It’s been since July 2001 that there was a thread about Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum. Pretty much the only other Rum I knew of besides Bacardi (I learned only last week that the “Ron” in Bacardi means Rum).
I’ve had Cuban rum and some powerful stuff a friend brought back from Jamaica.
Here in the UK there has been something of a boom on spiced rums. The first my wife and I had was “Lady Anna Botanical spiced rum” made all the way in Kent. Since then we’ve tried Kraken, something similar from Aldi. One that we especially like and holds a nice price point at Asda is “Dead Man’s Fingers” I’ve seen yet not tried Bacardi spiced rum so I’m going to assume it’s common.
Are you also seeing spiced rums, do you like any and is this just a fad (I’m thinking “Single Malt Whisky” though that’s still going strong)
They did well in the UK it seems. I was at a pub and a woman asked for a Captain and Coke like I would ask for a Bacardi and Coke in the US. Not that there were many below-shelf rum alternatives.
With Vodka you’ve got Absolut, Smirnoff or my old fave Ру́сский Станда́рт (Russian Standard) though it was pretty much only in liquor stores you’d see it and now probably nowhere outside Russia)
I know a lot of bourbon people really got into some Foursquare rum. I haven’t seen it in bars and I don’t want to drop that much on a bottle of liquor I don’t drink a ton, but I’m intrigued. I’ve been recommended Bumbu, and I liked it well enough on first drink, but it’s too sweet for more than a sip.
Admiral’s Old J Tiki Fire spiced rum. 75.5% (!!) alcohol by volume. It is fantastic with Fever Tree ginger ale. There are a few Old J varieties including pineapple, dark and light rum and they are all good too but this one is the bomb.
I wouldn’t say it’s a fad, like @DCnDC points out, Captain Morgan’s been around for decades.
That said, I think commercial spiced rum is kind of like the liquor equivalent of white zinfandel; something people who don’t know any better drink. It’s typically pretty rotgut stuff with a bunch of spices to hide the off flavors. There are a lot of good rums available these days- Bacardi, Gosling’s, and Myers aren’t the only games in town anymore.
I’d say it’s better to make your own- all you’ve got to do is buy some good rum (I like El Dorado, Foursquare/RL Seale/Doorly’s (all the same distillery) and anything by Planteray/Plantation), and steep spices in it. There are a bunch of recipes on the web- search ‘spiced rum recipe’.
The first spiced rum we tried was “Lady Franklin Golden Botanical Rum” which as I said came all the way from the East in Kent. Unfortunately, it was a “sell through” and they only had so much at Lidl so rather cheap. If we could find it again it’d probably be our favourite. Lidl also sells a Malibu knock-off “Coconut Grove” for £8 which we are highly unlikely to try.
Next we tried “Cassario” from Aldi which some youtube vid compared to Kraken though supposedly quite a bit cheaper. Shortly afterwards, Asda started carrying Kraken so I’d say the comparison of the two dark spiced rums is accurate.
Shortly after that, Asda was selling “Dead Man’s Fingers” which is good and our choice. The “market” agrees as about half the time it’s sold out while there’s always some Kraken.
Yikes! Either by tradition or law I’ve not seen anything even close to 50% ABV in the UK. Of course the only stores I’ve seen that sell liquor are “off license” and the only one around here just sells beer and cider. Perhaps Waitrose with its pricey Johnny Walker Double Black (it might be single malt?) might have something like that but doubtable. Sounds really cool though!