DIY Banana Rum

Welcome back to another wonderful Thursday!  This week I attempt to make banana rum for science (Okay...because I wanted to).  I found this recipe on Serious Eats, recipe was straightforward and easy to perform.  I only strayed from the recipe in the initial infusion of banana flavor with one extra day of infusing  (I blame school for that one!)  I will let you click the link for the recipe seeing as it is their invention and I just want more people to see it.

Workstation

Now to the reflections section!  I found the recipe easy to prepare and make, I substituted regular white sugar into the recipe.  I did however have some minor issues with the straining section of the process.  The bananas were partially dissolved in the rum so I strained it many many times.  I substituted coffee filters for the cheese cloth as I already had some.  I ended up using three large plastic cups, two funnels, and a mesh strainer to remove all of the fruit in a timely (not really) manner.

Banana mash and two stage filtration

I have not had a chance to taste the rum so far, so all I have to judge on its quality is the color and smell of the rum.  I can smell a subtle banana smell while the liquor picked up a slight yellow tinge to it.  I can only hope the scent and color intensify in the next few days before I test it.

Final product

I will say that I do not think I have the patience to make much more of this banana rum due to the effort involved in removing the fruit.  I do have a few ideas about how to possibly cut down on the amount of banana that is dissolved into the rum.  One being placing the fruit in another container that has a meshing of some sort that allows the rum to flow through it and obtain the banana flavor.  The other involves placing the infusing container in the freezer to hopefully keep the bananas solid.  I do not know if either method would have a negative impact on the flavor of the finished product.  Looks like I will need to make some banana rum for science!