LunaSea

How about the Siberian Chukchee Indians? One tribal member eats the hallucinogenic mushroom, Amanita muscaria, then pees in a wooden urine vessel. This is passed around so other tribal members can drink it and become delirious too! I'm glad someone decided to make BEER!

Thanks Soren...I'll head out to the liquor store today and see if I can find some Cruzan Single Barrel rum. Okay, I'll give Mount Gay Extra Old a try too! A friend of mine's favorite drink is Capt. Morgan Spiced rum and Dr. Pepper!!! How utterly rude is that?

Is it just me or does Pusser's rum suck too?

I like the new bottle design much better. Not only does it look classier, I can now see when it's nearing time to make another run to the local liquor store! Has anyone ever tried the 15 y/o Ron Zacapa Centenario? Thanks for the welcome David. What sorts of rum libations do you partake in down in PR?

I haven't read every post in this thread but I hope everyone knows that it's a cardinal sin to cook beans in chili. If you're going to add beans at all then they should be boiled separately, drained, washed off, and added last. Cheese is an absolute no-no too! Here's a killer Cajun chili recipe that I've modified over the years (the original recipe was called Ole Homer Delacroix's Bowl of Fire): Heat 1/4c olive oil in a 6-quart iron pot, then add 3-lbs. diced lean beef (never veal) and sear over high heat, stirring constantly until the meat is gray but not brown. The meat, Homer says, will have the consistency of whole-grain hominy. Add 1-qt. water and cover. Cook at simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Then add: 8 chilis or 6T chili powder (I grow my own tabasco peppers) 3t salt 10 cloves garlic, finely chopped 1t ground cumin 1t oregano or marjoram 1t red pepper 1T sugar 3T paprika Cook another 30-minutes at simmer. Then add: 3T flour 6T cornmeal 1 cup water (Mix the above 3 ingredients together in a bowl before adding to the chili) Cook another 5 minutes more to determine if more water is needed. If you want beans to go with the chili then prepare them as follows: Boil and drain the beans thoroughly before adding them to the chili, for if there is any bean liquid left it will detract from the chili flavor. Better yet, place the beans in the bottom of a bowl and spoon the chili on top of them right as you serve it. If you want onions, serve them separate on the side. NEVER NEVER EVER cook onions or beans in chili!!! Note: This chili helps improve your memory! The next day when you go to the bathroom, you'll remember you ate it!!!

Just today I picked up some Smithwick's Irish Ale and some Grolsch Amber Ale for the turkey occasion. Hope it lasts until then! "Beauty is in the eyes of the beerholder!"

Hello Susan. My parents still live in the beachfront home where I grew up in Cocoa Beach back in the 50s and 60s, and I was having the time of my life right up until the day my mom came walking down to the beach while I was out surfing and personally handed my my draft notice! BAD MOM, BAD! I got out of the Army in 1968 and then moved to South Florida. Whenever I go up there to visit I always make it a point to stop by this little Irish pub on A1A south of the 520 Causeway in the same shopping center as the Publix. They've got some very good Irish and British beers on tap. If you're ever down in Brevard you should go out of your way to stop in there. I'll be going to Cocoa Beach for a visit soon so I'll make it a point to see if there's any beer shops in the vicinity, and will let you know if I find any. As for rums, my absolute favorite affordable rum that you can get here in FL is Ron Zacapa Centenario 23 year old. If you've not tried it, whip out about $40 and go buy a bottle. You can thank me later!!! Oh, by the way, the name LunaSea came from when I went to pick up a new fishing kayak at Miami International Airport and had to go through the lunacy of picking it up from what can only be described as a Third World country! I was screaming the only Spanish that I know...which amounts to "ME NO PEEKI PANNI!!!" What a nightmare! I ended up christening my kayak "LunaSea!"

Greetings Soren. If you think Ron Zacapa Centenario is a tad too sweet then you would not like Pyrat Planter's Gold OX Reserve either, but that's another one of my favorites. It tastes like creamy burnt caramel. The ultra-expensive Pyrat Cask 23 is definitely a classy rum. At $185 direct from the factory in Anguilla though, who knows what it would cost in Denmark? I've seen it for $550 on the Internet, which is obscene. But even at $80 a bottle for Ron Zacapa Centenario (23 y/o) in Denmark, if I lived there I'd still be buying it!! I'll have to look for Ron Botran now...thanks for the tip.

