Rum Cocktails

[tanstaafl2]

Saint James Royal Ambre Rhum Agricole 750mL ~26 - Bargain basement!

one of my favorites. i'd say one of the greatest rums relative to price.

for unaged fresh sugar cane rums, i think the most interesting are the rums of cape verde and the cachacas from salinas in minas gerais, brazil.

the technique i endorse for learning about rum is just to buy one of each and clear out a book case.

Jeez! You do know I am OCD right? Now I have another category to look for!

Have been holding off on cachaça for the moment but I always like to have little oddities to add to my "collection" and a Cape Verde spirit might fit right in!

Agree with Boston on the great value for the price with St. James Royal Ambre. Recently I have been able to get it for around $23. For 'Ti Punch it's hard to beat, but for straight sipping the Extra Old and the Hors D'Age (which I only recently finally tracked down) are less rough-edged as you would expect.

I wish Depaz was not as pricey as it is here, because I think it is fantastic.

I had the Rhum Clement Cuvee Homere last week for the first time and it's one of the best rums I have ever tasted. And while $90 for the bottle is pricey, it would have been a bargain next to the $30 I spent on a couple measures out at the bar. Delicious.

The Depaz aroused my curiosity and so I may give that one a try. I think it had a decent review in KS2 as well although I still don't know quite yet whether my tastes are a particularly close match to the authors. The one thing I was surprised by about the book was not so much what was in it but what was not. With so many spirits out there you can't possibly cover everything but many things I looked for weren't in it. Perhaps I just have bad taste in what I choose to buy...

Try a Santo Libre - a spin on the Cuba Libre that substitutes Sprite for Coke

2 oz Dominican Rum (Brugal Anejo/Extra Viejo or Ron Barcelo Imperial)

2 lime quarters, muddled

add rocks, top with Sprite

I prefer a rum with good age for this drink. Personally, I prefer Ron Barcelo for its sweet, caramel character, but Ron Brugal Extra Viejo makes the drink complex and special.

Sounds interesting. I generally steer away from dark colas because I tend to avoid caffeine (which makes my recent acquisition of Kola tonic somewhat problematic although I still intend to try it at some point) but I do enjoy reposado tequila (usually Espolon is the "house" brand for this), lime juice and sprite as an easy but tasty drink. This should fit right in! Have Brugal but don't think it is the Añejo or Extra Viejo.

[Tri2Cook]

A friend that works at a Manitoba Liquor Mart has informed me that they have the Ron Zacapa 23, that he bought himself a bottle for his birthday and found it every bit as tasty as the reviews say it is and would I like him to bring a bottle for me when he's in town (his parents live here) at the end of the month? The catch, they're charging almost $80 for it. The LCBO doesn't carry it and if they brought it in, it would almost definitely be as much or more than it is in Manitoba. So, dedicated rum lovers... is it good enough that I want to pay that much to put a bottle in my cabinet? To help with the opinions, the word "sweet" in the reviews doesn't worry me at all.

[EvergreenDan]

What other options for a very dark, molasses sweet rum do you have? How much do you like rum?

I assume that you are sipping, rather than mixing at that price. It's so hard to compare markets, but in Boston, there are a lot of other bottles I'd love to try at the $80 price point. I just saw El Dorado 21 "on sale" but resisted. If I were living where things were very hard to come by, I might be tempted to "look for my keys under the street light".*

* A metaphor to the observation that in physics, you perform experiments where they are technologically possible, even if that limits the scope of the solution.

[cadmixes]

Like Dan said, it's hard to offer any definitive advice without knowing what else is available to you. Maybe I don't fall in the category of people who really love rum but I paid somewhere between $40-$50 for Zacapa and got a rum that I think is nice but not particularly unique and not (for me) worth paying a premium for.

That being said, if this is your chance to grab it and you're not overextending yourself, just satisfy your curiosity. You will eventually anyway.

[tanstaafl2]

I would agree that while it was nice enough at around $45 I probably would not go out of my way to get it at that cost again.

I think El Dorado 15 is excellent, if a little different, at generally a lesser cost. If you can get the El Dorado 21 at $80 or so (it is about $75-80 here) then I would think it would be even better (but I have never had it). I think Flor de Cana 18yo is also a nice aged rum that is somewhat similar as well that might be less if available. It is around $38-40 here. They also have a Centenario 21 which gets good reviews but I have never had it and it is $100 plus I think.

Do you get south of the border with any regularity or have friends who would bring it to you that do? Zacapa 23 is pretty common place here in Georgia and I would presume is also pretty easy to find in the northeast although I don't know that for a fact.

