anybody have a good non-alcoholic substitute for rum?

I know, i know, it's tiki heresy, but I've given up cocktails for Lent, and it occurred to me that I might at least be able to enjoy the flavors of my favorite tiki drinks (esp., navy grog) if I can only come up with a workable non-alcoholic susbtitute for the rums.

I understand that there are pure and artificial rum extracts out there, but the McCormick's brand that is readily available has a high alcohol content, which rules it out.

any ideas?

I was thinking coca-cola with a little molasses added might work for dark rum...

Have you checked out any of the 'virgin' (N/A) drinks in Beachbum Berry's books? Personally, I'm giving up bourbon, scotch, rye, brandy & beer for Lent. That pretty much leaves rum.....

My wife is pregnant so I've had some experience trying to virginize some tiki drinks. The best substitute I have found is Perrier mineral water. I sub it ounce for ounce. It has a slight bitter taste that helps cut some of the sweetness. You also need to adjust the honey/rock candy syrups to get a good balance.

I also second the idea to utilize beachbum's NA drinks. The mint squash is the best - I can post a recipe if you need. The best thing I can say is that it doesn't taste like anything is missing. It is a great drink.

gabbahey

Monin puts out a "Caribbean Rum" flavored syrup. Nothing will be a perfect substitute for rum, itself, but you might give it a shot.

Just a thought, how about heating the rum to evaporate off the alcohol? The boiling point of ethyl alcohol is 172°F, perhaps at that temp is would boil of the alcohol without boiling of the flavor or the water. You could add purified water afterwards to bring it back to it's original volume. Safety would be an issue too.

PS - no fair standing over the pan to inhale the fumes :lol:

Monin puts out a "Caribbean Rum" flavored syrup. Nothing will be a perfect substitute for rum, itself, but you might give it a shot.

Easy Tom . . . :)

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha . . . sorry :) made me laugh. You're serious . . .

Aloha and okole maluna!

The Blue Kahuna

[ Edited by: The Blue Kahuna 2012-02-23 21:00 ]

Tom, best i can tell the Monin product is not available in US market...

Gabby, that sounds cool if you don't mind...

On 2012-02-23 21:02, thePorpoise wrote:
Tom, best i can tell the Monin product is not available in US market...

I've bought it here:

http://www.surfaslosangeles.com/about

They have a wide range of Monin syrups you don't commonly see at brick-and-mortar stores. It's a great place to get lost in. Sort of a gourmet cooking supply warehouse...

I used the rum syrup to make some mocktails for my 4-year-old.

Again, I'm not prepared to give up rum, but you might try it in a mocktail and see what you think.

Sorry about the double post earlier. :)

Lemon Mint Squash

1 1/2 oz lemon mint syrup*
4 oz club soda
Dash Angostura Bitters (I left these out for the wife and it was still great)

*Lemon Mint Syrup (1 Pint)
Simmer 1 cup sugar, 1 cup lemon juice, the grated rind of 4 lemons, and 50 fresh mint leaves over medium heat. Remove from heat and cover for 15 minutes. Strain into a bottle through a fine mesh sieve. Keeps 2 to 4 days.

I just realized I used lemon zest when I made it - not sure if that is what he means by rind. I have also adjusted the recipe at times to make more or less syrup and it was fine.

Not as complex as some drinks but I really like it.

Also try the navy grog (my favorite too) with mineral water. With bitters, it is a pretty good NA drink.

gabbahey

[ Edited by: gabbahey 2012-02-23 21:40 ]

Does commercially available rum flavoring have alcohol (or very much alcohol) in it?

Cause you could actually make up something pretty close with the rum flavoring; try the cake dept at your grocery.

I bet some of these supposed experts could be fooled by it... I'll have to try this sometime...

Edited for double post

[ Edited by: gabbahey 2012-02-23 22:12 ]

I'm fully prepared for my Lenten sacrifice. Only sugar cane based beverages for me.

Zhena's Gypsy Tea Co makes a flavor called "Coconut Rum", which I've found has a "fruity" rum taste. I haven't yet tried brewing and cooling it for mocktails, but I'd be interested in seeing what it would do.

http://www.gypsytea.com/Coconut-Rum-P265.aspx

WOW that actually looks tasty! Who would have thunk?

This is really a great topic! Although I gave up Lent for Lent, I too have friends and relatives who cannot drink for one reason or another. I attended a Beachbum Berry seminar a few years back at Hukilau in which he told a side anecdote about Don Beach once mixed a cocktail with no alcohol whatsoever. His friend tasted it and swore he could pick out at least 2 different rums in the flavor.

It would seem that, for dark rum, the flavor is gonna come from cane sugar and the oak tannins of the barrel it was aged in. The bite obviously comes from the alcohol content. Some darks also have a note that reminds me of maple syrup. So maybe you could start with something that uses maple syrup (high grade of course) and some other substance that could lend a level of oakiness (is that a word?) to the flavor. Perhapse some type of bitters?

On 2012-02-23 20:47, MadDogMike wrote:
Just a thought, how about heating the rum to evaporate off the alcohol? The boiling point of ethyl alcohol is 172°F, perhaps at that temp is would boil of the alcohol without boiling of the flavor or the water. You could add purified water afterwards to bring it back to it's original volume. Safety would be an issue too.

PS - no fair standing over the pan to inhale the fumes :lol:

That's what I was thinking.

"I gave up drinking. Now I freeze it and eat it like a popsicle!"

--Dean Martin

On 2012-02-23 21:30, Trader Tom wrote:

On 2012-02-23 21:02, thePorpoise wrote:
Tom, best i can tell the Monin product is not available in US market...

I've bought it here:

http://www.surfaslosangeles.com/about

They have a wide range of Monin syrups you don't commonly see at brick-and-mortar stores. It's a great place to get lost in. Sort of a gourmet cooking supply warehouse...

