Snap, Chat & Rum

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                               S N A P,  C H A T,  &  R U M

                                       INTRODUCTION

The Snap, Chat & Rum is a first-class example of the influx of new wave cocktails that are influencing and broadening the field of mixology. A variation of the classic daiquiri, a classic and popular rum cocktail that evolved during the Colonial era thought to help prevent scurvy, the Snap, Chat & Rum cocktail evolved in recent years from flavor and ingredient experimentation. Mixologists today are tinkering with aromatic flavoring and new techniques more than ever before. The result of this avant-garde experimentation is that the cocktail industry is enjoying a fresh and diverse renaissance period; and new charming cocktails like the Snap, Chat & Rum are emerging on to the scene.

                                MATERIALS & METHODS

                                                       Liquor.com Recipe (1)

Aged rum – 1.5 oz. (45 mL)

Fresh lime juice – 1 oz (30 mL)

Simple syrup – 0.75 oz (22 mL)

Pressed sugar snap pea with fennel bulb – 1.5 oz (45 mL)

Garnish – fennel frond

Directions:

Add the aged rum, fresh lime juice, simple syrup and pressed sugar snap pea with fennel bulb to a crushed-ice filled cocktail shaker. Shake all ingredients vigorously.

Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with fennel frond.

                                    DISCUSSION

Origin

The Snap, Chat & Rum cocktail is a modern craft cocktail recipe that is part of a larger and progressive cocktail industry movement. Due to the explosive growth of classic cocktail bars around the world, many original bars are diversifying, looking for new projects to separate themselves out from new competition. In some cases, even new bars are opening, leveraging a creative niche to compete. For this very reason, mixologists are looking at modernizing classic and iconic cocktails or playing spirit archaeologist by tinkering with obscure long forgotten cocktail recipes.The addition of pressed sugar snap pea with fennel bulb is an example of modernizing an iconic cocktail, in this case the classic daiquiri. The addition of unique ingredients like these is a metaphorical nod to Aristotle who emphasized that the five senses of smell, taste, sight, hearing and touch could be used to perceive flavor and aroma. The ingredients used in the cocktail are both distinct and clearly influence the cocktail’s architecture, appearance and taste.

Flavor Profile

Rum

The manufacture of rum involves the distillation of sugarcane molasses after fermentation with yeast, unless you are manufacturing Rhum Agricole, in which case it comes from freshly squeezed sugarcane juice rather than sugarcane molasses. The Snap, Chat & Rum cocktail calls for an aged rum which is most commonly attained through barrel aging. During barrel aging, rum becomes darker in color due to the leaching compounds from the barrel to the spirit. The flavor of the spirit is enhanced by the aromatic aldehydes which are produced in this state thanks to oxidation and hydrolysis reactions involving lignin from the barrels (3).

Additional Ingredients

Fresh Lime Juice

Much like it enhances the classic daiquiri, fresh lime juice is a major source of flavor and aroma for the Snap, Chat & Rum cocktail. Lime juice is a citric juice with a very low pH of 2.8. The presence of such a strong acid in the cocktail is a key indicator of sourness.

Simple Syrup

Simple syrup is sucrose (granulated sugar) dissolved in water in a 1:1 equal parts sugar and water. This sugar ingredient is typically pH neutral and balances out the souring profile created by lime juice by its inherent sweetening properties.

Pressed Sugar Snap Pea with Fennel Bulb

The cocktail’s use of pressed sugar snap pea with fennel bulb is quite radical and adds a brilliant and enhancing addition. Pressed together in an equal ratio, the final pressed ingredient is a significant contributor to the cocktail’s flavor profile, which is best understood by researching sugar snap peas and fennel bulbs independently of one another.

Sugar snap peas (Pisum sativum var. saccharatum) belong to the legume family which currently has over seventeen thousand documented species distributed throughout the temperate, subtropical and tropical zones of the world (4).  While peas in general are a great source of fiber, vitamin C, iron, magnesium and potassium, sugar snap peas have the added benefit of having an edible pod which not all pea species have. While the sugar snap peas are a genetically modified organism (GMO) created by Dr. Calvin Lamborn who crossed a traditional snow pea cultivar with a shelling pea mutant found in 1952 by Dr. M. C. Parker, the resulting new pea hybrid has a crunchier texture than most peas and has a very sweet flavor which boosts the Snap, Chat & Rum cocktail experience.

Fennel Bulbs come from Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) which is a flowering plant species in the carrot family and have a sweet licorice flavor along with a crunchy texture (6). The aromatic character of fennel bulb derives from multiple volatile oils imparting mixed aromas, including trans-anethole and estragole (resembling licorice) and fenchone (mint and camphor) (7). 

                                          NUTRITION

While the Snap, Chat & Rum cocktail is similar in architecture to the classic daquiri, it has a few additional ingredients which not only change its appearance and flavor profile but change its nutritional make-up as well. Since the cocktail uses an aged rum (rum that has spent time in a barrel) and not a white rum (unaged), there are additional calories present in the cocktail as well as sugars.

                                  NUTRITION FACTS

                             (Amount Per 1 Fl oz in a 4.75 Fl oz Cocktail)

Calories:                     57.2

Total Fat:                     0.1 g

Cholesterol:                0.9 mg

Sodium:                      1.5 mg    

Total Carbohydrates:  8.5 g

Dietary Fiber:             0.6 g

Sugar:                        7.5 g

                                       CONCLUSION

Thanks to the growth in experimentation and focus on creating new wave rum drinks, cocktails like the Snap, Chat & Rum have emerged. Although the cocktail is a variation of the classic Daiquiri, the drink has a defined uniqueness in both phenotypic appearance and flavor profile. Visually, the cocktail is green in color due to the presence of pressed sugar snap peas and fennel bulb and is rich in flavor due to the presence of an aged rum and the other ingredients in the cocktail.  

                                     REFERENCES

  1. Liquor.com. (2016). Snap, Chat & Rum. Retrieved from: https://www.liquor.com/recipes/snap-chat-and-rum/ 
  2. Aristotle. (c. 350 B.C.). On the Soul. Translation: J.A. Smith, The Internet Classics Archive, MIT.
  3. Fahrasmane, L. and Parfait, A. (2003). Rum. Encyclopedia of Food Sciences and Nutrition (Second Edition) 
  4. Agriculture Victoria. (2007). Snow Pea and Sugar Snap Pea. Retrieved from: http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/agriculture/horticulture/vegetables/vegetables-a-z/snow-pea-and-sugar-snap-pea 
  5. Fedco Seeds. (2020). Honoring Plant Bredder Calvin Lamborn. Retrieved from: https://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds/articles/breeder_Lamborn.htm 
  6. US Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service. (2015). Classification for Kingdom Plantae Down to Genus Foeniculum Mill. Retrieved from: https://plants.usda.gov/java/ClassificationServlet?source=profile&symbol=FOENI&display=31 
  7. Díaz-Maroto, M.,   Díaz-Maroto Hidalgo, I., Sánchez-Palomo, E, and Pérez-Coello, M. (2005). Volatile components and key odorants of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) and thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.) oil extracts obtained by simultaneous distillation-extraction and supercritical fluid extraction. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 53 (13): 5385–9.