[mkayahara]

Just to give a point of reference, the El Dorado 21 is $110 here in Ontario.

[rotuts]

This thread really dates me. In a precious century I was a student of Daiquiri's. after trying all the bottles I could find in Boston, this took a while, I settled on St.James (dark) and Barbancout *****. I used key limes and cane sugar. The SJ and B***** cost about $5 a bottle.

times change.

[Tri2Cook]

This is everything in my cabinet that's not white or spiced (Sailor Jerry and Kracken) if that helps...

Angostura 1919

Appleton V/X

Appleton 12 year

Barbancourt 5-Star

Doorly's XO

El Dorado 5 year

El Dorado 12 year

Flor de Cana 7 year

Gosling's Black Seal

Havana Club Anejo Reserva

Havana Club 7 year

Mount Gay XO

Pusser's British Navy

Pyrat XO

...I guess what I'm wondering is, if the Zacapa had hit the shelves everywhere at $80 would those who like it have been okay with that or would the ratings have suffered with that cost factored in? I'm not determined to have it, especially if anything I have would make it a bit redundant, I just don't mind spending the money if it's money well spent.

[tanstaafl2]

...I guess what I'm wondering is, if the Zacapa had hit the shelves everywhere at $80 would those who like it have been okay with that or would the ratings have suffered with that cost factored in? I'm not determined to have it, especially if anything I have would make it a bit redundant, I just don't mind spending the money if it's money well spent.

I bought Zacapa along with El Dorado 15yo and Barbancourt 8yo a few months ago to try a selection across a range of prices (from the $20s, $30s and $40s here locally). The Zacapa was the most expensive of course with ED in the middle and of those I would buy the ED again first over the others. At $80 I don't know that I would have bought Zacapa to begin with and I am pretty sure I wouldn't now. While I like it well enough I am not sure I will rush out to replace it when gone for $40-45. I see it currently listed on Beltramos for $36 and K&L for $37 (It is higher on NY websites). Might consider it at that price if I could find it locally but it tends to be low/mid $40s here.

Zafra is another brand that store reps have suggested is similar to Zacapa (there is some sort of connection between the two I am told) but it is usually around the same price so I have never tried it.

I think your rum cabinet seems pretty varied and unless you just really wanted to try it you might wait to see if an opportunity presents itself to get it at a better price. Or try some at a bar that carries it and use that experience to decide!

I have given into my impulse to buy a bottle to try something more than a few times lately and have a some nearly full bottles occupying shelf space that I am looking for a way to use up...

[psychotopsy]

Hello!

I was recently given a bottle of Captain Morgan's spiced rum as a gift and it turns out I don't like the taste because the vanilla taste is too strong and I don't like the kind of sweetness it has to it. It's obviously already opened so I can't give it to someone else as a gift and I'm not too fond of the idea of pouring a perfectly fine bottle of spirit down the drain. I have tried drinking it in root beer and in orange juice but I didn't like it either way. Are there some good cocktails that would mask the sweetness? Or any  other ideas on what to do with a bottle of alcohol that you don't like?

[Craig E]

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/148631-drinks-2014-part-2/?p=2012366

[blue_dolphin]

This is more of an wintery cocktail and it is on the sweet side, but I enjoyed spiced rum in this Sidecar variation called the Cable Car, that I found on Chuck Taggart's website years ago.  He credits Cory Reistad of the Drake Hotel in San Francisco, though Difford's Guide credits Tony Abou-Ganim of the same establishment. 

 

I don't think anyone should drink alcoholic beverages that they don't like.  If it was a gift from someone who knows your taste, you might ask the giver to recommend some uses for it.

[Lisa Shock]

Tonic water and some lime juice should cut the sweetness. I'd do that or try some classic daiquiris, or punch (like from the Wondrich book).

[ChrisTaylor]

You could use it as part of a split base in some other cocktail--e.g. 50:50 spiced rum to something like Appleton V/X.

[haresfur]

Chris' suggestion is good and you could go further and try just using a small amount as an accent in other drinks. Lisa's suggestion to balance with lime should help, too. Try in anything Tiki and cut back other sugar as much as possible.

 

Since you have nothing to lose, try infusing some with pineapple - preferably one of the older more acidic varieties rather than the newer "Gold" pineapples. If nothing else, the leftover pineapple pieces should be great in sponge cake.

[Czequershuus]

You could also maybe try infusing with vanilla, and then just use it as a vanilla liqueur. Many tiki drinks call for vanilla syrup, and this strikes me as a use for the overly vanilla-y and sweet Morgan.