Clement Creole Shrubb

[Mike S.]

How do folks typically classify this stuff? Is it an orange-and-spice flavored rum, or is it a rum-based orange liqueur? More to the point, does it belong on the liqueur shelf or in the rum locker in my bar?

These things matter to me, not really sure why....

[slkinsey]

Seems sweet enough to me that it I would consider it a liqueur. Certainly you're not going to use it as the base spirit in a cocktail.

[db_campbell]

I use it as one would a Curacao. I once failed to convince an ABC store employee that the new "rhum" she was stocking was indeed a liqueur, despite the descriptor "Liqueur d'Orange" emblazoned across the front label.

[brinza]

I use it as one would a Curacao.  I once failed to convince an ABC store employee that the new "rhum" she was stocking was indeed a liqueur, despite the descriptor "Liqueur d'Orange" emblazoned across the front label.

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It took Pennsylvania about three years to figure out how to classify Cachaça. They had it with the liqueurs for a long time, then moved it to somewhere equally inappropriate, but finally put it on the rum shelf.

Edited February 4, 2009 by brinza (log)

[slkinsey]

How can it be that people whose very jobs necessarily require familiarity and expertise in spirits are so clueless?

[thirtyoneknots]

How can it be that people whose very jobs necessarily require familiarity and expertise in spirits are so clueless?

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Somewhere along the way it became acceptable, and not just for those who work in liquor stores. You couldn't become a chef in a halfway decent restaraunt without knowing how to make, for example, a set of sauces that are considered indespensable. It's damn rare to find a bartender in the same kind of place who can properly make an Old Fashioned or Sidecar, or explain the difference between Bourbon and Scotch.

[slkinsey]

I'd say that's more an indictment of the bars than the bartenders. But bartenders in a shot-and-a-beer joint aren't the same thing as civil servants whose job is to determine which spirits may be sold in a state and how they will be classified.

[bostonapothecary]

I'd say that's more an indictment of the bars than the bartenders.  But bartenders in a shot-and-a-beer joint aren't the same thing as civil servants whose job is to determine which spirits may be sold in a state and how they will be classified.

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i know there are lots of books on spirits but when it comes to things distilled, no books really compare to the wine technology books. too many things are shrouded in myth. and too much knowledge is trivia. many people think rum is sweet because its made of cane sugar...

we probably just need better teaching resources.

to bring it back to creole shrubb. if creole shrubb and say cointreau existed in the wine world there would be analysis somewhere (UC berkely/davis? or florida?) that explained precise guidelines on how to make them. sugar, alcohol, acidity, non sugar extract, and then more what ifs and FAQs like what cointeau leaves behind when its distills it oranges relative to creole shrubbs infusion and then the sensory and chemical differences in the peel types.

spirit producers seem to live off myth and superstition.