My wife had a friend and co-worker who would bring us back a bottle of Wray & Nephew each time she went home to Jamaica for a family visit.
We enjoyed it.
My wife had a friend and co-worker who would bring us back a bottle of Wray & Nephew each time she went home to Jamaica for a family visit.
We enjoyed it.
There's nothing civil about this war.
The El Dorado 12 was excellent. Great balance of flavors, not too sweet.Originally Posted by RoyGBiv
This review is more descriptive than I could be: https://therumhowlerblog.com/rum-rev...-demarera-rum/
Bourbon Buddy and another neighbor sat out with us by the fire and we enjoyed tasting this one as well as a Bacardi Eximo (Review here) that my neighbor brought over. The Bacardi was also enjoyed by all, but, I'd give the edge to the El Dorado 12, except that the El Dorado does not like ice. Even a single cube and the flavors fade noticeably. I prefer my spirits below room temperature, so, it was good that it was chilly last night and the bottle quickly got to a good place for me to drink neat. The Bacardi was happy neat or with a cube.
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." - Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Constitution, Draft 1, 1776
I don't know about your neck of the woods, but it is available at my favored liquor store in Hillsborough as a standard product now, after being in their special order section for awhile. I used to have to get it in Virginia.
REPETITION CREATES BELIEF
REPETITION BUILDS THE SEPARATE WORLDS WE LIVE AND DIE IN
NO EXCEPTIONS
RumFire= a high-ester flavor bomb. Recommended for Wray and Nephew overproof fans. A bit more refined, but still intense. Good for mixed drinks. I like it on ice for awhile until it mellows, with some brown sugar and a dash of orange bitters.
Rhum Barbancourt 4 year= my first sugarcane juice spirit. A very nice light sipper. Mildly sweet and with a nice grassy finish. I will be hunting for the 8 year.
Appleton 12 year "special casks"= OMG. Perhaps the perfect liquor for me. Brown sugar takes over my senses, giving way to cinnamon trees on fire which drifts into deep woody notes. Sort of like a high-end bourbon where corn has been replaced by pear nectar. More going here than I can keep track of. I'm not worthy. My stepson did his homework buying this one for me.
REPETITION CREATES BELIEF
REPETITION BUILDS THE SEPARATE WORLDS WE LIVE AND DIE IN
NO EXCEPTIONS
Ah the Painkiller. It's like a Pina Colada for folks with taste. 👍
REPETITION CREATES BELIEF
REPETITION BUILDS THE SEPARATE WORLDS WE LIVE AND DIE IN
NO EXCEPTIONS
My recent premium rum acquisitions have all come from vacations where I took a tour and enjoyed a tasting at a local distillery.
Old New Orleans Amber Rum
Pilar Dark Rum
Key West's first legal rum distillery Raw & Unfiltered Rum
As noted elsewhere, I had unpleasant memories of bad Bacardi cocktails from school days and overly cloying froo froo rum drinks, I recently decided to venture forth into better rums to see what my Royal Navy colleagues were always raving about. Below are a half-dozen rums I have tasted of late:
Pusser's Blue Label British Navy Rum is blended from several Caribbean rums, including those from the British Virgin Islands, Trinidad, and Guyana. While I am aware a lot of folks like this, and intending no overt offense to my RN friends, to me this rum tasted a lot like the sweat dripping off the crotch pad of my biking shorts. Not at all in the same category of rums as the ones that follow.
Ron Zacapa Centenario Sistema Solera 23 is a Guatemalan rum, and as the name implies, is blended using the solera system. It offers molasses and brown sugar flavors, along with a bit of tobacco and smoke—a bit thinner than some of the others here. Sips nicely and also works in cocktails.
Mount Gay XO Triple Cask Blend is a rum from Barbados which spends time in American whiskey, bourbon and Cognac casks. Smooth and flavorful, with echoes of chocolate and caramel, and a delightful finish. This is great for sipping neat or with an ice cube. I suspect folks who regularly drink whiskey will likely enjoy this!
Santa Teresa 1796 is a Venezuelan rum, made using the solera method—with the rums in the blend aged 5-35 years. Smooth with flavors of tropical fruit, as well as a background of butterscotch and toffee. Works great for sipping neat or used in cocktails.
El Dorado 21 Year Old Special Reserve is made in Guyana from rums of between 21 and 25 years of age. Smooth with hints of banana, dark chocolate, raisin. This is a great sipping rum which will likely please whiskey/Scotch/bourbon drinkers.
Appleton Estate 21 Year Old from Jamaica is the best rum I have sipped! Smooth with subtle flavors of raisin, vanilla, cinnamon, and a long lingering finish. The only problem with this rum is that the bottles seem to empty so quickly…
Facts matter...Feelings Can Lie
I took a bottle of Pusser's Rum along on a vacation to coastal South Carolina.
We found it drinkable, but weird.
Barbancourt 8 year was my the rum that made me a rum fan. But I don’t drink either the 4 or the 8 straight, only mix them with Coke.
Some recent acquisitions below...
The Lake Placid came from the only sugar cane distillery in the US that grows their own cane on-site. We stayed overnight in our camper on-property and did the tasting and distillery tour. Fun stuff. Wife opened this bottle Saturday night at our Boxing Day party so she could make hot buttered rum. About all an spiced rum is good for IMO.
The Pampero was a gift from someone that came over on Saturday night at our Boxing Day party. You can see I liked it! I had never had it before, and it was a great sipper on the rocks.
“Regular” Brugal is my mixer of choice for Coke. This 1888 version is a good sipper. I had it for the first time at a restaurant the night after we stayed at the distillery. Went great with a cigar.
The black label Zacapa was a birthday gift from my wife. I didn’t even know it was a thing. Will enjoy it on NYE with the friend that introduced me to that Barbencourt many years ago...
Funny note on Zacapa. The “regular” 23 is becoming quite ubiquitous. We went to see WW84 yesterday at the nearest iPic theater and they had a bottle. Given that I paid $38 for two glasses of house cab I shudder to think what they must charge for a glass of the Zacapa. I’m of a mixed feeling about Zacapa being everywhere. On the one hand I like it so it’s nice to be able to find it easily. On the other, it’s kind of making me feel like more of a plain belly Sneetch than a star bellied one...
Does the above offend? If you have paid to be here, you can click here to put it in context.
Pusser's is its own beast, and can be summed up as "Rum, sodomy and the lash".
I'm getting more and more into pot-still rums, or at least as purely pot-still as I can find. I dig that Jamaican funk. The problem is finding some that aren't just column-still rum with some pot-still added for flavor.
Matt Haught
SYMTAC Consulting LLC
https://sym-tac.com
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