#179: Canje

The Bar

Canje. 1914 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 2/4/2022 @ 9:30pm.

The Drink

Ti' Punch. 3 rums (El Dorado 8 year, Smith + Cross, Hamilton Jamaican pot still), vanilla, bitters, lime oil. $15.

We ordered some waiting cocktails so we would have something to sip while our table was prepared, but this was the drink recommended to me, so it's what I'll review. It's hard to improve on Canje's capsule summary of it on their Facebook page, so please allow me to briefly plagiarize: 

The Ti' Punch is the Old Fashioned of the Caribbean, and is the national drink of Martinique. We replace the rhum agricole made from sugarcane juice with three types of dark, aged rums made from molasses, creating a complex and balanced profile.

The first word in the name is the shortened form of "petite" in the French Creole language spoken in Martinique. The mixture of three different rums makes it impossible to taste any individual rum, like the philosophy of blended whiskey taken to the extreme, so while I am not sure I would use either "complex" or "balanced" as adjectives to describe the resulting "rum drink" product, I can tell you that it was sweet, strong, and tasty, though $15 is testing the limits of my willingness to pay, even for cocktails as good as this one. The other cocktails are similarly good, and similarly priced to match.

The Crew

Brent, Karen, Aaron, Neil, Kathryn.

Notes

Canje replaced unfortunate Covid casualty The Last Straw a few months ago, which itself replaced Chicon several years prior. I really liked the previous two establishments, but based purely on its own qualities, Canje is plenty good enough to soothe the pain of their absence. Austin is not exactly overflowing with Caribbean food, but the places we do have are generally quite good, and Canje is almost certainly the best of all of them. The Caribbean is an extremely culturally diverse region, reflecting the interaction of different native populations, the various colonial powers, and the immigrants (both voluntary and not) who later arrived, so you can find a little bit of just about anything at a good Caribbean place. Head Chef Tavel Bristol-Joseph is Guyanese, but much of the menu also reflects influences from other areas of the Caribbean, as well as the US and other countries. We tried just about everything on the menu, sharing family-style, and it was all wonderful (reflecting the Indian presence in the Caribbean, the Guyanese roti in particular was spectacular). I found myself comparing somewhat to Vixen's Wedding just a few blocks to the west, not merely because of the shared Indian connection, but in the dedication to a fusion cuisine, in the full sense of the term, as well as the great food and drinks at both places. If you're looking for a special occasion restaurant and want to check out some of the best Caribbean food in the city, look no further.