Macadamia Nut Oil for the Best Rum Old Fashioned You'll Ever Make

There's a technique that the best cocktail bars in the world have been quietly using for the last two decades, and it's one that home bartenders rarely think to try. It's called fat washing — and when you do it with a high-quality cold-pressed macadamia nut oil, the results are nothing short of remarkable.

We've assembled a guide for you on crafting two classic rum cocktails — a Macadamia Oil Fat-Washed Rum Old Fashioned and a Ti' Punch — using Kuleana Hawaiʻi Oils expeller-pressed macadamia nut oil as the foundation. Along the way, you'll learn a professional bar technique, a little French Caribbean cocktail history, and why macadamia nut oil might just be the most versatile bottle in your kitchen.

What Is Fat Washing?

Fat washing is a mixology technique in which a liquid fat — an oil, a butter, an animal fat — is combined with a spirit, left to infuse, then frozen and strained away. The fat molecules carry flavor compounds into the alcohol, then exit cleanly, leaving behind a spirit that is subtly transformed: silkier in texture, rounder on the palate, and layered with the fat's characteristic flavor.

The classic example is bacon-washed bourbon, a staple of craft cocktail bars since the early 2000s. But the technique works beautifully with plant-based oils too — and macadamia nut oil, with its buttery, subtly sweet, lightly toasty character, is one of the most elegant options available.

Macadamia nut oil doesn't overpower a spirit. It whispers. It rounds the edges.

Why Macadamia Nut Oil?

Macadamia nut oil is primarily composed of monounsaturated fatty acids — particularly oleic and palmitoleic acid — which makes it exceptionally stable, clean-tasting, and mild. Unlike sesame oil (assertive and nutty) or coconut oil (tropical and obvious), macadamia oil integrates into a spirit rather than announcing itself.

Kuleana Hawaiʻi Oils expeller-pressed macadamia nut oil is made from Hawaiʻi-grown macadamia nuts, processed without chemicals preserve the oil's natural flavor compounds. That freshness matters here. You're not just adding fat — you're adding the terroir of the nut, and in a high-quality oil produced by Kuleana, that terroir is intact.

Choosing Your Rum

For this technique, you want a moderately aged rum — something with enough barrel character to stand alongside the oil's richness without getting lost. We recommend:

• Kuleana Rum Works Nanea Rum (Hawaiʻi) — for a fully local expression; slightly more adventurous, with a distinct Hawaiian cane character that pairs beautifully with island-grown macadamia oil.
• Appleton Estate 8 Year (Jamaica) — fruit-forward and bright, allows the macadamia to shine most clearly.
• Appleton Estate 12 Year Rare Casks (Jamaica) — more dried fruit and oak structure, the most complex result.
• Mount Gay XO (Barbados) — elegant and nutty, almost pastry-like with the macadamia wash.

The Kuleana Nanea pairing is especially worth exploring. There's something meaningful about a Hawaiʻi-made spirit meeting a Hawaiʻi-grown oil — the result is a cocktail that genuinely tastes like this place.

Recipe 1: Macadamia Oil Fat-Washed Rum Old Fashioned

Step One: Fat Wash the Rum

You'll need:

• 750 ml aged rum (see suggestions above)
• 4 oz (120 ml) Kuleana Hawaiʻi Oils cold-pressed macadamia nut oil
• A large mason jar or wide-mouth container (do not use the original bottle)
• A fine-mesh strainer or chinois
• Coffee filters or cheesecloth

Method:

1. Pour the rum into your mason jar. Add the macadamia nut oil. Macadamia oil is liquid at room temperature — no warming needed.
2. Seal and shake vigorously for 30–45 seconds.
3. Leave the sealed container at room temperature for 2–4 hours, shaking or stirring every 30–45 minutes. For a subtle, silky result, 2 hours is ideal. For a more pronounced macadamia character, go 4 hours.
4. Transfer to the freezer for 18–24 hours. Unlike coconut oil or butter, macadamia oil will not fully solidify — it will thicken into a semi-solid layer on top. This is normal and expected.
5. Remove from the freezer. Skim the thickened fat layer from the surface with a spoon, working quickly.
6. Strain the rum first through a fine-mesh strainer or chinois, then strain again through a coffee filter. This double-strain is essential for a clean, clear result.
7. Transfer to a clean, labeled bottle. Store refrigerated for up to 3 weeks. Clarify with a coffee filter further, if desired.

