Demerara Rum Cream Liqueur is the latest Rum of the Month on the Ministry of Rum website.
Rich dairy cream blended with aged Demerara Rum adds a decadent dimension to holiday cocktails, or sip it warm or chilled.
Demerara Rum Cream Liqueur
December 1st, 2006Have you tasted your rum lately?
November 26th, 2006We all have our favorite spirits, but when’s the last time you tasted your favorite spirit? Not in a cocktail, but unadulterated, neat at room temperature. Even if you don’t normally drink spirits neat you might be surprised how the taste of spirits change. On the other hand, if you can’t stand to drink your favorite libation neat, maybe you should widen your horizons.
I’ve been a fan of Cruzan rums ever since I first discovered these molasses-based rums in St Thomas a couple of decades ago. The first thing I noticed was that even their cheapest rum was significantly better than those from the 800 pound gorilla distiller a hundred miles to the west. Then towards the end of the last decade Cruzan launched their Single Barrel Rum which was a little too dry for my tastes. Up until that time, Cruzan Estate Diamond Rum was on my short list of favorites, but the Single Barrel Rum lacked some of the body of this new addition to the St Croix distiller’s lineup. About the same time, Cruzan was blending some of the best flavored rums in the Caribbean.
Over the last five or six years, I tried Cruzan’s Single Barrel Rum at various tastings and events and noticed that the blend had changed and had gained some of the body that had been lacking in the original blend. In August of this year, I tasted the Single Barrel again and following the taste of Ron Zacapa Centenario, Cruzan’s flagship rum had become sweeter and actually mimicked the award winning rum from Guatemala.
I’m not suggesting that change isn’t good, but don’t think that distillers aren’t working to make their products more attractive to consumers. In the 1980s Mount Gay Refined Eclipse had lost much of what had made that rum so popular. Fortunately, that blend has improved and is now much better (it lacks the raw, sharp bite typically found in young rums).
Considering rum is aged in used barrels and the raw material source also varies, it’s not surprising that my favorite distilled spirit changes. Distillers typically blend many barrels in an attempt to maintain consistency, but changes are part of any industry. And like many other products, distillers have been known to bottle different blends for sale in different market areas. But every distiller bottles its best rums at the distillery for the local market.
Matusalem Gran Reserva Rum
October 21st, 2006There are a number of rums claiming to be made from an original recipe from Cuba, but most fall short of capturing the elusive flavor of Cuba.
The designation 15 Solera Blender has never been meaningfully explained to me and most consumers I know confuse this with an age statement that this rum has been aged 15 years. The brown glass bottle disguises the color of this rum which is almost exactly the same as that of Matusalem Classico brand, which carries the designation of 10 Solera Blender. But despite this confusion if these two rums are poured into clear glasses, Gran Reserva has succeeded in very closely resembling the flavor of Havana Club Añejo Reserva bottled in Cuba.
Read more on the latest Rum of the Month at the Ministry of Rum website.
It's a tough job!
August 1st, 2006Researching the rums of the world is a tough job! And when I dream up a better job, I’m going to take it.
After more than a decade spent sailing the Caribbean in search of the finest examples of the distiller’s art, the time has come to share some of my favorite spirits with friends back in the US.
Unfortunately, sharing some of my favorite rums and cocktails with friends meant trading time aboard my boat to flying and driving around the country. It’s been years since I last spent more than a couple of months at a time in the US, so there is a lot to see and do – and a lot has changed. And some of that change has been for the better.
Most of my travels involve promoting Caribbean rum around the country, but there are other rums which deserve your attention. Phil Prichard, down in Tennessee, makes some pretty tasty rum in his own small still. There are a few other small distillers around the country who also make rum and I take every opportunity to visit them.
A few years ago I was frustrated that I couldn’t enjoy one of my favorite cocktails in the US. This simple cocktial, called a ti punch, is made with a little sugar cane syrup, a slice of lime – from the side of the lime and rhum agricole from the French West Indies. After failing to successfully encourage other importers to bring rhum agricole to the US, I ended up working with Caribbean Spirits to bring AOC rhum agricole from the last two-family owned distilleries to the US.
The good news is that as I travel the country I can get one of my favorite drinks in a number of US cities, New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Chicago and San Francisco.
Next week I’ll be in Florida and after another hot day on the road, I’ll be sharing a ti punch with a few friends I’ve met on the Ministry of Rum forum on egullet.org.
Will the real Havana Club please stand up?
October 9th, 2006Over the last few months there has been increasing conversation about Castro’s health, Havana Club and Bacardi, not necessarily in that order. For a little background, Pernod Ricard partnered with the Cuban government in a deal which allowed them to market Havana Club Rum around the world. But since the US continues to impose an embargo on some products from Cuba, the Cuban Havana Club Rum isn’t sold in the US. And in a further twist, in August, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office refused Pernod trademark renewal for the name Havana Club in the US. Rum giant Bacardi had seized on the opportunity to register the name Havana Club in the US and is now selling a white rum in the US under the Havana Club name.
The Arechabala family, who owned the distillery where Havana Club was first made in 1935, moved to South Florida after Castro took over the country and then sold the recipe for their namesake Cuban rum to Bacardi. Last week I had an opportunity to try the new Bacardi distilled Havana Club rum and was very surprised at the marked vanilla flavor in the finish. I have tasted a lot of rums and have only found a distinct vanilla flavor in one other white rum. In the aging process sucrose in the oak wood used to make the barrels gives the spirit a slight vanilla flavor accompanied by a slight woody note. If the barrel has been charred, a smoky oak flavor is also generally present.
In Cuba’s Havana Club, which is claimed to be aged three years in oak barrels and then carbon filtered, I taste a very dry spirit with a slight citrus flavor which is devoid of the vanilla flavor found in Bacardi’s Havana Club. Over the years, I’ve also had the opportunity to taste a number of Havana Club rums distilled before Castro seized control of Cuba and they taste more like what Cuba is exporting today than the rum Bacardi now claims is made according to the original recipe.
Bacardi’s Havana Club bottle is markedly different from that used for their other rums and there is no comparison to the bottle or label used by the Cuban distillery. Bacardi’s sculptured bottle will stand out on the shelf and I doubt anyone will confuse this with the Havana Club for which Cuba is so well known around the world.
Whether or not America is going to be smitten by the new Havana Club is yet to be seen, but one thing is for certain, the legal posturing is going to continue for a long time. And that can only be good for the lawyers.
Posted in Commentary | Comments Off