Kristian

By a chance I bought a mini-bottle (50 ml) of this rum to take to my fiance's summer cabin and shared it there with her father. Quite surprisingly, I found it rather interesting and nice tasting (cannot say much more after such a small sample - and it could have been the wine and food that we consumed before this rum that throws off my opinion). Now, I'm considering to buy a bit larger bottle of this rum to sample it some more, but I'd like to hear a couple of opinions about it before I do that. According to some sources, this is a 'kitchen rum', but others say that it's 'quite wonderful'. Has anyone here tried this and what do you think of it?

Lots of nice opinions here... Interesting to see how varied people's tastes are! When I'm dining with my fiance, my preference is a dimly lit table in an intimate corner of the room, where I can concentrate wholly on her. Darkish colours are better than bright ones and, if possible, a brick wall can do wonders to the mood! But when I'm out with a bunch of people, it doesn't really matter where we are seated. However, it is better if we sit at a table that is far from the intimate tables so as not to bother the couples who like to spend time together instead of having to listen to a big bunch of people making noise at the next table. And, most importantly, I want a table in the non-smoking section of the restaurant. Thank the maker that there are laws to insist on every restaurant having them!

Have a wonderful trip, Ed! ...I wish I won the lottery and could spend a couple of years sailing in the Caribbean...

Happy birthday to you, abagail! So, what are you going to do on this quiet birthday? Go to a restaurant or decorate your new house instead? The way I spent my birthday a week ago was to visit a restaurant of my own choosing and by eating their giant stake with potatoes in creamy blue cheese sauce... excellent, even if simple! I was very full after that, but since my girlfriend had baked a caramel cheese cake (not oven baked - that other, gelatin, version!)... Well, the evening progressed very well... It is my working theory that overeating doesn't hurt if you do it rarely enough, and one's birthday is the best excuse there is! The runner-up is definitely Christmas...

Yes, that's right. That's actually what I tried to say above, but perhaps I was too wordy. Most of rums' colour does come from the aging process in the oal barrels and burned sugar is only sometimes used to adjust this colour to the blender's or bottler's liking. However, I have a nagging suspicion that not all dark rums are really aged and that there are some distillers who rely only on the burned sugar to colour their rums. If this suspicion is correct, these producers are essentially cheating their customers and ruining the reputation of rums as a whole... I'd like to learn the truth about this...

'this a quiz? Well, I'm by no means an expert, having such a short experience with rums, but there are some things that even I can point out. Others can fill in the gaps. 1. rum is made of the molasses or sugarcane juice (rhum), not by fermenting the sugarcanes themselves (as is). This fermented product (alcohol % only about 4-5) is then distilled in pot or column stills and only after this it is aged (unless one bottles it as a white rum, in which case it is not aged - and if it is, not for more than a few months). 2. the reference of burned sugar being the colouring agent implies that rum would be a clear substance without this sugar - in reality, however, rum gains colour naturally when it is aged. Burned sugar might be used to adjust the colour, but in better products it is not the only source of colour (although there are many brands that are only coloured to resemble the aged variants and have not been aged at all). I think this error may originate from some dictionary source - I've seen it before somewhere. 3. aging and bottling of rums: I have no knowledge of any rums being aged in the UK. Manufacturers may blend and bottle the rums there and in other countries, but I don't think they do much aging outside the distilleries themselves. I don't know a lot about this, however. These mistakes only relate to the basic production of rum. I think there are mistakes in the text about the various types of rum coming from different islands, but I don't know enough about them yet to say exactly what... The references to Haiti and its rums sound incredible, though, as does the description of rum Saint James - as far as I understand it, theirs' is supposed to be a typical French rum made out of the cane juice. Well, anyone else want to add something?

Sorry to get back to this so late... Where did you find this horrible source of knowledge?

That's correct! I found Barbados vintage 1986 from Gabriel & Andreu's website and at the store where I bought my bottle, these two vintages were side by side on the shelf. Judging from the information on their website, vintage 1991 (although it is not expressly mentioned) should be aged about 10 years (1986 is 14 years old). That makes it rather old... :wow: It is unfortunate that it's too mellow and soft for my taste. I prefer Kaniche G. over this. I wish I could get my hands on the other products from this rum family, though, if they are at all representative of the quality rums from those islands...

