited. Ha-ha! So imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon Plantation Pineapple Rum Stiggins’ Fancy, an all-but-forgotten spirit prevalent in Victorian England. It’s got all the things I love wrapped in a beautiful package.
According to Robert Simonson of the New York Times, Stiggins’ Fancy is “named after Reverend Stiggins, an ecclesiastical hypocrite from Charles Dicken’s “The Pickwick Papers” who preached temperance between nips of his beloved pineapple rum.” I’m not a mixologist, a celebrated historian like David Wondrich, or a master alchemist like Mr. Gabriel of Maison Ferrand, but I could tell that this rum would make a fine addition to my collection. My search began with a desire to craft the perfect camping cocktail. Something delicious, solid, and easy to prepare on the go. This cocktail needed to be enjoyed in mason jars rather than cocktail glasses. In which all the ingredients could be thrown together quickly, and the skill of the bartender was amateurish. In the hands of a professional, this rum would be heavenly. In my hands, it is simply fantastic.
Since Stiggins’ Fancy is so new (released in 2015, I believe), I could only find two recipes that featured the rum. The fantastic thing about this distilled beverage is how well it lends itself to classic cocktails such as Sidecars or Old Fashioned. Two recipes, Pineapple Express, and Hella Fancy, offer a delicious but slightly more involved take on Stiggins. I couldn’t find what I needed, so I decided to make something myself. Wholly original (in my mind, some bartenders probably already thought this up), but more importantly, it’s simple to make, so even I can’t screw it up.
My first trial was a huge success. Although I was the only one who drank it, and let’s be honest… I’m a fish. So I’ll need to take this camping, prep it in the wild, and have my friends give me an unbiased verdict. Will they love it? Will they hate it? You have to stay tuned for next week’s blog and find out! I can tell you one thing: I’ve settled on a name. “Hula” — let’s see if I can make my friends dance.
To be continued…
