Master Mixologist: Ben Rojo and DON PAPA RUM

Winter is certainly in full swing, which means it's the perfect time to sip some tasty rum cocktails. Ben Rojo is known for seasonal libations using Don Papa Rum that highlight the juxtaposition of grunge and glam and are sure to take you to a place of decadence and glamour.

We had the opportunity of interviewing Ben for our "Master Mixologist" about his career and Don Papa Rum.

How do restaurant and bar guests encourage your creativity?

Here in New York City, I get the chance to entertain guests from across the globe each and every day. I'm constantly inspired by the diversity of their experiences and the idiosyncrasy of what they like to eat and drink. Conversations across the bar are almost always an opportunity to expand one's horizons, especially in a city as big as this one.

What are your preferred "classic cocktails" and why?

My favorite cocktails all tend to share a certain economy of moving parts, and what I like to drink is often affected by the time of day. In the early evening, I prefer my first drink to be something bracing, and I've found nothing finer than an ice-cold gin martini to facilitate my segway from day to night. Before dinner, I want something flavorful and delicate, and while I'd happily drink either chilled sherry or vermouth as an aperitif, combining the two with bitters in an Adonis makes for the best of both worlds. With a meal, I love a daiquiri with aged rum. Tart and with a touch of confection, the interplay between sour and sweet keeps your palate engaged and shares the stage with the savory flavors on your plate. I prefer my dessert with an ABV percentage! After dinner, there's nothing I'd rather sip than a Grasshopper. Bright mint, bitter chocolate, and rich cream lend nuance to sweetness in a drink - perfect to enjoy before bed.

What are some of your favorite infusions and how you like to use them in drinks.

I love dry tea infusions for the dark tannin content and aromatic intrigue that they provide. They work brilliantly in long drinks where dilution and carbonation allow one to enjoy the breadth of the tea's bouquet. I also like to infuse spirits with skillet-toasted spices. Peppercorns, coriander seeds, cinnamon, cloves, and anise alike all benefit from a bit of dry heat. Infusing spirits with toasted spices often makes for deeper and earthier expressions, perfect for savory and cold weather cocktails. Fat-washing spirits yield a dramatic effect, contributing to ethanol's effectiveness as a solvent. Infusing liquors with fats like walnut oil, brown butter, or rendered prosciutto trimmings lend rich aromas and lush texture, perfect for a stirred, stiff drink.

Tell us about a few of your signature cocktails and why they are distinctive.

One of my favorite cocktails to make is the "Cassandra! Cassandra!", a drink from my opening menu at the George Washington Bar. It combines Don Papa Rum with clarified grapefruit juice, elderflower, and tonic water. Robust and full-flavored rum serves as the foundation of the drink, while grapefruit and tonic combine to form a backbone of bitter, with the former adding acidity and the latter lending length. Elderflower gives a botanical accent to the ripe orchard fruit and citrus notes of the spirit, leading to an end result that is aromatic, effervescent, and quaffable.

The past few holiday seasons, I've also fixed my loved ones a batch of "Ube Coquito," an ode to the Boricuas with whom I grew up and to my own Filipino-American heritage. I'll infuse Don Papa Rum with cinnamon bark and pandan leaf, while combining coconut and cashew milks, coconut cream, pulverized ube, and warming spices in a pressure cooker. It's nostalgic and novel at once, combining one of my favorite childhood desserts (ube halaya) with one of my favorite holiday traditions.

I think these examples are reflective of my philosophy of drink making: prep-intensive but easily assembled during service, and heavily influenced by my culinary preferences both in terms of technique and flavor pairing.

Give us your perfect pairing for a cocktail and a culinary selection.

Charcoal-grilled tiger prawns with a squeeze of lime and a dark rum piña colada made with grilled pineapple, palm sugar, and salted coconut cream. The iodine of the hot prawns, smoke of the charcoal, and acidity of lime serve as a sublime counterpoint to the decadence of the piña colada: frosty, full-bodied, and indulgent.

Tell us a little about your company or restaurant.

For the past four years I've worked with my friends at Don Papa Rum, an independently-owned premium rum from the Philippines. We've brought small batch aged rum from the tiny island of Negros Occidental to the world stage, and as a rum enthusiast and Filipino-American, I'm quite thrilled to be sharing our rather singular spirit with bars and restaurants across the country.

In regards to my own bar, my partners and I made the difficult decision to close Black Emperor in the East Village towards the end of 2020 amid the heights of Covid, but I intend to open a new concept once the time is right.

For more information on Don Papa Rum, please visit https://www.donpaparum.com/. .

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Ben Rojo

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