Showing posts with label Rum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rum. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Black Strap Rum

When I was in Marathon I went by this place to get some booze.It is pretty big, and carries a wide variety of liquors, sandwiches and sandwich materials, on three aisles.I was aiming from Guatemalan Zacapa on my buddy Keith's recommendation but my wife set a price limit and for $40 I got one of these ($20) and a 375 ml bottle of flavored Pyrat rum from Guyana. Two new ones to taste. Excellent.Josh it was that told me I needed to try some Cruzan Black Strap Rum. So I did when we got home. "How is it?" he said after pouring me an excessively large measure into a brandy snifter. I took a sip and reeled. This stuff is strong, very strong.It had long long legs around the glass, thanks to the sugary molasses which give it a delicious smokey flavor. The alcohol seems to sit on top of the tarry black molasses like an evil spirit and hits you up the nostrils as you sniff the snifter. It was delicious but a little goes a long way. Keith said I should try it with some ginger beer to make a proper Dark and Stormy (usually made with Bermuda's Gosling dark rum). Cruzan (pronounced with the emphasis on the "...an.") is made in the United States' true Caribbean islands, the US Virgin Island of St Croix and I think they get some tax relief which helps keep the price down, as an added incentive.

I keep a bottle of Flor de Cana ("flower of the sugar cane") from Nicaragua in my drinks cabinet and I recently tried some Appleton's from Jamaica which has a tremendous reputation but I found it a little spicier and less smooth than my favorite......which is still Barbancourt from Haiti. The eight year old is okay but when I've finished this one I'm going back to the 15 year old which costs around $45 a bottle. It's worth it.Meanwhile Ive got an orange flavored Pyrat to try. It was offered at $12, a 30% discount which may be 30% of nothing if i don't much like it. I'm not a fan of flavored or spiced rums but I'm adventurous so we shall see. Check this adult only (!) website if you have a hankering to learn more about the home of US Caribbean rum.
http://cruzanrum.com/

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Rum

With the continuing struggle to stay warm in this frigid time in the Keys my thoughts naturally turn to molasses. More accurately to distilled molasses. Behold an illegal bottle in front of me.
My wife found it sitting forlornly on a shelf on Crooked Island, in the Bahamas, which nation has no embargo against Cuba. So she swept it up and brought it home for a taste test.

We have tried Havana Club previously on trips to Central America and not found it to be our favorite. However this is the first time we have tried seven year old "aged" Havana Club. The label on the bottle shows a sticker from the French importer of Havana Club, so one has to assume this bottle made a circuitous route to the Bahamas from neighboring Cuba. Oddly enough the blurb on the back (not very legible in the next photo) is in the universal language; and that's not Esperanto.I have found the Havana Club to be slightly peppery and light, smooth enough but not as sweet as I like my dark rums. This Flor de Cana ("Flower of the Cane") from Nicaragua hits the spot just like brandy might in these frigid times:Aside from the novelty value, Havana Club is a decent rum but I don't feel desperately deprived because it's not sold in the US. I would feel deprived if Flor de Cana were banned. The other bottle my wife brought back from the Bahamas was one of their local rums, flavored with coconut this time. I'm not generally a big fan of flavored rums and I have yet to taste it. Perhaps when it's warmer outside this might do something with ice and a mixer.The old stand by we use to mix rum drinks is a four year old Flor de Cana which comes in one and three quarter liter bottles and does a fine job of putting sweet alcohol in a glass with something else.I also like Barbancourt from Haiti but we don't have any in hand at the moment. I have always liked brandy from grapes and rum from molasses over the harsher drinks like vodka and especially whisky. I usually drink whisky on occasions when I don't want to drink much but I want to be polite, as the flavor prevents me from guzzling the stuff. Sitting around in a mildly heated house looking out at a nearly frozen sub tropical landscape is never a very fun experience in my world. A glass of rum helps.