Lol, but that doesn’t help me make it through the next 6-24 months.

Damn. I'm totally not jealous. Ok, that was a lie, I'm very jealous. Great advice and great rums equals great post.

Summer is almost upon us, and what better activity to partake in than to pissdrunk drinking rum?

I think I mentioned that betting profits is what I usually spend on rum, but as there has been no sports for a while, there's also been no profits. But I got some tax returns unexpectedly, and some of that is being spent on rum.

The El Dorado 21 is still on my radar, but seeing as I've been depleting my reserves and will be having some friends over for drinking rum in not too long, I'm going to prioritize differently than splurging (relative to my budget; in the big picture, it's really not a lot for quality) on one bottle.

Therefore, I'm going to pick up:

Plantation O.T.F.D, 69% ABV - intended to be used as mixer. ~about €35

Rum Nation Jamaica Rum 5 Years Olorosa Finish, 50% ABV - have read conflicting reviews of this, but the rum reviewer I'm the most loyal to has recommended it, so I figure I'd give it a try. ~€45

Black Tot Finest Caribbean 46% - rum made by blends from Jamaica, Guyana and Barbados. Heard good stuff about this one. ~€55

I've been looking for different drinks to enjoy in the summer, the current list looks like this:

Ti punch
Dark n stormy
High ball
Brass Monkey
Painkiller
Cuba Libre

I've had them all before, except the High Ball, and I'm looking for more, so recommendations are very welcome.

Viggorous,

Don't forget straight rum. Just a little to sip on, not doing shots. More like a brandy or cognac.

BTW, I vote <straight>, 6, 2, 5, the rest, only because I'm not familiar with the rest.
Maybe I'd rank them higher if I were.

gd, you have to try Ti punch. So good. Basically equal parts each of rum, lime juice, and simple syrup, adjust to taste. Usually made with a cane rum. I personally double the rum, so it's 1/2 rum, 1/4 lime juice, 1/4 simple syrup. Heavenly.

Oh yes. I drink it straight >95% of the time, but in summer/when I drink with not-very-faniliar-with-rum friends, I like to make some cocktails.

Agree generally with the sentiment, so instead I will just offer words of caution. Do not under any circumstances let anyone trick you into drinking Puncheon. I think you can only get it in Trinidad, and there it should stay. Likewise Wray and Nephew.

Ohh and as far as recommendations, can't go wrong with Ron Zacapa 23.

Bibb thanks for the kind words, been lucky to try some amazing runs over the past few years.

I like your choices, really interested in the newest Black Tot. For the Plantation if you’re looking for a high proof rum in a similar price I’d go with Pusser’s gun powder rum. Also me personally I try to avoid any port wine/sherry cask finished rum. Rum is already sweet enough for me so I like to avoid it.

Stupid question, but isn't that a daiquiri?

Besides the fact that you usually use a Rhum Agricole for Ti punch and white rum for daiquiri, I always thought the main difference was the amount of lime juice used. Little lime for Ti punch, often just a slice/wedge. A lot of lime (and sugar) for caipirissima. Daiquiri somewhere between the other two.

2 parts rum, 1 part lime juice and 1 part simple syrup is what I use when my wife asks for a daiquiri.

If you are a stickler for technicalities, Ti punch is supposed to be made with cane syrup. But there are probably a dozen different drinks that are basically a mixture of rum, sugar and either lime or lemon juice. I agree with you that a classic Ti doesn't even get any lime juice. But many places do add some.

Yeah, the difference is really in the cane rum, imo. I don't find the cane syrup to taste any different than simple syrup, and the latter is much easier to get. My first Ti Punch used the juice of half a lime, which I now see is really a lot compared to most recipes, many of which don't even squeeze the lime medallion, but I like it.

TBQH, I never knew a daiquiri as anything other than those lame blender drinks, so I didn't realize how similar the classic recipes are.

Garick,

Thanks for the recipe, I will try. I guess I'll have to acquire syrup next time I'm at the liquor store.

Do we vote for getting a lime (multiple limes?) and squeezing it for the juice, or is that something I get at the grocery already made?

I remember being the weird kid that liked Lime Kool-Aid as a kid, so this is probably right up my alley.

You can make that at home easily. Simple syrup is just one part water, one part regular white sugar. Bring to boil while stirring occasionally. That's it.

In theory, cane syrup is more complicated because you need stalks of sugar cane for that. But in reality, you can just use granulated cane sugar and boil that with water. Looks the same and tastes the same as the one you get bottled.

And I agree with Garick, the taste of simple syrup and cane syrup is extremely similar. The only real difference is the color. You use simple syrup with white rum to get that light color and cane syrup with darker rum to get the brown-ish color.

FWIW, if any of you have Bayou Satsuma rum, my wife and several of our friends really like daiquiris with that. Personally, I dislike the Bayou Satsuma in general and don't think it gets less bad as part of a cocktail.

Fresh is always better, but I don't see anything wrong with store bought. But that is strictly for daiquiris. For Ti Punch, you want to have a real lime because you need the wedge and for caipirissima you want to have the full lime to muddle.

