A not-so-rum blend

[TNbourbon]

Out of boredom -- and some dissatisfaction with available choices caused by such boredom -- I tried my hand at one of Gary's 'complex' blends tonight, though I did it in an admittedly simple manner: I took an ounce each of the rums I had available and combined them in a decanter.

Included are:

• Angostura 1919 8yo
  
• Cruzan Diamond Estate 5yo
  
• El Dorado Demerara 5yo
  
• Old Nassau dark
  
• Pyrat's Planter's X.O.
  
• Angostura 5yo dark
  

The nose has much the 'Juicy Fruit gum' of the Planter's X.O., but the palate shows a fair amount of the wood from the 1919 and El Dorado.

My intention was to tinker after tasting -- but I like it well enough as is that I may just add more similar proportions to the decanter.

(Hmmm -- it strikes me that I forgot to include some 95.5-proof Pusser's I have. I may have to tinker, after all.)

Postscript: Added the Pusser's, which influenced the blend with a 'blackstrapiness'. Not bad, but I think I preferred it without.

[Gillman]

Nicely done. What I find interesting is you can get a very integrated taste by combining rums in a certain way. The principles could be worked out if you had a consistent supply of specific types. But because I don't buy rum all the time and also I don't have a specific knowledge of their make-up, I just combine and re-combine them (what I have) until I get a palate I like.

Recently I put the capper (as it were) on an excellent blend , which must combine 50-60 rums (and since many of these are blends by the distillery the final result has hundreds of rums in it). This one has a similar overall taste to other blends I have but is softer to the palate, longer and not as woody. Also, it seems a touch sweeter. This is near perfect.

I wanted a taste of spice in it (to give a top note) and added some time ago a touch of Haitian spiced rum (Barbancourt's, a Papa Doc-era bottling). I wanted a dash of orange also so I added a very little Charbay orange vodka (some white rums are essentially neutral so I don't think the little vodka added traduced it any). It is a very soft drink of rum with a sweetish, faintly spicy and orangey aspect, kind of like a VSOP of rum. Demerara and other dark and amber rum notes predominate.

In fact, although I haven't had that many high end rums, I think it is as good as the best ones I've had and better than many.

Still, there are some rums I admire whose character derives from using the distillery's own production and Havana Club Anejo is one of the best. So is the superb El Dorado 12 years old. Both of these get a soft, coffee-like (or faintly tobacco-like) palate which becomes something different from the house character. The El Dorado is really in a class of its own due to its voluptuous, Baroque taste. (The Havana Club Anejo is more rococo...).

Gary