Don Q’s better than Bacardi, even if it’s less well known. Basically white rum should be a light, mostly unaged product that still tastes largely like molasses/sugarcane, albeit much less intensely than say… a Demerara or Jamaican rum.
Bacardi just distills the bejeezus out of it in a column still, and as a result, their classic white rum is almost like molasses flavored vodka, although I suspect that if they did flavor it, it would actually be more intense.
Almost certainly at Heathrow, as it is in stores. Or just buy and pack it. I don’t know if Duty Free care about laws or will inform you, yet there is a non-zero chance the CBP (Customs) will confiscate and destroy (or possibly drink) it.
Yeah, it must have been you, since I remember the mention of learning to love it while in St. Thomas for several months.
And I was grateful for the recommendation, since for a few years afterward its combination of dirt cheap price and surprisingly good quality made it a real find. But then, like I said, it started becoming difficult to find in the stores around here, and that last bottle I bought (last Summer I think) tasted awful. Maybe just a one-off bad batch? If and when I see it in the store again, I’ll consider giving it another try.
But I’ve found that if you start telling the CBP guy everything you bought in your day trip to Canada, he’ll get bored and wave you through before you get to the rum.
I got a bottle of Havana Club 7 yr, Lamb’s Palm Breeze, and Newfoundland Screech (only the Havana Club is prohibited), so I’ve enjoyed sampling those, since they’re not available in Texas.
Well that’s a shame. The bars in St. Thomas served rum and coke that was easily 90% rum, mainly because Cruzan was something like 90 cents a quart and Coke was several dollars a sixpack (this was in 1976). So glugglugglug with the rum and a splash of Coke. It was no wonder there were so many alcoholics there.
I don’t like any Cruzan Rum straight - it’s fine for cooking (I like the Blackstrap for baking, dessert making [ read Banana’s Foster! ]) or mixing. But since they seem to be very heavily invested in the flavored, lower alcohol rums (42 proof on the Vanilla), it seems they’re mostly targeting the mixer/cocktail market. Which is fine for R&C, or adding to coffee and hot chocolate this time of year - but on it’s own? Not what I want. Still, it’s a cheap and cheerful option, which has it’s time and place.
That’s the one with the black label, I believe. It’s lovely stuff but when I buy Havana Club it’s usually the lesser Havana Club Anejo Reserva with the gold label. I’m in Canada so these are authentic Cuban rums, not the Bacardi imitations. They make even better, older rums. A friend introduced me to (and once gave me for Christmas) a beautifully mellow rum that was much like a very fine Scotch. I don’t remember the name of it but I think it was some upscale variant of Havana Club.
For everyday drinking I have a slight preference for Bacardi Gold over Havana Club Anejo Reserva. I wouldn’t say it’s sweeter than Havana Club, but just a little lighter.
Thee’s a lot of sophisticated rum talk in this thread but for me, those two are the basics. Not a fan of either white rum or dark rum. I’ll have rum & Coke once in a while but I can never have more than one because of its sweetness. I prefer my rum straight up.
Just to make it clear, the last bottle of Cruzan I bought wasn’t just like, “eh, the quality’s declined”…it tasted terrible. I think something went really wrong with that batch. I’m a little curious now to maybe pick up another bottle next time I see it in the store to see if that was an anomaly or not.
Once, kind of on a lark, I brought home “Discarded Banana Peel Rum”, a dark rum, mainly because it’s usually expensive and was on sale (back to expensive this week).
But Bumbu has dropped from £38 to £30, so that looks like this weekend’s stuff.
The last time we got Kraken, it came in a black form-fitting zipper pouch. It was on sale too, matching Asda.
As for Havana Club, if the USA embargo on Cuba is ever lifted, it will be an interesting trademark and identity battle for the Cuban exiles’ return to Cuba.
While I am definitely a fan of Bacardi, I have found a taste for Iron Wolf. It is distilled near Spicewood, Texas, a community just southwest of Austin. Their Iron Hot is wonderful for sipping, IMHO.
