Understanding Rum

[scubadoo97]

$77 at the LCBO!

the Barbados?

[Kerry Beal]

XO 20th anniversary Barbados

[scubadoo97]

Damn that's a lot for that bottle. $38 seemed steep to me. Glad I'm in Florida, for rum that is. We don't see nearly the selection of bourbon and other spirits that others states get.

[tanstaafl2]

Damn that's a lot for that bottle. $38 seemed steep to me. Glad I'm in Florida, for rum that is. We don't see nearly the selection of bourbon and other spirits that others states get.

 

 

Prices for our egulleteer friends north of the border tend to be 2-3 times what we pay for most everything. Sometimes even for the local Canadian hooch!

 

Gotta love the joys of social engineering through taxes!     

 

Not that we don't do our fair share of that here...  

[JoNorvelleWalker]

After tonight's first mai tai I ran out of Lost Spirits.  Anyone who disparages Lost Spirits has best to try it.  Looking at my twenty odd bottles of rum I've been adding a little bit of this and a little bit of that to balance my second mai tai and I can't make up for it.  My resupply of Lost Spirits is still scheduled for later on today but we are expected a possibly record setting winter storm.

 

This is not to say Lost Spirits is the be all and end all of rum, it's not.  But for me it is an important modifier in my mai tai, and more than worth the asking price.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

The Neisson price is pretty absurd even for Martinique. JM has had a 15yo and it is a comparatively economical at $250!

 

I wish I liked aged JM half as much as Neisson.  I have been doing some experiments tonight.

[tanstaafl2]

You are right, they are different profiles to be sure. I find the JM to be a little more "refined" (I hate saying "smooth"!) and the Neisson to be a bit more vegetal. But that is just my palate.

 

They both have their place.

[Rafa]

Bryan Davis of Lost Spirits Distillery just put up a white paper on "trace carboxylic acid & ester origin in mature spirits." It's a good read for anyone interested in the chemistry of maturation in spirits generally and rum in particular. You can read it here.

[Moto]

As you can see below I thoroughly hate my bottle of Hampden rum form K & L.  I dislike it so much I am contemplating ordering another.   I don't like it sipped neat.  It is passable with a generous glug of water.  But man o man it is a thing of beauty with a big slow melting cube of ice. All the richness and full flavor that you expect comes roaring through.

 

I also took the opportunity to try my version of Rumdoods $300 Mai Tai with 1 oz. each of Hampden and K & L's Uitvlugt Guyanan rum.  Simply Sublime.

[ChrisTaylor]

I finally got around to opening the small bottle of Sea Wynde I purchased a few weeks ago.

 

Aroma: When I first poured it, I was hit with molasses but that disappeared quickly. Harsh. Nail polish remover. 

 

Palate (w/o water): Booze. There's this really odd ... medicinal quality to this. Like, yeah, something you'd be served on a tall ship out in the middle of the bloody Atlantic. There's this weird tang to it that reminds somewhat me of Vegemite. That's not something you want to be reminded of in a drink.

 

Palate (w/ water): Molasses. Arse. Down the drain.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Bryan Davis of Lost Spirits Distillery just put up a white paper on "trace carboxylic acid & ester origin in mature spirits." It's a good read for anyone interested in the chemistry of maturation in spirits generally and rum in particular. You can read it here.

 

This reminds me how much I have been enjoying Lost Spirits Navy Style, I've gone through a few bottles, and it is a regular in my mai tais (not white mai tais), most recently tonight.  Good stuff.

[Moto]

Don't give up on the Sea Wyne yet. Sipping it neat is like guzzling diesel fuel but it is great in a drink that calls for Jamaican or Guyana rum.

I've been sipping on the Caroni I just received. The nose is a thing of wonder. A little tar, along with toffee and butter and ripe fruit.The richness of the buttery notes really brings it all together. It steadily improves as you let it sit. The taste was really surprising. A little tarry bitterness but the main notes are that of a menthol eucalyptus cough drop and a big jolt of anise. It has just a hint of sweet to remind you it is aged rum. Makes me think of Fernet aged for 20 years.

[Rafa]

Sounds a lot like the Gosling's Very Old I had at Hassouni's place—I wonder what happens during fermentation or maturation to bring out these eucalyptus/fernet notes?

[scubadoo97]

Bryan Davis of Lost Spirits Distillery just put up a white paper on "trace carboxylic acid & ester origin in mature spirits." It's a good read for anyone interested in the chemistry of maturation in spirits generally and rum in particular. You can read it here.

