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Rum drinks, rumcake, hot buttered rum, rum glazed ribs, Bermudan rum chowder, rum balls and bollocks. This be the place and it's all good. To the cook! Eat, drink and be Mary!
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Capn Jimbo
Rum Evangelisti and Compleat Idiot
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Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:53 pm
Location: Paradise: Fort Lauderdale of course...
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Welcome to Recipes and Mixers!

Post by Capn Jimbo »

Boy, are Sue Sea and I glad you're here!

Why is that? Well mostly because we are much more oriented toward the sipping of good rums. And the "mixing" we do tends to be on the simple side, like adding juice of a nice lime and/or cane sugar/syrup. Caipirinhas, ti Punch, Dark and Stormy. That sort of thing.

So those mixologists among you are mighty welcome here. Maybe we all can learn a thing or two.

There seems to be two schools of thought - one where rums tend to be more in the background so as to feature the other fruits and components - and - the Vic Bergeron/Don Beach school that more feature the rum and that uses many fine and aged top shelf products. And perhaps a third: those that feel a fine rum's flavors are lost or wasted in mixed drinks.

But first let's dispense with one myth, namely the "Myth of a Good Mixing Rum". These rums tend to be cheaper rums conducive to economical and generous pours, and that in general are not good sippers. Ergo "a good mixing rum".

Actually all rums can be good mixers in the right circumstances understanding of course, that different flavor profiles will work better in different mixed drinks. As for white rums being preferable because there is less flavor to be lost, that assumes that you don't want flavor in your mixed drinks. This makes a case for using vodkas that you won't taste at all.

Consider the Mai Tai.

Now if there was ever mixed drinks where flavors can get lost, it's Tiki drinks! But both Don the Beachcomber and especially Trader Vic insisted on using the very best rums - not the cheap mixers - in their drinks. And made fortunes doing so. Don used only the finest of rums and was reported to have "...a rare nose for the subtle differences among the better rums". He would repeatedly blend and experiment to find just the right combination of flavor profiles. In the end he used many rums - good whites, medium bodied and rare aged rums. But all quite flavorful. As for Trader Vic, he made his first successful Mai Tai using a 17 year Jamaican pot stilled rum! Don's Mai Tai was reported to feature a flavorful aged Jamaican rum along with a lighter bodied Cuban rum.

That many of us (including me) think that white rum is "the mixing rum" while aged is "for sipping", we should think again. I believe that the notion that the flavor is going to get lost anyway, so the much cheaper young white rums are just fine, is misconceived. Great drinks require great rum I think.

A story: Sue Sea and I keep a large bottle of Flor de Cana 4 Year around for mixed drinks. Just for fun we did a comparison using Appleton Extra. The improvement was noticeable. Yet I continue to use the Flor - not for the flavor (which is good but not exceptional) - but more for the cost. Why do I prefer the Flor over, say, a lesser white? Flavor. And what do more aged rums offer more of?

Yup, flavor.

Last, I'd like to suggest this notion: that while all rums are mixers, only some of those are also good sippers. The current general notion that divides rums into:"mixers", "mixers than can also be sipped", and "sippers" seems artificial and inaccurately divisive. We think of "mixers" as cheaper, if not cheap. And these terms are also used to infer increasing quality. "Mixer" - used this way - is not a real compliment. But the truth is a great rum can often be a great mixer - that it isn't used or perceived that way has more to do with cost and the different valuation drinkers accord to use for sipping vs use in a mixed drink.

Some would feel a fine rum is "wasted" or lost in a mixed drink. It's not at all that the rum is wasted, it's that these drinkers, like me, value a rum more for a great sipping experience. We think mixed drinks are a lesser use because we're not into them like we are into sipping. But Trader Vic - and many mixed drink afficiandos - would disagree. They prefer a fine mixed drink to sipping and appreciate using the very best ingredients, not least a fine rum or groups of rums.

Time for a Caipirinha - made with my best cachaca, lol...
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