U.S. macrobrewery beers are for people who like to say they drink beer but really have no clue about what a good beer really is. Look what marketing has done for Coors and Busch, neither of which are even worth the effort to pick them up, in my opinion of course. I'd rather drink a Corona (speaking of good marketing), so what does that say about American mainstream beers? Ahhh, Mexico...where the water is so clear you can drink right out of the rivers!!!!

I'm new over on this side too even though I'm a serious connoisseur of fine beers. Susan, I grew up in Cocoa Beach! Great place, especially back before Ron Jon's. Last night, while my wife is in Jamaica, I enjoyed Grolsch Amber Ale (2) and Guinness Stout (1), then poured a shot of Pyrat Cask 23 rum as a night cap. My wife buys that rum in Anguilla direct from the factory for $185 a bottle! Thank you honey! The best beer I've ever tasted in the U.S. was a microbrewery beer from Portland, Maine called Sunday River beer. I was there visiting for a week and I think I drank all they had! Got too nippy up there in September for this Florida boy so I migrated back south.

If I'd been crawling across a desert for weeks and came across an ice cold Coors beer, I'd keep on crawling! But the positively worst beer that has ever crossed my lips was Tudor beer with the A&P label! (for those not familiar with A&P, it stands for Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company and is a supermarket in the eastern U.S.)

The way I understand it: During the fermentation process the yeast consumes the sugar to make alcohol, and when the alcohol content reaches a certain level, the yeast dies and that sets the alcohol level. Some yeasts can survive in higher alcohol levels than others, hence the different levels of alcohol in wines made by using different yeasts.

Some godawful stuff a friend of mine brought back from Jamaica in a coke bottle! It'd probably make a good cockroach spray though! Some of the run-of-the-mill Bacardi rums are pretty poor, in my humble opinion. And Jamaican Sea Wynde rum burns when it goes down, but probably due to its high alcohol content (46%) than anything. Ned, you're thinking of Santa Teresa 1796.

I would toss out the Mount Gay and Captain Morgan as good sipping rums, but others may have differing opinions. If you can find Ron Zacapa Centenario 23 year old it very well might be the best sipping rum on your list (if it was on your list, that is).

Tad, stop by the hacienda sometime. I looked in my rum collection and I have a bottle of Santa Teresa 1796. It's a bit light for my tastes, but not a bad rum. The Ron Zacapa Centenario 23 year old is much better than the 15 year old. And I don't much care for the El Dorado Special Reserve, but that's just me. Friends of mine love it dearly. I'm surprised nobody mentioned Planter's Gold. That was my absolute favorite until I discovered Pyrat Cask 23 and Ron Zacapa Centenario (23 y/o). YUM! Ed, how much do you have to pay for Pyrat Cask 23?

Price is certainly not always a good indicator of premium rums. I can refer you to a bottle of Sea Wynde rum from Jamaica that I purchased for $90, which I find to be tough to sip straight (maybe that's because it's 46% alcohol). Pyrat Cask 23 is my personal favorite sipping rum ($185 a bottle from the factory in Anguilla) but a VERY close second in my opinion is Ron Zacapa Centenario 23 year old (Guatemala) that sells locally in Florida for around $40 a bottle. Planter's Gold (Anguilla) is also a very fine sipping rum and it sells for just under $40 a bottle. I look forward to reading your ratings Ed.

Hello all, I'm new to this forum thanks to my friend Tad who I met on a kayak fishing forum (hence my post name, LunaSea). I would consider myself a connoisseur of fine sipping rums and have been experimenting with them for about 10 years. I would place them in order of my favorites as: Pyrat Cask 23 (Anguilla) Ron Zacapa Centenario 23 year old (Guatemala) Planter's Gold (Anguilla) Diplomatico (Venezuela) Santa Teresa 1796 (Venezuela) I'm fortunate that my wife travels to the Caribbean frequently and stays on Anguilla a few times a year. She purchases Pyrat Cask 23 direct from the factory for $185 a bottle. The cheapest I've ever seen it on the Internet was just over $300 a bottle, and one site has it for $550 a bottle! Some of the worst sipping rums I've tasted are: Sea Wynde (Jamaica) 96 proof Anything by Bacardi I would love to hear any and all suggestions if there are others out there I should try. English Harbour Extra Old Rum (Antigua) is one that has already been suggested by Tad, who learned about it on this forum. Thanks in advance for any other insights.