Sarah came into the store last week with a birthday present for Mary. It was a sample pack of different teas. She had ordered it online from a place in Colorado called English TEALEAVES.
I was planning to run over to Global Foods and get some jasmine scented green tea for a new batch of liqueur. So I asked her if she thought this place had a good jasmine/green. She handed me the English TEALEAVES business card and told me that they were lovely people and I should just call and ask for their suggestion. I called and visited with a very nice chap. His suggestion was that I try the Jasmine Yin Hao. So I did.
In the course of the conversation, he told me that it was a coincidence that I had called. He was going to be going to The World Tea Expo in a few months. One of the breakout sessions there is going to be a discussion of tea based cocktails.
The next day, Sarah (again, Sarah) comes into my office and shows me the current issue of SAVEUR. There on page 18 is a story called “Rum by the Numbers” about, and a recipe for, The 44 Cordial. Sarah says, have you ever tried this?
No, I stick to grain alcohol for my liqueurs – mostly. When I do stray, it is to infuse some exotic flavor into brandy. I’m not even a fan of rum. Once, in my college days, I got very sick on Rum & Coke. But, the article was cute and the recipe interesting.
So I called Dan and ask him to go to the store and get me a large navel orange and a premium bottle of white rum. He just groaned and humored me.
That night I put 44 slits in the orange; stuffed 44 coffee beans in those slits; put the orange in a jar; added the bottle of rum along with 44 teaspoons of sugar; sealed it; shook it; and now it sits on my counter for 44 days, getting a shake every day.

The jar in the middle is my new batch of lime liqueur. It needs to be bottled and stored in the basement. The jar on the right is the jasmine/green. I can’t believe how fast it colored up and how jasmine-y it smells already. I will probably strain it tomorrow because I don’t want it to get bitter.
At this rate, I should have a pretty good stash of hooch by October of 2009.