Rum & Chocolate Masterclass Part 1: The Chocolate Manhattan!

There’s nothing better in life than chocolate and rum, so how about making a Rum Manhattan infused with silky cacao butter, finished with a cherry dipped in ruby chocolate? It’s not really a question, which is why today I’ll show you exactly why rum and chocolate make the perfect pairing as the first part of our Rum & Chocolate Masterclass, made in partnership with Diplomatico’s Artisans of Taste education platform.

This year the Artisans of Taste program is in search of the best regional Diplomatico cocktail that uses cacao or anything from the “food of the gods”. It’s the perfect challenge, because rum and chocolate both have rich, complex flavors that pair beautifully. But let’s not limit ourselves to just “chocolate” in the classic sense.

Cacao offers us so many ingredients to play with behind the bar. From the cacao bean itself, we can work with nibs, cocoa powder, hot chocolate, cacao butter, finished chocolate bars, cacao essential oils, even chocolate pastries.

And then you have the different types of chocolate: ruby, white, milk, dark–each with their own tasting notes. Milk chocolate brings dairy richness with caramel and hazelnut notes, while white chocolate is delicate, buttery, often filled with vanilla notes. Dark chocolate can be dry, bitter, and even earthy, with the less common ruby chocolate being slightly acidic, with berry-like sweetness and a creamy texture.

When you start combining all these forms and flavors, the possibilities for cocktail ingredients multiply fast, making this series so exciting. That’s why this partnership is built on celebrating craft, quality ingredients, and great pairings that take rum beyond the glass. 

If you’ve been watching Cocktail Time for a while, you know we’ve explored some of this already. We made a Brownie Manhattan, our own chocolate liqueur, and even rum hot chocolate. But now we’re diving much deeper, and today we’re making something special, starting with cocoa-washed Diplomático Reserva Exclusiva. It’s Cocktail Time!

Cocoa-Washed Diplomatico

● 330mL · 11oz Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva

● 40g Cacao Butter

To create the perfect environment for the infusion we’ll use a sous vide technique, so into a sous vide bag add your Diplomatico and cacao butter. Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva is rich and smooth with natural chocolate and coffee notes, making for a perfect flavor pairing. 

Now seal the bag with a double seal, using a vacuum sealer or a vacuum chamber, and place this in a sous vide bath set to at 52°C or 125°F for two hours. This will infuse the rum with rich, silky cacao butter without losing any of its aroma, because of the low temperature and a sealed environment.

Give the bag a gentle shake once or twice in between. In the meantime you’ve probably finished with the ruby chocolate cherries, but we’ll get to that in a second. I’ll show you how to finish the cacao rum first. Take it from the sous vide bath, chill it first, then place the bag in the freezer, so the cacao butter completely solidifies.

Then it’s time to open the bag and strain the rum slowly through a coffee filter to get a clear, smooth spirit with subtle cacao notes. If you need an idea on how to use the leftover butter check out my Hot Buttered Rum episode, but once our buttery rum has filtered we’ll just bottle it, add a label, and that’s it.

Now for the cherries, we’ll be infusing cherries in Diplomatico Mantuano rum, before dipping them in melted ruby chocolate. Mantuano is great for infusions like this, with warm, slightly woody notes that will soak right into the cherries. Together with the chocolate coating this will make the perfect treat with our cocktail.

Chocolate Covered Rum Cherries

● 500mL · 16.66oz Diplomatico Mantuano

● 350g Cherries

● Ruby Chocolate

I’ll start by cutting away a tiny part of the cherries at the bottom, for two reasons: first it will make the infusion easier as the rum doesn’t need to penetrate the skin, but it also makes the cherries easier to stand on their own. Remember to keep the stems on the cherries, as you’ll need them for easier dipping into our chocolate.

Once the bag is sealed, place it in the sous vide bath that you’re already using for the cacao rum, but leave this in the bath for just 1.5 hours. Then bring the contents of the bag to room temperature, cut open the bag and simply strain out our cherries. Don’t forget to save the infused rum, as we’ll need that for another creation in this series.

As for the cherries, place them in the fridge before the next step. For dipping we’ll need to melt some ruby chocolate. This pink-hued chocolate was first introduced in 2017 by Switzerland’s Barry Callebaut, and is arguably the 4th unique chocolate type, after dark, milk, and white chocolate. While the exact production process is a trade secret, the pink hue comes from selected cocoa beans, a short fermentation process, and citric acid.

To melt the chocolate I’ll just place it in a bowl over simmering water, making sure to keep the temperature of the chocolate below 40°C or 105°F. You could also use a sous vide, but it’s not really necessary. Once melted we simply dip each cherry fully into the chocolate, holding them by the stem, for an even, beautiful coating.

Again, when you’re doing this, it is better for the cherries to be cold. Once coated, set them on a parchment paper to cool and harden. Another great thing is that these can then sit in the fridge for at least a week–and you’ll want to make a few extra, because they’re just as delicious on their own as they are in the Chocolate Manhattan.

We now have everything needed to make our cocktail, including our staple, saline solution, which enhances the flavors in your cocktail, just like it does in cooking and baking. You just dissolve 20g of salt in 80g of water, add it to a dropper bottle and that’s it. Now let’s make the Chocolate Manhattan!

Rum & Chocolate Manhattan

● 60mL · 2oz Cocoa -Washed Diplomatico

● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Sweet Vermouth

● 1 dash Aromatic Bitters

● 2 drops 20% Saline Solution

● 1 Chocolate Covered Rum Cherry

We’re starting with a chilled mixing glass, and a clear ice block tempering while we have our glass already chilling. So into the mixing glass, add in the ingredients, along with plenty of ice, and give it a good stir to chill it properly and get the right dilution.

Now grab the chilled glass from the freezer, and place the ice block in the glass. Make sure it’s tempered so it doesn’t crack when you strain the cocktail over it, and you’ll be able to see the silky texture of the cocktail as you pour it. 

Finally, we have the literal cherry on top–time to add a rum-infused and ruby chocolate-dipped cherry. Beautiful, but it goes beyond that. It’s a wonderful chocolate aroma that leads into the silky texture from the cacao butter, lifting the chocolate and coffee notes of Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva.

It’s rich, balanced, and still unmistakably a Manhattan. And let’s not forget the cherries are not just pretty, they add a rich, sweet, slightly tangy note, really making them the perfect addition to our Chocolate Manhattan. And there you have it. Simple techniques, thoughtful ingredients, and a result that’s anything but ordinary.

Another technique that’s simple and can make your chocolate skills pop is to add salt. This simple addition highlights chocolate’s sweetness and deepens its flavors without making it taste salty. I hope this first post, and our whole Rum & Chocolate Masterclass series inspires you to experiment with this amazing pairing in new ways. Until next time, cheers!