Well, here's an image of the label. I couldn't get it as sharp as I would have liked, but you can read the text, at least! Other rums that I acquired are Cruzan Single Barrel, N.O. Rum and Ron Matusalem Gran Reserva. I'm hoping to open either the Cruzan or the Matusalem this weekend to celebrate my birthday...

Yes, the rum was rather a disappointing experience. My main reason for buying it was that I wanted to buy someting that was easy to sip for someone (not me) who finds the 'more characteristic' rums too much for them, and the person who recommended it said that she buys it all the time and their friends, who mostly think rum as too strong, are comfortable with sipping it. Well, the person to whom I intended to introduce this particular rum did not much like it, but I found another use for it. Mixed with vanilla ice cream, this rum is at its best!

Barbados Plantation Rum is one of the rums that I bought on my trip to New Orleans and the first one that I have opened up and tasted. I bought it primarily because the clark at the Martin's Wine Cellar praised it quite highly. At this point, I have yet to form a complete opinion about it, but... As I sipped it straight up, I found it a bit too mellow for my taste, although rather hot on the throat. What I'd like to know is what the text 'vintage 1991' really means? Can one interpret it somehow to get the age of the rum or what does it actually mean? I was unable to find a website with any info on this rum.

Well, I'm actually not paying for any low-fat varieties - We don't buy butter or the low-fat thingies as neither me or my fiance use them and we use various oils for cooking. At home, I eat my bread with cheese and slices of cucumber or tomato. It's only at my workplace where the restaurant doesn't offer any cheese that I have to rely on those other replacement products and I have really no influence over what they buy (not real butter, anyway)... Usually, I pick some strange mixes and concoctions that they have come up with and I don't even know what's in them (possibly onion or some minced vegetables) most of the time... Sometimes, I think I have tasted garlic... :confused:

If you are interested in foods that have beer as one of the basic ingredients, a couple of Finnish recipes of such foods can be found in the 'adventures in eating' forum. The thread is 'a dare from Finland'.

Reading through this thread, I was constantly thinking what people use the mentioned butters for. I take it is for enjoying with bread like we do in Finland? But, surely, you don't usually mix butter and jam together on a bread? I never use real butter anymore, cause it's too salty and fatty. I rarely use anything else than cheese and cucumber on my bread anyway, but when I do use butter, it's usually some low-fat (<40%), low-salt margarine variety. I don't think the Finnish brand names would tell you anything, so I'll leave it at that.

If there was such a rum, they would have had to store it in barrels or casks in London and bottle it there. AFAIK, in order to age rum you store it in barrels, because once the rum is in a bottle, it doesn't really age anymore.

Actually, I came to the same conclusion about this question. I'll come back to the rum recommendations once Dorignac's have finished their updating (if it happens before my trip). Thanks again to all who helped me!

One of the problems with my calculations is that I used centilitres and not ounces - I have no idea how many centilitres is in an ounce or vice versa. But I rechecked my calculations and I noticed that I presumed the beer to be 4.5%. I changed that around to 3% and now I'm trying to figure out how much half a pint is. I'm using small Finnish beer size, which is 0.33 litres (with the lowered alcohol content) which contains about 8 grams of alcohol. Assuming again an 85 kg male, four half portions of this beer would raise his blood alcohol content to .4 at the best (depending on how fast he drinks the beers / glasses of wine - my silly excel sheet presumes that they are draughed instantly)... But, as I said, the pints and ounces and stuff confuse me...

Nice figures, those. 28 units per week makes four per day. If you drink these during your last meal of the day - let's say it takes two hours to drink them - an 85 kg male will achieve a nice 0.6 per mill of alcohol in his blood (depending on a couple of other factors and the trustworthiness of my Excel sheet). So, one will reach the 'no driving' state every day and still be drinking moderately...