I always use fresh lime, though if I'm making a bunch of them I'll use a mix of fresh squeezed and bottled. I find the fresh taste and inclusion of some pulp goes really well with the cane rum.

See discussion above that cane juice syrup is also preferred and that I apparently use a crap-ton more lime juice than most.

Huge agree. I am a big fan of the Pusser's gunpowder, I wrote a review of it somewhere further up, and I have gone through 2 bottles since I first tried it in December.
I thought I'd try something new, and the OTFD has been on my "intending to try" list for a long while. Very interested in seeing how it does in drinks, it's without added sugar but supposedly fairly sweet anyways. Unlike Pusser's Gunpowder, I don't imagine it's particularly pleasant to drink straight, though.

To each their own, personally I enjoy sweet rum. In my very limited experience with sherry casks is the Dos Maderas 5+5 that I liked, but I imagine it's not your cup of tea considering it's very sweet and sherry.

It's crazy how wide the range and variety of rum is, something I never realized until I got into it. From personal experience, it's a very common misconception that rum is always sweet. So many times when I've talked spirits with someone and i mention that I enjoy rum, their response is they don't like it because it's too sweet. It's a shame, because I think most people that like whiskey/other spirits could find a (non-sweetened) rum that fit their taste.

Enjoying me some Captain Morgan spiced and cola at the moment

Time to cheapen this page up with some Bacardi!


I did grow my own mint and make my own simple syrup though!

Why would you waste your precious home grown mint on Bacardi?

I'd rather use it for tea..

haha

zomg yes, mint and green tea moroccan style is amazing

Fwiw I wasn't just drinking a huge glass full of bacardi with a sprig of mint and a lime wedge lol. I made mojitos in case that wasn't clear

Got my hands on a Ron Zacapa 23 Solera 1 Litre at €47 from Germany (which is usually the price for 0.7L in Denmark), so a quite nice discount purchase.

I've also tried the other rums I've ordered. I like them all (and, shockingly, even the OTFD is honestly relatively drinkable, for a spirit at 69%, anyways), and I will be doing a proper tasting/reviewing of them in not too long.

The masses for the past 5 months whenever they eagerly open this thread, only to see that there's still not been any updates:



But fear not, (the royal) we are back!

I have been drinking a good bit of rum since my last post, I've just been too lazy to update this thread.

But now that December is only weeks ago and I therefore have ordered "24 Days of Rum" anno 2020, I think it's a good time to get back into rum posting - and especially rum drinking.

I did a quick web browsing to see if the calender is available outside of Denmark, and I did manage to find a few places you could buy it, although the price was fairly steep. I found it for Germany, UK and Australia, although if my currency converter is accurste, at the price of 200 AUS dollaroos, it might be a better decision financially to buy gold, melt it down and drink it. It would, however, likely be much less delicious.

Since my last post, I haven't exactly been buying loads of new rum, just 3 bottles: a Barbancourt 8 year 5 star, Wray & Nephew White Overproof Rum (I've yet to find a cocktail that really let's it shine) and Ron Centenario 20 Fundacion.

Along with the rum calendar, I bought three neat little 5 cL Compañero rums. At just €4 each I thought that was a great price, it is some rums I've been eyeing through my spyglass for a while, so it's nice to be able to try them without needing to buy 3 bottles. 5 cL is very nice as well, 2 cL isn't much, sometimes not enough to really get a feeling of the taste when you can barely take two sips.

I've missed this thread. I haven't been out rum shopping since the pandemic hit, but I need to, as I have been in rum drinking. So far, I've killed a bottle of Flora de Cana 7 (dark cane rum) making Ti Punch, and a bottle each of Ron Matusalem 15 (Cuba style) and Old Monk (dessert rum) drinking straight, as well as making some serious inroads on my emergency back-up cane rums and my other sippers.

Can you post a link for the calendar in Germany and let me know if you think it's worth the money?

That might be a neat present for some of my business partners. Looks unlikely I'll be able to present them with something in person this year.

I've been wanting to try a bottle of flor de cana for a while, perhaps I should go for the 7 once I get around to it if you can recommend it.

I think I spoke too soon, it seems it's unavailable, at least for the time being https://www.urban-drinks.de/en/24-da...l-417-vol.html

I think it worth it because it's a nice to have an excuse to drink rum every day, and it's a fun way to discover different types of rums from many different places. If you go to rum tastings (AFAIK, I haven't been to any myself), you usually stay in one brand of rum, or one style of rum, maybe a particular geographical area. That's very nice in its own way, but it's also much different from this where you try a lot of rums you'd never hear of elsewhere, for example last year there was rum from Nepal, The Canary Isles etc. and an Indonesian "rum" made from fermented red rice.

So for someone who's into rum/liquor and like to try new things, I think it's worth it. Obviously, if you just want some nice rum to drink, 48 cL of mostly ~€25-40 rum for €70 isn't worth it.