In style, the St. Clémentine Sour is what is known as an International Sour. It is tart, tangy, mildly musky, and slightly sweet. In all, a very complex cocktail using Clement Première Canne Rhum Agricole from French Martinique, St. Germain Elderflower French liqueur, fresh squeezed Clementine and Lemon juices, and Stirrings Blood Orange Bitters.

Shake over ice and strain into a six oz. champagne flute or a four oz. sours glass. An optional garnish is very thin, curling Clementine and Lemon zest strips floated on top of the drink.

A few weeks ago I was invited to enter the Second Annual Clément Rhum NYC Cocktail Challenge. Many major spirits and liqueur producers sponsor contests for cocktails using their products so that new and interesting ways can be developed to showcase their line and present them to the public. These contests are venues for bartenders and cocktail designers to show how creative they can be in coming up with new, interesting, and tasty liquid treats. So here is Part One in my experience in the Second Annual Clément Rhum NYC Cocktail Challenge.

The way I became involved started almost exactly three months ago in early February of this year. One of my professions when I am not writing, researching, or traveling, is working as a food and beverage consultant. A very small part of this is designing cocktails that are new in style or taste, and use some of the new spirits and liqueurs that are being released.

A few months ago I wrote about Clément Rhum's orange liqueur, Creole Shrubb. Since then I have tried several of their rhum agricole line, produced in French Martinique and been very impressed. Rhum agricole is rum that is made from fresh squeeze sugar cane, not from processed cane products like molasses. They tend to be way more complex and dryer, many times they are more like a fine cognac in taste. One of Clément rhums is their Première Canne Rhum, a white rum that is smooth, musky, and very good. I always thought that white rum was kind of flavorless and boring, but this rum is anything but that. (By the way, I will be using the terms Rhum and Rum in various contexts here. I will use Rhum when it is the preferred spelling for a specific French Martinique product, and Rum as the general term.)