What rum are you drinking today?

[tanstaafl2]

Interesting glass for a Mai Tai! Not exactly traditional.

 

Hope you got the Bacardi at a decent price. Have to admit it is not really my favorite rum.

[Marekv8]

On 10/22/2020 at 9:14 PM, tanstaafl2 said:

Interesting glass for a Mai Tai! Not exactly traditional.

 

Hope you got the Bacardi at a decent price. Have to admit it is not really my favorite rum.

 

Given that it was my first business trip since early March, and the great company I was with at the bar— the Bacardi pour was absolutely priceless.

[Paddy]

Picked this up on a whim.  Will definitely grab another, as this one will not last long.  

[PhantomLamb]

Well, it finally happened.  After working on the Hamilton St. Lucia 9yr. for 6 months, I finally had my first enjoyable pour of it last night.  It took a big block of ice to mellow it out quite a bit, but turned out to be an interesting rum, lots of different notes I couldn't put my finger on, but it tasted good lol.

[fishnbowljoe]

5 hours ago, PhantomLamb said:

Well, it finally happened.  After working on the Hamilton St. Lucia 9yr. for 6 months, I finally had my first enjoyable pour of it last night.  It took a big block of ice to mellow it out quite a bit, but turned out to be an interesting rum, lots of different notes I couldn't put my finger on, but it tasted good lol.

If at first you don’t succeed..........   

 

Biba! Joe

 

[lcpfratn]

On 10/26/2020 at 3:24 PM, Marekv8 said:

 

Given that it was my first business trip since early March, and the great company I was with at the bar— the Bacardi pour was absolutely priceless.

Did you and Steve finally get together?

[Marekv8]

21 minutes ago, lcpfratn said:

Did you and Steve finally get together?

Not yet-- our planes crossed paths; hopefully next time around.

[flahute]

7 hours ago, lcpfratn said:

Did you and Steve finally get together?

No! And I'm super bummed about that. I was in Bardstown while he was in my hometown. Damnit!

[lcpfratn]

21 hours ago, flahute said:

No! And I'm super bummed about that. I was in Bardstown while he was in my hometown. Damnit!

Oh well, maybe next time as Dave said above. Hopefully your Bardstown trip was worthwhile. 

[flahute]

47 minutes ago, lcpfratn said:

Oh well, maybe next time as Dave said above. Hopefully your Bardstown trip was worthwhile. 

It was very worthwhile. Two great barrel picks and made some new friends. Wilderness Trail bourbon really makes a turn for the better when it transitions from 5 to 6yrs old.

[RWBadley]

On 10/27/2020 at 8:09 AM, PhantomLamb said:

Well, it finally happened.  After working on the Hamilton St. Lucia 9yr. for 6 months, I finally had my first enjoyable pour of it last night.  It took a big block of ice to mellow it out quite a bit, but turned out to be an interesting rum, lots of different notes I couldn't put my finger on, but it tasted good lol.

This is some interesting stuff. I have bottles of the 8, 9 and 10 year Hamilton St Lucia. I haven't got back to them recently, but iirc there was a clear winner between them and I don't think it was the 10.

 

I'm not surprised it has taken a while to gain favor with you. The general profile of these is quite funky intense.   I have used some into my house blends at about a 10% addition for the funk on top of a more neutral base.

 

I also found they are improved over a blop of ice, or into some sort of juicy mix cocktail with a splash of a more neutral rum as well.

 

To my taste, it's a little like some of the peaty Scotch, sometimes it's a bit too much and too single dimensional for the moment. Sometimes it's just right. 

[PhantomLamb]

1 hour ago, RWBadley said:

This is some interesting stuff. I have bottles of the 8, 9 and 10 year Hamilton St Lucia. I haven't got back to them recently, but iirc there was a clear winner between them and I don't think it was the 10.

 

I'm not surprised it has taken a while to gain favor with you. The general profile of these is quite funky intense.   I have used some into my house blends at about a 10% addition for the funk on top of a more neutral base.

 

I also found they are improved over a blop of ice, or into some sort of juicy mix cocktail with a splash of a more neutral rum as well.

 

To my taste, it's a little like some of the peaty Scotch, sometimes it's a bit too much and too single dimensional for the moment. Sometimes it's just right. 

Amen to that, very, very different, but a cool learning experience and happy I bought it.  The nose is unbelievable on this.

[tanstaafl2]

On 10/27/2020 at 11:09 AM, PhantomLamb said:

Well, it finally happened.  After working on the Hamilton St. Lucia 9yr. for 6 months, I finally had my first enjoyable pour of it last night.  It took a big block of ice to mellow it out quite a bit, but turned out to be an interesting rum, lots of different notes I couldn't put my finger on, but it tasted good lol.

