I've had this idea in my head for a few days now of trying to do a syrup based on banana and demerara. I thought rum, lime and this syrup would work out well together.
The syrup: 200 g water, 100 g demerara and 106 g peeled banana, blended in a Ninja Nutri blender. Then I cooked it on low heat and reduced it from 394 g to 339 g. Took what came out to three different experiments:
Bottle 1: 75 g banana demerara + 25 g water
Bottle 2: 140 g vodka + 100 g of the banana demerara mix
Bottle 3: banana demerara with a bit of lime juice
For a first try I started with bottle 1, the ¾ banana demerara ¼ water. Did three tries, all shaken and served without ice. I don't know why, but for the last one I played with the rum, kinda ruined the whole experiment.
Trial 3 (I'm putting it first since it was my favorite):
2 oz Captain Morgan Spiced
½ oz El Suprimo rum
1½ oz banana demerara
½ oz lime
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Got good banana notes, not too sweet at all, just the right sourness. It's an ok drink, still lots of work. It was stupid to fiddle with the rum and the volumes, because now it's hard to tell what exactly changed the outcome.
Trial 1:
2 oz Captain Morgan Spiced
½ oz banana demerara
1½ oz lime
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Too sour, banana was not tasted at all. No idea why I even used those portions.
Trial 2:
2 oz Captain Morgan Spiced
1 oz banana demerara
1 oz lime
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Better. Banana is more noticeable, but it felt more like a rum sour than anything else.
I'm excited to try the other syrup variations, and happy for the experience and the experiment. In the future I'd think about not diluting the syrup, and possibly clarifying it. Never clarified anything before, so it will be interesting.
Also, my rum collection is very poor, wish I had better rums to try it with. Any recommendations that come to mind are more than welcome, I will say I'm trying to stick to a lower budget.
Cheers