Good lord, man. Sip your drink for crissakes. This isn’t some frat party.
Now, why you make me google those lyrics, looking for a reggae hit? I’m all over YouTube like a fool…
Pancakes, this same friend taught me to drink everything straight up, and to be sure it is the best so that I enjoy it. So far, I have only been drinking Tequila and I love it. No ice, room temp, yum!
When I was a young teeny bop, I used to drink anything and everything, including Wild Irish Rose. Now, after 15 years of drinking no alcohol at all, I am eager to try new stuff. The rum I buy will be the first rum I’ve tasted in nearly 2 decades. I’m doing it straight.
The recipe:
Liebesaft
1 oz. Bacardi 151 Rum
1 oz. Southern Comfort
1 oz. Dr. Pepper Pop
Shake in ice, strain, serve in a Gimlet with a straw and an orange and dried prune en sword garnish.
I single-handedly kept Cruzan in business in 1976 when I spent five months in St. Thomas. Well, I had a bit of help, but that’s a novella all its own. Back then it was $.80/quart and nobody in the US had even heard of it. Coke was about $4.00/6-pack, so bars made drinks that were 90% rum with a splash of Coke behind it. I sort of remember the start of Carnivale that year, but not the middle or the end. Man, that was a time.
I’m not sure of the price, but Mr. HP swears by Barbancourt Rhum (Haitian). He always gets a few bottles when he travels east, but I’m sure you could order it online if it’s not available where you live. I’m not big on rum, but that one is pretty smooth and not one to be mixed.
i thought the garnish for any 151 drink was fire.
and wow. straight rum drinkers… i guess it makes sense. spiced rum and the darker rums have a good enough taste to stand alone. i would probably not drink a light rum straight, or even on the rocks. hmmmmm… maybe i’ll go snag a bottle of appletons and have a glass myself this weekend. i’ve grown tired of gin and not a fan of bourbon. vodka straight is just not pleasant (to me anyway). my pops is a big brandy drinker but it’s too sweet for me.
As someone who’s been thoroughly uninterested in alcohol ever since he knew what it was, I thought the Captain Morgan I sipped straight on Christmas was quite good. A little more palatable when watered down, but even straight wasn’t bad.
It’s bullshit, this bit of marketing is classic…“blended from the finest Caribbean rums, aged up to 40 years.”. There might be some 40 year old rum in there, but the majority is just run of the mill rumbum.
Just waitni’ for the match…
This drink is a Skeetini, no flames… Skeet, Skeet.
Club Havana Rum, but good luck trying to get a bottle…
Have you tried it? I’m just curious, because you don’t need to have all 40+ years rums in a blend for the rum to taste good.
In any case, it’s still an elitist drink.
It’s really hard to get here in the US, but see if you can find a bottle of Traveler’s One Barrel Rum. It’s made in Belize, and can be really hard to get here.
I fell in love with it when I was on vacation a few years back, and now I keep a hoard at all times. It has an amazing molasses flavor, and it goes well mixed (but personally, I prefer to drink it straight). The coconut flavor is simply fantastic, but is impossible to find.
Houston’s amazing Spec’s has a search engine. “One Barrel Rum” got a hit. It’s from Belize, so it’s probably the real stuff. Which is no help if you’re not in the Houston area; their downtown store is one of the places we bring visitors–to see an amazing assortment of wine, beer, spirits & fine food (at good prices).
I sympathize with the OP. Rum just doesn’t have the high end marketing of, say, Scotch or Tequila.
Try a shot of high-quality dark rum with a good dash of Benedictine.
In the flurry of the above opinions the mention of **The Best Rum **may be overlooked.
Ron Zacapa Centenario (23yo)
For the snob factor I’ll mention that years ago I participated in a blind rum tasting at the Grand Havana Room in Beverly Hills with the Cigar Buyer at the time. Among the 12 rums taste were Jamaican, Nicaraguan, Dominican, Haitian, and Cuban, but the dark thick nectar that stood head and shoulders above the rest for everyone was the Guatemalan Ron Solara Zacapa 23.
Now, the Zacapa snobs might venture that since the bottle change the blend hasn’t reached the heights of the fully wrapped beauties (one of which rests in my basement that I’ve been saving for a special event). There may be some truth to that contention, but the recent bottle I opened was lovely, smooth, and complex enough that I’m not complaining.
The 25yo is much more expensive and smoother, but to my tastes the missing bite is sorely missed. If you want that smoother taste go for the Zaya, it’s cheaper. The Zacapa 15yo is too harsh for my tastes, and isn’t cheaper enough to make it worth buying in my book. The Cask Strength is what I’d hoped the 15 would be, beefier and rawer without the harshness, but it’s pretty darn pricey for the adjustment. Stick with the 23yo and you can’t go wrong.
Oh, and skip Pyrat rums, unless you’re a fan of orange flavoring.
A friend who is Puerto Rican makes Coquito, often called “Puerto Rican egg-nog” because it’s creamy and served at Christmas but is “slap your mama and all of her sisters” delicious any time of year. She made two this year- one using Bacardi and one “special batch” using Ron Zacapa Centenario. Both were excellent, and obviously there was a lot more of the Bacardi than than the Zacapa, but the latter was “BMW over a Hyundai” in terms of taste (i.e. nothing wrong with the Hyundai- it’ll get you there reliably and in some comfort- but the Beamer is just in a whole other class).
It wasn’t overlooked, it was chosen.
I was very busy, but my sister told me she would go get it for me. I gave her a 100 dollar bill and told her if it is more, I will make up the difference when she gets back. I had it in my head, (I thought I had googled it…)that it would be 100. My sister brought me back a 50!
When we broke out the rum, my snooty friend said, “Very nice.” The smile on his face was great. He told me there is something called Zacapa X that is even better though.
I, myself, thought it was rich, smooth and delicious. Ultimately, I am still a tequila girl, though. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. This was a fun thread for me.
ETA: In the discussion that sparked as we drank, a lot of the suggestions here were mentioned. The passion that they spoke with! People are Serious Business when it comes to drinking.