Looks like they’re available at The Container Store, if that helps.

is it an old whisky bottle? french lemondade? or something else?

–cz

And re: Paul, sadly, I lack for Cruzan Blackstrap. Fortunately, I have a pressing need to restock Boodles and Plymouth, so I can remedy the situation forthwith. I’ve just tried the Zig-Zag method both with Taylor’s and my own falernum, substituting Myers’s Original Dark for the Blackstrap … not sure which I preferred, but neither seemed a patch on a Corn ‘n Oil made with Mount Gay Eclipse (being Bajan, it seems an apropos match for falernum). There’s more to this than meets the eye, and I’ve no qualms investigating further. Shall have to wait a bit, though… four ounces of Jamaican rum taken in the noonday sun require a respectful period of metabolization before moving onward.

But here’s the real winner: Murray Stenson, bartender extraordinaire at Zig Zag Cafe here in Seattle, turned me on to what’s basically a variation of the Corn ‘n Oil, that I believe is the best falernum-containing drink I’ve yet tasted:

2 ounces Cruzan Blackstrap Rum (really dark, really rich)
1/4 - 1/2 ounce falernum, to taste
juice of about 1/4 lime, again to taste–not too much, though–you’re not shooting for tartness, just bright fresh fruitiness

Shake, strain into ice-filled tumbler. Murray doesn’t use bitters in this, but the next time I make one (maybe tonight) I’ll toss in some Fees OFAB and see what happens. I’ve tried it with VF and with the homemade falernum, with good results each way (though my bias leans toward homemade).

If you wind up making one of these with your batch of falernum, I’d be curious to hear the result.

It really is a shame.

The real surprise is that in comparing Rachel Perlow’s “more reasonable amount” recipe against Dale DeGroff’s original recipe I realized that he calls for a 1:4 ratio with a 2:1 simple syrup!

Talk about kicking oneself with vigor… I just peered at the fine print on my bottle of VF and discovered that they actually list the ingredients: “Lime Juice, Sugar, Almond and Clove Essences, Water, White Rum.” I’d never looked, just assuming it would be like Drambuie, Chartreuse or Angostura, whose constituent elements are only known to five oath-bound members of the ancient and secret company sect. This would seem to rule out ginger, and yet DrinkBoy, CocktailDB and others definitely identify ginger as being a component of falernum. As you say, it would seem to be a good candidate for a source of the peppery.

The question really becomes: is John D. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum the acme of falernums? Is it the falernum to attempt to reproduce? It claims to be the Original Formula, but there have certainly been other brands, and the others may well have been what many drinks were designed for… some as thick and sweet as DeGroff’s recipe, others perhaps more fanciful, calling for ginger, vanilla and unnamed fruits and spices.

I’m preaching to the choir, of course, since this is damned near the same problem you document in the history of the Gimlet: Unsweetened Canadian Rose’s or Sweetened American? Cordial or Juice? High Fructose Corn Syrup or Cane Sugar as sweetener? Is today’s product — even if it trades under the same name — anything like the one that Baker stocked his galley with?

Next time around I think I will try some ginger, and perhaps some allspice and a vanilla bean while I’m at it. I think I’m satisfied with the zest method, though I know it to be “wrong” … the lime juice in VF makes it similar to Rose’s in some ways, and I’m not a fan of Rose’s (give me a G&T with the juice of half a lime over a Gimlet any day). Hell, maybe I’ll marinate the zest and use the juice, for the authoritative earthiness of the oils and the bright notes of juice.

I probably won’t mix up another batch in the immediate future, but ultimately I think the target is a homemade falernum that passes the Corn ‘n Oil test. If a mixture of falernum X and rum can make me think “Cuba Libre” then it’s probably just about perfect. Given their origins and adherents, the similarities between the two can’t be coincidence.

I’m wondering, though, since other descriptions of falernum sometimes mention a gingery taste, if the introduction of a bit of grated ginger to the mix could introduce the spicy, peppery component you were searching for. Not that I have any idea what I’m talking about–without a bottle of Velvet Falernum to use for taste comparison, I’m feeling my way through the dark.