OMG, hey you guys! Welcome to today’s post! I know that I always say how excited I am every time I make a blog post, but this time I really am! One of my favorite things about Little Rock is that we have our very own distillery located downtown. It was Arkansas’s first distillery. Well, first legal one at least. I’m more of a liquor enthusiast over any type of booze, and my close friends and fam know that I get my kicks from making and researching different types of cocktails from home. But before this week, I had never attended a mixology class…..

Enter Rock Town Distillery! When I saw them advertising their cocktail mixing classes, I grabbed a couple of my closest friends and said WE’RE GOING! Today I’ll be telling you guys about the wonderful time I had, so whether you’re a local or non-local you can visit Rock Town if you’re in town this summer and looking for something to do! They have one more class this month featuring the cocktails I will be showing you guys, and next month will be a different two cocktails. Who’s going with me next month?!

In today’s post I will be doing the following:

  • describing the experience of my first-ever mixology class
  • sharing two new cocktail recipes (I hope I have some rum-drinking readers)

Tuesday evening, I arrive and I look around the distillery for a bit! I do a quick scan of their liquor shelves and admire all the bottles. I tell the woman behind the register that me and a friend are here for the class and she directs me to go into their bottling room where a tour is about to begin. If you attend a tour or a class, you will hear all about their distillation processes for whiskey, bourbon, vodka, and gin using only locally-sourced products. We saw all of their equipment and learned all about the barrel-aging and bottling processes! After the tour was over, we go back into the bar room and I see they have three mixing stations set up for the group of attendees. Tonight’s star of the show: RUM. Our expert mixology instructor, Sebastian, opens by saying we’ll be learning two rum cocktail recipes and that he’ll be telling us a little bit of history behind each. I’m in heaven!??

Sebastian demonstrates the first cocktail, called the Rumsé Mule. Then he turns it over to the attendees and supervises the ongoing mixings. The ingredients and instructions are laid out next to each of the stations. The measuring and mixing is all up to you. It’s pretty simple and once you’re finished the cocktail is yours! About 10-15 minutes later, it’s time for the second which was called the Hemingway Daiquiri. The daiquiri’s background story was just a tad bit harder to pick up on because I was already a bit tipsy from the mule…oops. We mix, we take pictures, and we settle at one of the tables for the rest of our evening. All-in-all very fun experience where I felt at ease and in my element. So, if you’re interested in the recipes, they’re included below!

Rumsé Mule

1.5 oz Rum
1.5 oz Rosé
1 oz fresh lime juice
0.5 oz simple syrup
Ginger beer

A twist on the well-known moscow mule, but with rum and rosé. Combine all ingredients in a copper mug, add ice, and top with ginger beer (my favorite here). This jigger is the one we used at Rock Town and the one I use at home. It’s amazing for measuring. Rose gold, baby! Garnish with a lime wedge and you’re DONE! This technique is called “building a cocktail” because you are literally building the drink inside the cup you intend to drink out of.

Hemingway Daiquiri

2 oz Rum
0.75 oz fresh lime juice
0.5 oz maraschino liqueur
0.5 oz fresh grapefruit juice

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker, add ice, and shake for 10 seconds. Strain into a Nick n’ Nora glass and garnish with a grapefruit slice. Shaking the cocktail does more than just mix–it influences the cocktail’s texture and taste, and shaking over ice adds the perfect amount of dilution for the flavors of the ingredients to come through.

I couldn’t recommend either of these cocktails more and I’m definitely going to make each of them at least one more time this month. So with that, thank you so much for stopping by today! If you liked this blog post and want to see more, comment below. Tell me which rum cocktail sounds more interesting to you. Be sure to follow along on all my socials. Also, don’t forget to check out these cocktail classes on Rock Town’s website! Cheers y’all!

Acknowledgments: Special thanks to Ellyn for being the most badass friend a girl can ask for and coming with me, a near-special thanks to friends Hannah and Tori who couldn’t make it this time but were there in spirit (I’m so clever), and shout out to Rock Town and Sebastian Yingling for hosting these awesome cocktail mixing classes for nerds out there like me who don’t have anything better to spend their money on except for on clothes and alcohol! Miss Rock City sends her gratitude!