The Return of Baron Samedi

Digging through some old correspondence I recently rediscovered a tiki recipe for the Baron Samedi, canonically made with 1.75 oz. aged Rhum Agricole, .75 oz. lime juice, 0.25 oz. cinnamon syrup, and 0.25 oz falernum.  (I make basically all tiki drinks in a warhouse Oxo cobbler shaker -- something I definitely need to change, but life is short and cocktail hour is even shorter.)

I made this with a nice Martinique Agricole, and with the "tiki spices cocktail syrup" from BG Reynolds, and thought I was basically set.

Then a funny ordering miscommunication landed me a bottle of Clairin Milot from Haiti. When I first sniffed it I couldn't imagine what to do with it -- it smelled like grappa and olive brine, not rum. But I figured it would be thematically appropriate for a cocktail named Baron Samedi, and Clairin does have some of the fresh grassiness of an agricole, so I decided to try it here.

Wow. The spices and lime work shockingly well with the Clairin, giving it a funky, fermented, bitter edge to an otherwise tart and clean drink. I found I needed to move the tiki spices syrup up to about 0.5 oz to make it a little more pleasant to drink, but the result is definitely going on my home menu:

1.75 oz. Clairin
0.75 oz lime juice
0.5 oz tiki spices cocktail syrup
0.25 oz. falernum.

Shake, serve up and very cold.