 

On 10/29/2020 at 12:13 PM, RWBadley said:

This is some interesting stuff. I have bottles of the 8, 9 and 10 year Hamilton St Lucia. I haven't got back to them recently, but iirc there was a clear winner between them and I don't think it was the 10.

 

I'm not surprised it has taken a while to gain favor with you. The general profile of these is quite funky intense.   I have used some into my house blends at about a 10% addition for the funk on top of a more neutral base.

 

I also found they are improved over a blop of ice, or into some sort of juicy mix cocktail with a splash of a more neutral rum as well.

 

To my taste, it's a little like some of the peaty Scotch, sometimes it's a bit too much and too single dimensional for the moment. Sometimes it's just right. 

 

I got the 9yo BP out again this week to compare to some heavy hitters in the Jamaican funk category (a couple of 9yo Moneymusk BPs and a 14you Long Pond BP (with nearly 1300 gr/hpla  of esters! lets just say the ester is usually lower than that in most rums. A LOT lower!) and several people preferred the St Lucia. Not sure if it says more about the people who tried it or just how funky those new ones were!

[PhantomLamb]

10 hours ago, tanstaafl2 said:

 

 

I got the 9yo BP out again this week to compare to some heavy hitters in the Jamaican funk category (a couple of 9yo Moneymusk BPs and a 14you Long Pond BP (with nearly 1300 gr/hpla  of esters! lets just say the ester is usually lower than that in most rums. A LOT lower!) and several people preferred the St Lucia. Not sure if it says more about the people who tried it or just how funky those new ones were!

I'm still exploring rum quite a bit so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.  Not much is available here in PA, I had to snag this one out of state but would be interested in trying other high ester rums.

[tanstaafl2]

The highest ester rums I have seen tend not to just be out of state but out of the country! My most recent additions came from The Whisky Exchange in London. They are finally shipping to the US again but the bottle cost to ship is now painfully high. Hard to recommend unless it is something you really, really, really want.

 

Thought I had a place in Denmark called Fine Drams but after receiving one shipment with minimal trouble they have been terrible about helping with a missing order (no response at all from them) so I don’t recommend them under any circumstance. DO NOT ORDER FROM THEM!!!

[PhantomLamb]

10 hours ago, tanstaafl2 said:

The highest ester rums I have seen tend not to just be out of state but out of the country! My most recent additions came from The Whisky Exchange in London. They are finally shipping to the US again but the bottle cost to ship is now painfully high. Hard to recommend unless it is something you really, really, really want.

 

Thought I had a place in Denmark called Fine Drams but after receiving one shipment with minimal trouble they have been terrible about helping with a missing order (no response at all from them) so I don’t recommend them under any circumstance. DO NOT ORDER FROM THEM!!!

Lol, sounds good.  As PA is a control state, it makes it hard for shipping.  I'd still like to put an order into K+L, but haven't got around to it.

 

Any other sources you'd recommend?

 

Thanks,

[tanstaafl2]

On 11/3/2020 at 10:42 AM, PhantomLamb said:

Lol, sounds good.  As PA is a control state, it makes it hard for shipping.  I'd still like to put an order into K+L, but haven't got around to it.

 

Any other sources you'd recommend?

 

Thanks,

Nothing that is really good and reliable other than NY stores like Astor. Don’t know if they ship to PA though. PA is high up on the list of one of the worst places to live with regards to booze!

[PhantomLamb]

12 hours ago, tanstaafl2 said:

Nothing that is really good and reliable other than NY stores like Astor. Don’t know if they ship to PA though. PA is high up on the list of one of the worst places to live with regards to booze!

Amen to that!  

[Marekv8]

2 hours ago, PhantomLamb said:

Amen to that!  

I think B-21 in Florida ships to Pennsylvania. Wouldn't hurt to check with Old Town Tequila and Blackwell's in California as well.

[tanstaafl2]

2 hours ago, Marekv8 said:

I think B-21 in Florida ships to Pennsylvania. Wouldn't hurt to check with Old Town Tequila and Blackwell's in California as well.

Yeah, Old Town Tequila might. They ship to Georgia when most places won't.

[k-train]

At some point over the past two years, Bacoo rum started showing up on ABC store shelves here in NC. I wasn't able to find much info on the stuff back when it first arrived, but the 5Y was readily available & going for just about $18, so I decided to give it a chance. It was dangerously easy to drink, and became one that I have since purchased often... especially since it seems to go on sale for just $16/bottle every few months.

I had been meaning to try the other offerings available here (the 8Y & 12Y), but never got around to it until a few days ago when I saw the 8Y for $20 at an ABC store near my house which previously didn't carry any of the Bacoo rums.