I used the rum syrup to make some mocktails for my 4-year-old.

Again, I'm not prepared to give up rum, but you might try it in a mocktail and see what you think.

Sorry about the double post earlier. :)

There is now a Surfa's in Costa Mesa. It's a great gourmet food and cookware store if you've never been. There is even a cafe.
3309 Hyland Avenue, Costa Mesa, CA 92626
http://www.culinarydistrict.com

[ Edited by: tikilongbeach 2013-03-29 15:28 ]

Hey thanks Lori, I didn't know they had opened one here
they have a nice selection of bar supplies also....

Seems like alcohol free rum extract is the place to start.

-Rev

Marijuana, Heroin, Cocaine should all work as a substitute.

It's baby time again for the wife and I, and I've been looking for NA cocktail alternatives. I will be getting some missing ingredients from the virgin drinks listed in the Jeff Berry books but I was wondering what other alternatives might be used in place of (particularly) rum. A dark cola, soda water, or even apple juice are all in the running for turning traditional drinks virgin. Particularly I'm thinking a NA Painkiller - sure I could just remove the rum and say its virgin, but then she's just drinking juice and coconut cream. What else can I consider to complicate the result and taste more?

That can be a tough assignment, converting existing drinks to NA... You can consider taking an easier route, temporarily foregoing what you know and love, and temporarily just look at smoothies and other juice drinks. There are some books out there which focus on this, but then also continue to check your favorite cocktail books and see if they have sections on NA drinks. The big surprise is that there is a whole world of NA stuff to explore, including teas and coffees and even flavoring plain soda water. As previously suggested, rum extract may be helpful, which reminds me that I have personally had a mock Mojito once which surprised me but I never followed up to learn how to make it.

Congrats on your upcoming baby!

Thanks dude! Yeah upon the first kid I bought this book and after going through it was kind of disapointed. While the drinks can be complex, the overall thought is that any drink w/o alcohol is therefore a mocktail. The complex drinks require ingredients that are harder to find then some bar ingredients. I think lemonade is the first recipe listed. I can 100% guarantee that if I'm drinking a Lapu Lapu and she's drinking a lemonade...she ain't gonna be happy because she wants to a least feel slightly fooled. That's why I think virgin Piña Coladas are rubbish. Virgin margaritas (using lemonade, ironically) tends to be a hit but we all know what's missing. :wink:

Interesting book, Keith. I had some more thoughts, what if we consider ditching the whole "syrupy juice drinks and smoothies" world and head in the direction of drinks made with flavors based on teas and bitters and extracts and herbs? These would be NA drinks with potential for pleasing aromatic blends of "adult" flavorings mixed into sodas, tonic water, etc. and garnished with mint, basil, nutmeg, etc. For example, what would you mix with muddled blackberries or strawberries to offset but also complement the sweetness of the fruit? Where we use a spirit and citrus juice and simple syrup today, what would we replace the spirit with? Tonic water for flavor and soda water for fizz and texture? Super-strong coffees and super-strong teas made with whole new and unique blends of herbs?

I'm thinking that it may only be a matter of time before someone does some real magic with the herbs/teas/extracts/bitters thing as bases for some good NA drinks. This could become a whole new category of mixology. I don't have a lot of time right now, but I sure would like to try and come up with something. If I do, then I'll post it here for others to try. It would keep me out of jail and more behind my bar... heh...

I would suggest getting a good carbonating device. I have a Soda Stream that I love. The Soda Stream can only be used to carbnote water (don't trust the YouTube videos experimenting with other liquids, I also killed mine with apple juice), but you can then add any sort of liquid flavoring to create the carbonated beverage of your choice. I like to add ginger syrup to mine for an inexpensive ginger ale. Passion fruit syrup also works well, or any of the BG Reynolds syrups. Once you have a tropical flavored soda, you can add other things to make a cocktail. One thing I've noticed is that people often experience the "bite" from ginger as "heat" from alcohol. I noticed when I made ginger rum balls (with extreme amounts of ginger, but not a lot of rum) I heard a lot of people say, wow those are really strong. So they were getting that from the ginger.

Another thought is that a lot of the darker "sipping" rums still have that strong molasses flavor that doesn't get distilled out completely in the process. Molasses is sold in most grocery stores in the baking aisle. I would think a combination of molasses, ginger, and a decent imitation rum "extract" would come pretty close to fooling a lot of people.

Congrats to you & yours!

My partner drank lots of virgin Missonarys Downfalls & Sumutra Kulas when she was pregnant - the Missionary's Downfalks were good without rum or peach brandy (you could experiment with peach bitters), the Sumatra Kulas are good virgin (but if your partner doesn't mind you adding bitters they can be better)

On 2012-02-23 19:54, thePorpoise wrote:
I know, i know, it's tiki heresy, but I've given up cocktails for Lent, and it occurred to me that I might at least be able to enjoy the flavors of my favorite tiki drinks (esp., navy grog) if I can only come up with a workable non-alcoholic susbtitute for the rums.

I understand that there are pure and artificial rum extracts out there, but the McCormick's brand that is readily available has a high alcohol content, which rules it out.

any ideas?

I was thinking coca-cola with a little molasses added might work for dark rum...

At our bar we use the Monin Saveur Rhum Caribbean syrup in our No Tai Mai Tai recipe...we use 0.75oz of it and 0.75oz of Orgeat...it gives a bit of rum flavor to the drink without adding alcohol to it...but we are in Spain...I don't know if it's distributed to US...but maybe another brand of Syrups makes something like this..
This is the product:
https://cdn2.masterofmalt.com/syrups-and-cordials/p-2813/monin/monin-saveur-rhum-caribbean-syrup.jpg?ss=2.0