Brija: Well, who hasn't experienced the fact that alcohol dulls your senses? It may be that you are just more inclined to pay attention to what you taste than others and notice those effects more easily and earlier than your friends when you are eating. Also, you should discuss these things with your table companions when they still have some brain activity going on - if they have already consumed more than their portion of the wine on the table, it's no wonder that they have trouble understanding you when you complain about your dull taste buds... Remember, according to your own testimony you drink less than they do!

There have certainly been a lot of research reports on the health benefits of moderate amounts of alcohol recently. A recent dutch research claims that a small amount of alcohol per day prevents dementia and earlier findings speak about lessening risk of cardiovascular diseases. Unfortunately, I'm one of those people who does not reach even the healthy levels of alcohol use - I usually drink only one standard drink a week, and often less than that. I drink more only when we happen to drink wine and/or sparkling wine with our dinner, which is on rather a rare occasion (mostly celebrating a birthday or some other anniversary). Unfortunately, it does not help if I drink the whole week's healthy portion in one day... Another point: Although it is said that one or two drinks a day is the healthy limit, there are studies that show that more than 6 bottles of beer a week may be one of the causes for throat cancer (I don't know the scientific name for that). So, it seems that you cannot win either way...

The site that I'm basing my information on (repeat: I'm relying on my skills in English and other languages to translate its contents) is this: http://www.rhum-clement.com/ They give a nice photograph tour of their 'habitation' with lots of french text that I cannot understand... :confused:

Just my luck to have Dorignac's updating their pages just when I was going to start really thinking about my trip... Thank you, John, for your advice. I have taken a note of the stores recommended here and I have the maps printed out on my desk, ready to go. A difficulty that I have with my trip is that it is a conference trip and the schedule is quite full - I doubt I'll have much time to myself and trying to find a good bar to sample rums in. The problem with New Orleans and its bars is (I think without anything to base my thinking on) that it is a tourist and popular conference city and therefore full of bars etc. which will be good at mixing hurricanes and other such fancy drinks, but might be lacking on their knowledge and selection when it comes to good rums. I was hoping that someone could give me a name (and location) of a bar I should visit on some free evening, or else I'll just have to rely on my luck and buy them according to others' recommendations. Luckily, this forum is quite a good place to catch the names of quality rums. So, does anyone know a good bar with a good bartender and a fine selection of rums to help me along? ...And I'll take care not to drink full portions when I sample their wares...

At least the Clement's home site is up and running and I, with my non-existent skills in French, could not find any mention of them folding up. They mentioned Martinique on their rhum page and their online store seemed to be working fine.

As I said, I have been to Tallinn only once and thus I'm also unable to say much about the level of food served in the restaurants. Like in many cities, there are good and bad restaurants in Tallinn also. Nevertheless, I'd say that if you are going to Tallinn, the main attraction will be the mediaeval Old City and the sights it offers. And if you want to keep in that spirit, you should check out the mediaeval style restaurants and not the thirteen-in-a-dozen type italian etc. restaurants which will, of course, be bad imitations of the real thing - I actually got rather bad service at one of those places. I would have turned away immediately, but the rest of my party missed the show of an attitude problem and wanted to stay... As far as Olde Hansa, a restaurant recommended by Brija above, goes, I'd definitely recommend it instead of the one I have pictures of at my home page! Neitsitorni did not appear to be a high quality place as far as dining goes - it's a beautiful old stone building to look at, but I'd only visit it for the spiced wine and the scenery. I have heard good things about Olde Hansa, though.

Zap! No thread is too old to resurrect! Well, the trip to NO is now getting near (AERA conference is arranged in the start of April) and I'm again fussing about some rums that I should buy and bring back home. Since my experience with rums is quite pathetic (given the _extensive_ selection that we have here in Finland), I'm asking for your help. Given the selection at Martin Wine Cellar and Dorignac's in NO, which rums would you recommend I try? I prefer to sip aged rums, neat, and thus far I have only been able to get Clement's Rhum Vieux and Kaniche Guadeloupe (both French tradition) here in Finland and I have liked both of them. However, I'd like to at least try some molasses based rums as well to see how they compare to those that I have got used to. Any recommendations? (and, please, not too expensive ones (>40$) since my fiancé might... well, you know what I'm getting at...)