Tasted his rum at the Miami rum trade show this weekend. He still has his work cut out for him. In theory it sounds good but he's not there yet

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Tasted his rum at the Miami rum trade show this weekend. He still has his work cut out for him. In theory it sounds good but he's not there yet

 

Which of his rums did you try?  I have been pleased with the navy style, but that's the only one I've tasted.

[scubadoo97]

I'll have to look at my booklet but he had about 6 bottles on his table but I only tried the one he was pouring, I'll get back on which one it was. I quickly moved on to better things. My goal was to find producers of unadulterated rums. Most claim theirs has nothing added but that's obviously not true.

We did find some that were. Richard Seale and Bailey Pryor are both producing the real deal in Barbados

http://www.realmccoyspirits.com/thestory#today

https://rumdiariesblog.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/r-l-seales-10-year-old-rum/

[Hassouni]

I have to say I have not liked the LS Navy style I've tried, and I've tried it a few times on different occasions. It just tasted, for lack of a more detailed description, bad. I doubt it's adulterated...just not distilled or "aged" well. I'm still curious about their Polynesian, Cuban, and the new stuff coming out of their Big Black Box, or whatever, but so far I'm not encouraged.

[scubadoo97]

Today's purchases

Now off to do some blind tastings with my wife to see how they compare.

I did small samplings when I got them home. The Doorly's XO is a steal for the price

[Hassouni]

The Doorly's XO is a steal for the price

 

As is the Seale's 10, and really all the Foursquare products!

[Hassouni]

Just went to a rum seminar with Paul Pacult, in which I tried 10 new rums, most of them new to me. Many were sweetened/flavored garbage, but 3 I'd never tried stood out:

 

Appleton Reserve - I've only had the V/X and the 12/Extra. The Reserve struck me as way nicer than the V/X, and more rummy/less whisky-like than the 12. Very rummy, hogo-y, on the lighter side of Jamaican but still very true to the island. I think it would be great in cocktails calling for "gold Jamaican rum" where S&C would be overkill.

 

Owney's white - distilled in Brooklyn allegedly entirely from molasses, though it reminded me slightly of many microdistilled rums I've tried that are made from granulated sugar. That said, overall it came off very Cuban-style, or at least what Dave Wondrich describes as vintage Cuban style in Imbibe.  I bet it would slay in daiquiris.

 

Bank's 7. Late to the game, I know, but this was wonderful. Tropical fruits (papaya), cedar, a long dry finish, mmmm

[FrogPrincesse]

Owney's white - distilled in Brooklyn allegedly entirely from molasses, though it reminded me slightly of many microdistilled rums I've tried that are made from granulated sugar. That said, overall it came off very Cuban-style, or at least what Dave Wondrich describes as vintage Cuban style in Imbibe.  I bet it would slay in daiquiris.

 

Love that one. I tried it last year at Tiki Oasis in the rum tasting session that Martin Cate of Smuggler's Cove organized. I wish we could get it in California.

[Moto]

Tried another of the Velier Rums.  This time the Rhum Rhum Liberation 2012.  Reportedly a five year old rum aged in white wine barrels. 

 

The nose comes across to me as a combination of light smoke, brine and a bottle of fish sauce.  Not appetizing at all. In fact I can't even drill down to what it actually tastes like without these briny ashy notes getting in my way.  A few days later I  happend to sample  some green tea and found the exact same notes in the aroma.  Still doesn't help me enjoy it any.  

 

I try it with ice and I also let it open up for a long time and it was still an ashy mess.  I finally tried it after putting my glass in the fridge for about an hour.  The nose was much more subdued and I was able to really taste the rum.  Really soft light notes of apricot and peach, you can taste the white wine barrel.  Actually fairly elegant as long as it is not allowed to warm up to room temp.  Definitely not my favorite but an interesting experience.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

For those of you who do not care for Lost Spirits Navy Style, do you like Pusser's?

 

In my side by side tastings Lost Spirits was very much like Pusser's, only at a somewhat higher proof.  Would anyone agree or disagree?

[Hassouni]

I love Pusser's - to me the LS tastes nothing like it. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I love Pusser's - to me the LS tastes nothing like it. 

 

Interesting.  I can't seem to find any Pusser's here at the moment but I will try to get a bottle and retest.  I've gone though my share of Pusser's in the last couple years.

 

Anyone else?