Nick Baxter on what he’s looking for in a great rum cocktail (and the Archie Rose White Cane Rum Riff)

Modern cocktails today tend to fall somewhere along a spectrum: at one end, you have classic cocktails, and at the other end, cocktails which are a little more avant garde, experimental perhaps, and driven by more complex techniques.

There’s no right or wrong style, despite what some might say. If you’re a classic cocktail purist, and only wanting to mix with the bottles you have on hand, then more power to you; if you like to dive into intricate, multi-part recipes using rotovaps or fermentation and custom ingredients, go ahead and enjoy yourself.

At the end of the day all we want is a tasty drink.

Archie Rose is looking for tasty drinks, too. I spoke to Archie Rose ambassador Nick Baxter this week about what makes a great rum drink, because Archie Rose has just opened up entries into their White Cane Rum Riff Cocktail Competition.

It’s a little different to other cocktail competitions in that its focus is the neighbourhood level — not the state, or nationally. They’re putting together multiple neighbourhood instalments of the White Cane Rum Riff — entries are open now — with each neighbourhood’s best take on a classic with White Cane picking up $500 cash, a bottle of Archie Rose, and more.

Below, lightly edited and condensed for clarity, Nick talks to us about how to enter, how the neighbourhood aspect (and prizes) work, and the kind of drinks they’re looking for.

Okay, so Nick, tell us what this Archie Rose White Cane comp is all about — what’s the idea behind it?

Nick: Well firstly, it’s about having fun, right? I mean that’s what bartending is all about. But it’s a very simple premise: it’s about creating a riff on a classic cocktail using Archie Rose White Cane. And that can be any classic cocktail. It doesn’t need to be a rum-based cocktail.

And then it’s listing a White Cane cocktail in your venue. It doesn’t actually need to be this exact cocktail you’ve created [for the competition]. It can be an existing drink you already have in your venue.

And then, and one of the most important things, submitting your entry. Make sure that you actually submit your entry after you’ve created your drink. That’s it.

And enter it on time, right?

On time ideally would be great as well. We’ll give plenty of nudges, no doubt.

What do you reckon a winning drink is going to look like then? How’s it getting judged?

We’ve got some guidelines that the whole team is sharing around the country. Obviously, a riff on a classic is the first thing. Creativity, of course. Is it heroing the White Cane spirit? And then, of course, it’s delicious. We’re drinking it, so we want to know if it’s tasty.

You want to be able to have a second one I reckon —that’s usually a good sign.

Of course — this is what white rum is all about! It’s about having some great drinks. We’ve probably drank our fair share of Daiquiris — maybe you more than I —but I love them, and you have one and it kind of whets the appetite for another.

That’s the best Daiquiri — it’s the one that’s sitting right in front of you. How do you drink White Cane? What’s your go to cocktail for it?

It’s obviously pretty flexible, it’s a white rum with bags of flavour. I like to think of it as the perfect white rum for the holy trinity of white rum cocktails: the Daiquiri, the Pina Colada, and the Mojito. I think it kind of has to work in those three drinks.

Obviously, if you want to have a little rum and ginger with some fresh lime, of course — delicious. And some of those more obscure kind of classics, like the Mary Pickford, I always used to love that when I was a bartender. It’s a great little drink.

I’m looking forward to seeing some of the riffs on some classic cocktails that maybe aren’t necessarily rum-based. Would it be a great base to do something off a Clover Club or like a sour type drink?

It’s that potato head theory of drinks, right? You take one part out, put another part in and see what you come up with.

Yeah, exactly.

For people who haven’t tasted Archie Rose White Cane just yet, can you tell us what it tastes like? What are your personal tasting notes for it?

It's delicious.

I mean, of course, I’m going to say that I work for Archie Rose.

But it tastes like fun. It’s tropical. It’s got some pineapple, coconut and really ripe bananas, it’s got quite a big nose, kind of like me, I guess. But the palate is a little bit softer, once you get to explore it a bit more it’s tropical, mango, lightly toasted marshmallows. It’s a perfect base to work on.

Let’s talk about the prize: what can bartenders win?

There’s a $500 cash prize, a bottle of booze and one of our Archie Rose cocktail mugs, and also some paid interviews with trade media. But I think one of the most important things about this comp is that there's $500 up for grabs in whatever neighbourhood you enter in. There’s not a limit to how many of these comps we have — we’re really pushing it. That’s one of the big differences for this competition.

We want it to be that neighbourhood competition where you’re competing with the bars next door, the bar where you go to have a staffie after work.

So if we get a bunch of bars in one particular area of Melbourne or Sydney or wherever it might be, then we’ll have a comp just for those bars, and we’ll have another one on the other side of the river.

It’s kind of really about creating that community within certain neighbourhoods of the cities around Australia.

That’s fantastic. That way you can boast to have the best Archie Rose White Cane cocktail in your neighbourhood.

Exactly. Entries are open now, and close on the 17th of March. So running for a month through until the 17th of March. And then we'll get our pencils out and start the judging process through April with the cocktail comps to be held in May and the prizes dished out.