I'm always interested in authentic craft or small distillers and their products, including this one by a company named "Bull Run Distillery" of Portland, Oregon. Now as some of know Portland is a rather progressive area into the alternative and holistic endeavors. Our Mama had published a link to what they call "Pacific Rum". Now like most new distillers, they too have recognized the common issue of lacking the time, delay and serious money required to produce a good aged product. Accordingly that usually means creating imagery designed to ignore this issue.
In the case of Bull Rum, it's a combination of selling the history of early American cattle drives (for a sense of unconnected history) and just like the vodka folks, a huge emphasis on the super special, only in Portland water "...is what makes Bull Run’s spirits so special — arguably the purest water source in the country, it imparts a soft, rich mouthfeel that’s impossible to duplicate outside of Oregon."
Impossible to duplicate, yes. But superior? Not really. It's just water, and no more or less special that all the other distillers who make the same claim.
Now let's consider the "rum":
"Pacific Rum
Hawaiian Sugar Cane
A creamy mouth feel opening with notes of coconut and chocolate and finishing warm with vanilla and citrus."
Time to get real...
Although this is promoted as somehow sourced as "Hawaiian Sugar Cane", that's hardly true. "Pacific Rum" is not a cane juice rum (like Sammy's); nor is it molasses based. Either of this source materials are superior to what they did use - just plain processed crystalline sugar! For those who know the history of stilling, making "shine" from sugar is the cheapest, easiest and first attempt of most home distillers. Although turbinado sugar is a minor improvement, it does not even approach fresh crushed cane or say first boil molasses insofar as actual flavor.
Which begets the next issue. Personally I'm bothered by their descriptors of coconut, chocolate, vanilla and citrus?! Really? All this from table sugar and just 4 weeks in wood? Again, really? Either this description is a hopeful exaggeration or simply a pure invention of the marketing mavens. And unlike most artisans barely a word about the process, fermentation, stilling, cooperage and aging.
I mean, dig this: "...sees no less than 4 weeks in bourbon barrels", as if this is a real sales point. Ouch. How dumb do they believe rum buyers are? OTOH, they may be right. Pretty dumb. But not here, that's for sure.
For a company that makes such glowing claims about what is little more than basic sugar-based moonshine, well, I'd expect more.
Flat Ass Bottom Line
Around the Project I know we all welcome "artisan" distillers but personally I'd prefer more facts, and less Bull droppings. This is a VERY young rum. The "custom designed stills" are not pictured at all; actually very little is pictured and no copper seems visible. There is a reference to "vat" stills, whatever those are. The fact that they also produce gin and vodka should tell you something about their white rum.
Still, these folks deserve at least some benefit of the quite understandable doubt. They need to learn that rum buyers are much more astute than they seem to presume, and who would appreciate some serious detail to justify their "artisan" prices and precious Portland water.
http://www.mpliquors.com/liquor#regularrum
