Hassouni

My Mexican friends assure me that your instincts are right. High quality agave (and similar) spirits are meant to be sipped, not even mixed. One of my friends shuddered at using a 100% agave añejo tequila in a paloma, for ex. Wait till you try sotol!

Hm my TJ's is putting them front and center of the shop. Guess I'll have to pick some up!

It's true, the Valrhona is a hell of a bargain given the quality, but damn, that house brand one....

Seriously

That's true, the MD Total Wines have BBRs at a not utterly outrageous price, thanks for reminding me. As for Samaroli, I might as well import my own bulk rum from DDL and my own barrels for the kind of money they want! I spoke to Joe Riley at Ace about it, and he said it's just not worth them even carrying it.

My mistake, the "Dark Chocolate Lover's" bar(s) are $1.50, not $2. Also, I just discovered the TJ's Speculoos biscuits - quite excellent!

Re: sweetness of Demerara, the El Dorados are quite heavily sugared, and that's about all we can get in the US. I'm still aching to buy an independently bottled Demerara (hint: anyone know of any US-based online retailers??)

Yeah, really anytime 151-proof rum is called for, Lemon Hart is what you want. You can also dilute to 100 proof (or 80, but 100 is more fun!) and it's great for mixing when a recipe calls for Demerara rum

Gah! I wish LH80 were available here. Is the bottle mostly yellow with red highlights, or does it look like the 151 label pictured?

I have one of those NorPro ones (as well as the ubiquitous green lime sized one). The Norpro quite good, though I don't think it gets 100% of the juice out. However, the performance is perfectly satisfactory. What does get to be obnoxious is when juicing 20 lemons as I did on Saturday, the handle gets really slick and tough on the edge of the index finger. Oxo has a version with their usual ergonometric features, but it seems to have some really crappy reviews re: performance. I've seen the chef'n fresh force in person at a shop and in use at a bar, and it does look effortless. However, there are several mentions of plastic gears in the device on Amazon, which the reviewers say are prone to breakage, which is why I didn't buy one. cbread, how is yours holding up? If I had the space, I'd get one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-932-Commercial-Citrus/dp/B00015NN0S/ref=sr_1_6?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1394477252&sr=1-6&keywords=lever+citrus I've seen several respected bartender types recommend it (Jeffrey Morgenthaler, to name one)

I'm not very familiar with St Lucian rums. With its mixed colonial history, I'd be curious to know if it's closer to English or French style rums. Are the 8 and 9 year from the same distillery? What was so different about them? As for the Jamaican, I just feel esp for the gold, it really heavily implies aging, even if it's not stated. And if it's stated as unaged, why bother adding the color? (Black rum is another story, even 20 years in oak doesn't make a rum black!)

I gotta say, oranges keep pretty well in these parts...as does all other citrus. Ward 8 is the nastiest part of DC, I know it's not the origin of the name, but as a Washingtonian, I can't get the coincidence out of my head.

Nice it is, and also hella expensive and slightly sacrilegious to mix with, akin to using Highland Park 18 in a Rob Roy

Hey, Ace Beverage! Good shop, eh? Let us know how the rum is. From everything I've read, the Hamilton JA rum is a sham - it's not aged a day in barrels, and yet is sold as a "gold rum" and as a "black rum." Hmph. If I want funky-ass, strong, unaged, JA pot still rum, give me W&N Overproof any day. I'd be interested to see if this stuff is substantially different.

Gosling's is proper rum, Cruzan is just burnt molasses. Seriously, as I've said many times, it runs roughshod over anything it's mixed with, and isn't v nice on its own, either.

While ED15 has a ton of added sugar also, it has a lot less than the 12. It also has more pot still distillate in it. I haven't tried it in the OF application, but now I want some Xocolatl bitters!

Seconded. It is not meant to be a sweet drink at all.

I think I just used plain old Angostura - I find it works exceptionally well with rum drinks, it having all those warm tropical spices and all...

Yeah, but how was it?

Sweet! (or, dry, I suppose?)

Sweet you say? ED12 to the rescue

The videos look pretty cool, I wonder if those stream within the app, or if they're preloaded...

Here you go, two stores in NJ: http://www.wclwines.com/sku2045.html http://www.shoppersvineyard.com/store/pc/APPLETON-ESTATE-EXTRA-12YR-RUM-1p7339.htm

From the sound of it, I'm amazed your store has any whisky. The WT 101 is available in DC, verified with my own eyes. 1L for about $28.

They brought it back though...