A month ago, our neighbour was moving out after a goodbye party and frantically knocked on our door to ask if my roommates and I would help her get rid of all the leftover booze. We were more than happy to help.

Since then, the stash has depleted almost completely, except for a bottle of 7 year Havana Club dark rum; an overindulgence of rum and cokes when I was fifteen means that rum is not my drink of choice, to say the least. The full bottle taunted me.

Not one to waste, I bought some dark chocolate and some cayenne pepper, some cinnamon sticks and some nutmeg and got to work. What can I say? I’m a problem solver.

I melted down the chocolate (400g) in a metal bowl, which I put into a wok full of water brought to boil and then down to medium heat. I slowly added about a cup of water while stirring to make sure the chocolate was good and liquidy (not actually a word). In a jar, I poured one cup of rum and added about half a cup of the chocolate liquid, while stirring. To this, I added about half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Into another jar I poured a cup of rum and then mixed in about a cup of the chocolate liquid, threw in a few cinnamon sticks and a couple pinches of nutmeg. I put both jars in the fridge to set overnight.

The next morning I sampled my experiment. The cayenne pepper mixture was a nice liquid consistency and had a really nice spicy kick at the end. The cinnamon/nutmeg jar (which I had added more chocolate to) turned out to be more of a syrup. Both were deliciously boozy.

I put the cayenne chocolate rum into my coffee to make my own version of a mexican hot chocolate – since I refuse to turn my heat on until humanly possible, I’ve just discovered a delicious way to keep warm (my roommates will be thrilled). I drizzled the cinnamon chocolate boozy goodness onto some french toast with strawberries and bananas. It was a good morning.

The possibilities are pretty wide on this one. You can mix with Baileys or milk and serve on ice, put it in hot chocolate, or mix it with a shot of expresso then throw it on some ice cream to make a wicked affogato. The sky’s the limit. I halfed (also not a word) the cinnamon/nutmeg mixture and added the rest of the rum to thin it out. Can you say f&#$in’ eggnog? I’ll let you know how it goes.

DIY chocolate rum: Get creative with your alcoholism.