Yield: approximately 700 ml after straining losses.

Step Two: Build the Cocktail

Per cocktail:

• 2 oz macadamia oil fat-washed rum
• 1/2 oz demerara syrup (or rich simple syrup)
• 2 dashes bitters (Angostura or DeGroff's Pimento - see below)
• 1 dash orange bitters
• Expressed orange peel, for garnish
• Large format ice cube

Method:

Combine rum, demerara syrup, and bitters in a mixing glass. Fill with ice and stir for 30–40 seconds, until well-chilled and properly diluted. Strain over a large ice cube in a rocks glass. Express an orange peel over the surface, run it around the rim, and rest it against the ice.

On bitters: Angostura is the widely accessible choice here and works beautifully. For a more elevated version, seek out Dale DeGroff's Pimento Aromatic Bitters (also sold as allspice bitters). The allspice and clove notes in DeGroff's formula have a particular affinity with the macadamia's richness and the tropical character of aged rum — it transforms the drink from very good to exceptional.

Recipe 2: Ti' Punch with Macadamia Oil Fat-Washed Rum

A Brief History

The Ti' Punch — short for petit punch — is the national drink of Martinique and Guadeloupe, and one of the most culturally specific cocktails in the world. Unlike the Daiquiri or the Mojito, the Ti' Punch was never designed for tourists or cocktail menus. It is a drink for the people who make the rum.

Traditionally served at the distillery or at a local débit de boissons (rum shop), Ti' Punch consists of three ingredients: rhum agricole, cane sugar or syrup, and a pressed lime. That's it. No ice unless requested. No garnish beyond the squeezed lime disc itself, left in the glass. The proportions are adjusted to personal taste — a practice so individual it has its own name: chacun prépare sa propre mort — "each person prepares their own death."

The drink arrived in the French Caribbean alongside sugarcane cultivation in the 17th century, and the culture around it remains deeply tied to Martinique's identity. Rhum agricole — distilled directly from fresh pressed sugarcane juice, not molasses — gives Ti' Punch its distinctive grassy, vegetal, almost wine-like character that sets it apart from every other rum category.

We've adapted the classic here with our fat-washed rum and a local sweetener — but the spirit of the drink is unchanged: simple, deliberate, built by hand.

Ti' Punch with Macadamia Oil Fat-Washed Rum

Per cocktail:

• 2 oz macadamia oil fat-washed rum (Kuleana Nanea is recommended here)
• ½ oz Sugarcane Dane's Maui Cane Syrup (or to taste — traditionally it's less sweet than you'd expect)
• 1 coin of fresh lime, squeezed and dropped in

Method:

Place the lime coin in a small glass or rocks glass. Press it firmly with a muddler or the back of a spoon — you want the juice and a little of the peel's oil. Add the sugarcane syrup, then the Macadamia Nut Oil fat-washed rum. Give it one brief stir. Serve as-is, or over a single rock if you prefer.

Notes on Sugarcane Dane's: Sugarcane Dane's Hawaiʻi-grown cane syrup brings a clean, grassy sweetness that echoes the agricole tradition. This Maui-based company got it's start at Maui Tropical Plantation, which also happens to be the site of the first Kuleana Sunflower Farm! The combination of Hawaiian sugarcane syrup and Hawaiian macadamia oil in a Ti' Punch is, quietly, a remarkable thing. Reach for the Kuleana Nanea Rum and that's a Hawaiʻi trifecta!

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The Takeaway

Fat washing with macadamia nut oil is not a complicated technique. It requires patience more than skill — a good shake, a few hours of rest, a night in the freezer, and two careful strains. The reward is a rum that is noticeably, memorably different: rounder, richer, with a finish that feels almost edible.

Kuleana Hawaiʻi Oils macadamia nut oil is available HERE. An 8.5 oz bottle is enough for multiple batches, and what you don't use for cocktails will find its place in your kitchen: on roasted vegetables, in a vinaigrette, drizzled over fresh fish. Free USA shipping on orders of bottles over $50.

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Have you tried fat washing with Kuleana macadamia oil? Tag us @kuleanahawaiiols and show us your cocktail build!