This one definitely seems like a slight step up from the 5Y. The 5Y tastes like liquid candy, and while I personally don't find it to be cloying, I could certainly see how some folks would find it to be too sweet. There's a little more complexity to the 8Y and the sweetness is toned down just a notch.

If their website is to be believed at all, they seem to be doing good things & they use environmentally conscience practices at their distillery which I appreciate.

Per their site:
"Quality, consistency, and character. Most major rum brands bring cane juice and molasses from other parts of the world to produce their rum. Bacoo Rum is estate grown and produced on the beautiful island of Dominican Republic, then aged and bottled down the road from the estate to provide exceptional consistency and quality. Bacoo is farm to glass.

Made with fresh cane juice and aged in ex-bourbon barrels, from the both, Bacoo Rum balances those desirable elements to obtain an excellent finished product.
 

Our facility is located in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. We have a beautiful environmentally conscious farm and factory.

In the not too distant past, companies would dump their waste in the ocean or store it in caves or dumping grounds. This led to unforeseen environmental impacts that are still being addressed today.

The bi-products from stripping the rum are extracted and stored for resale. The leftover stripped cane is sent to the incinerators that help power the operation. The ash and biomass is then blended with the waste water and used to fertilize the sugar cane fields around the distillery. CO2 is captured and bottled for sale to beverage companies. The alcohol produced is then used in the production of Bacoo Rum. The Bacoo Rum facility is one of the greenest, self-sufficient, large scale operations in the world."

Even if they are full of it, we don't get a particularly large or interesting selection of rums to choose from here in NC, and so far I have found both the Bacoo 5Y & 8Y to be really affordable and really enjoyable... so it may not be anything special or renowned, but I like it.

[smokinjoe]

2 hours ago, k-train said:

At some point over the past two years, Bacoo rum started showing up on ABC store shelves here in NC. I wasn't able to find much info on the stuff back when it first arrived, but the 5Y was readily available & going for just about $18, so I decided to give it a chance. It was dangerously easy to drink, and became one that I have since purchased often... especially since it seems to go on sale for just $16/bottle every few months.

I had been meaning to try the other offerings available here (the 8Y & 12Y), but never got around to it until a few days ago when I saw the 8Y for $20 at an ABC store near my house which previously didn't carry any of the Bacoo rums.

This one definitely seems like a slight step up from the 5Y. The 5Y tastes like liquid candy, and while I personally don't find it to be cloying, I could certainly see how some folks would find it to be too sweet. There's a little more complexity to the 8Y and the sweetness is toned down just a notch.

If their website is to be believed at all, they seem to be doing good things & they use environmentally conscience practices at their distillery which I appreciate.

Per their site:
"Quality, consistency, and character. Most major rum brands bring cane juice and molasses from other parts of the world to produce their rum. Bacoo Rum is estate grown and produced on the beautiful island of Dominican Republic, then aged and bottled down the road from the estate to provide exceptional consistency and quality. Bacoo is farm to glass.

Made with fresh cane juice and aged in ex-bourbon barrels, from the both, Bacoo Rum balances those desirable elements to obtain an excellent finished product.
 

Our facility is located in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. We have a beautiful environmentally conscious farm and factory.

In the not too distant past, companies would dump their waste in the ocean or store it in caves or dumping grounds. This led to unforeseen environmental impacts that are still being addressed today.

The bi-products from stripping the rum are extracted and stored for resale. The leftover stripped cane is sent to the incinerators that help power the operation. The ash and biomass is then blended with the waste water and used to fertilize the sugar cane fields around the distillery. CO2 is captured and bottled for sale to beverage companies. The alcohol produced is then used in the production of Bacoo Rum. The Bacoo Rum facility is one of the greenest, self-sufficient, large scale operations in the world."

Even if they are full of it, we don't get a particularly large or interesting selection of rums to choose from here in NC, and so far I have found both the Bacoo 5Y & 8Y to be really affordable and really enjoyable... so it may not be anything special or renowned, but I like it.

They failed to mention this tidbit: “Since Bacoo Rum is produced in San Pedro de Macoris, there are currently seven 14 year old future MLB All Star shortstops working at the distillery.”  

[Marekv8]

Wow, what a finish. This is really a complicated set of wheels-- everything I hoped for and more.

 

 

[Marekv8]

I went back for the coffee-infused version. Interesting in that there's no sugar added and it clocks in at a whopping 111 proof-- this ain’t your Mama’s Kahlúa…

 

[smokinjoe]

A late Sunday afternoon pour of Criterion on the front patio, before heading in to get started on din-din.