In celebration of National Rum Day on August 16th at Barbados On The Water Festival we worked with Rum Royale for their Punch Up: Barbados Edition - an epic battle for the best rum punch, sponsored by Mount Gay Rum.

We were thrilled to make a special Salty Paloma rum punch! In terms of garnishing, rather than putting our sugar on the rim of a glass, we sprinkled some on top! A lot of rum drinks involve nutmeg or cinnamon, so we thought our Salty Paloma Sweetie Pie rimmer would be perfect - raw cane sugar infused with cinnamon, grapefruit and maple.

When making a punch, rather than measuring out the cocktail in ounces for individual serving, we divide it in parts so you can make a huge batch. The default rule is this: one is sour, two is sweet, three is rum, four is weak. However you want to divvy it up, the sour is citrus and the weak is typically a juice.

Of course we went pretty citrus-forward with this cocktail we call the Blood Royale. Using blood orange juice and lime juice, we also mixed in a peach tea and angostura bitters to balance this punch. This is definitely not your regular punch!

Ingredients:

• 1 part lime juice
• 1 part blood orange juice
• 2 parts mint syrup
• 3 parts Mount Gay rum
• 4 parts peach tea
• 6-8 dashes Angostura bitters
• Sweetie Pie cocktail rimmer

Instructions:

1. Pour all ingredients and chill for at least two hours
2. Serve all ingredients through a large punch bowl with ice OR pour 5 oz into a shaker with ice and strain into individual glasses
3. Garnish each glass with a little sprinkle of Sweetie Pie cocktail rimmer

It was a wild night! Hot, humid, and full of people, just the way we like it. Although we weren't necessarily the crowd favourite, we definitely stood out with this recipe!

It was an amazing experience serving up punch to over 200 guests alongside Monica Carbonell of Liquid Culture and Brenton Mowforth of Cheers To HappyHour. Check out Monica's cocktail recipe Mama Guava on her blog!

If you didn't get a chance to come out make sure to save the date May 22-24 to check out the Rum Royale Toronto Festival! Follow them on Instagram @rumroyale for updates! See ya there!