Best of the Bottom Shelf!

[Zingledot]

I find that I enjoy being a connoisseur of the accessible things as much as the finer things. I like knowing the best place to eat in town, as well as the best McDonald's.

What are some gems - techniques or bottles - that you've found exceptional and exceptionally cheap?

A couple I know...

Brita filters DO transform cheap vodkas with top shelf smoothness.

190 proof Everclear mixes amazingly if you use 40% as much as you'd use vodka. With so little actual volume in a cocktail, you get more of the other flavors without sacrificing strength.

Tortilla Gold brand tequila. $9 and it'll beat or compare to anything up to $30 on the tequila scale.

Cruzan Light Rum is easily the best light rum I've had, with Mount Gay being my favorite amber, but it seems you need to pay decent money for a good spiced rum - any suggestions for a good "accessible" spiced rum?

Angostura bitters mixed with club soda... it is an acquired taste, but once you do it is incredibly refreshing and tasty. I've found other brands of bitters don't have the same quality and aren't nearly as good.

[tanstaafl2]

Tortilla Gold brand tequila. $9 and it'll beat or compare to anything up to $30 on the tequila scale.

Angostura bitters mixed with club soda... it is an acquired taste, but once you do it is incredibly refreshing and tasty. I've found other brands of bitters don't have the same quality and aren't nearly as good.

Have never had Totilla Gold and probably never will (not sure if it is available around here and I pretty much gave up drinking a mixto 30 years ago after college anyway) so I can't say for sure but it seems hard to believe that a mixto colored with caramel is the same or better than a number of 100% agave tequilas that can be found for less than $30. Espolon, especially the reposado, comes to mind immediately. Matter of personal taste I suppose.

Might give the Angostura and soda a try just to see how it tastes although I like an occasional pink gin which is more interesting to me. How much do you use?

An awful lot of interesting bitters out there these days so whether others have "the same quality" is probably subjective at best.

Edited November 5, 2011 by tanstaafl2 (log)

[Hassouni]

As far as light rums, Flor de Caña 4 Extra Dry and Brugal white both toast Cruzan in the white rum department. They're also as cheap if not cheaper.

Can crappy gin be run through a Brita?

[Zingledot]

Have never had Totilla Gold and probably never will (not sure if it is available around here and I pretty much gave up drinking a mixto 30 years ago after college anyway) so I can't say for sure but it seems hard to believe that a mixto colored with caramel is the same or better than a number of 100% agave tequilas that can be found for less than $30. Espolon, especially the reposado, comes to mind immediately. Matter of personal taste I suppose.

Might give the Angostura and soda a try just to see how it tastes although I like an occasional pink gin which is more interesting to me. How much do you use?

An awful lot of interesting bitters out there these days so whether others have "the same quality" is probably subjective at best.

In local prices, $35 seemed to be where 100% agave actually starts being good. But compared to low end 100% agave, I've always been surprised how this particular mixto holds up. I'll give the Espolon suggestion a try - a quick google search on it seemed promising.

With the bitters, it's usually just a few shakes to a normal 16oz glass with ice, but it's completely a matter of taste. I have friends who prefer much more and less. Also, pink gin sounds really good.... I just have trouble finding sweet gins in Utah. I'll have to see what I can track down.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Cruzan Light Rum is easily the best light rum I've had, with Mount Gay being my favorite amber, but it seems you need to pay decent money for a good spiced rum - any suggestions for a good "accessible" spiced rum?

Any reason that you don't spice your own rum? Find even a sort of iffy gold rum and bosh in the spices of your choice, then let it age in the sunlight on your windowsill for a couple of weeks, strain, and enjoy. It might take a couple of bottles before you get the spices right for your palette, but then you've got the advantage of a blend that nobody else will have in their cabinets.....

[Tri2Cook]

Any reason that you don't spice your own rum? Find even a sort of iffy gold rum and bosh in the spices of your choice, then let it age in the sunlight on your windowsill for a couple of weeks, strain, and enjoy. It might take a couple of bottles before you get the spices right for your palette, but then you've got the advantage of a blend that nobody else will have in their cabinets.....

I gave up on spicing my own. The reason being, I went through about 4 different attempts and never wound up with anything I thought was better for mixing than Sailor Jerry or Kracken. I think the only way I could get a result with my own that would make me happy would be to infuse each flavor element seperately in it's own rum and then blend to taste. I don't use enough spiced rum to go to that much trouble.

As to the original question, perspective has it's place in this discussion. Some things that probably rank mid to bottom shelf in good stores in the U.S. are top shelf at the LCBO.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Huh. I've always had great luck with spicing my own - perhaps it comes down to infusion times and the kind of rum you start with. I've found that if I go overboard with the cinnamon I have to add about a teaspoon of molasses to the final rum to balance it.

Tri2 - did you use vanilla beans at all in your infusions? That's usually the hint that's missing from home-cured spiced rums that's present in the commercial ones.

[Tri2Cook]

Yep, used vanilla bean. None of the results were bad, I think maybe I'm just not into spiced rum enough to put the effort into getting it where I want it. It's not a fault of spicing one's own rum, it's a fault of my laziness. I was slowly working my efforts towards tasting like the stuff from the store that I like. Once that information made it's way through the fog and I realized that's what I was doing, it seemed kinda pointless.