Hi guys,
The job is going to put me in Santa Marta next week for a few days. What would you guys keep an eye out for on a rum hunt? Right now I'm looking at:
Caldas gran reserva Oak cask aged
Ron Baluarte 8 year old
Crapiche Del Valle
Bastidas Reserva de Conquistador Añejo 23 Años
Santero Ron 21 Años Antigua Reserva
Medellin I can find in the US now. I'm looking for stuff I won't otherwise be able to find. Anyone tried these? Are any of them known to be flavor engineered? Any other unobtainable South American treasures I should keep an eye out for?
What Rums Should I Look For In Santa Marta, Columbia?
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The Black Tot
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Capn Jimbo
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Yes, they're hard to find...
Ron Viejo de Caldas earned a best buy. Despite being entered in the fest "competitions" as a molasses based rum, my correspondence with the company indicated it's actually a cane juice rum by by Cubans. We loved the 3 year. The younger rums will retain more of the cane juice characteristics,
Our other experience was with the Ron Santero, no longer available here. We were shocked to find that their coffee rum was made with Columbian Coffee and - get this - a 7 year rum (assuming the label is honest, a turkeyshoot). It was by far, the best coffee rum we'd tried (not to mention my favorite coffee is Columbia Supremo).
Good luck. You'll have to rely on your own tastesbuds, but do share your findings...
Ron Viejo de Caldas earned a best buy. Despite being entered in the fest "competitions" as a molasses based rum, my correspondence with the company indicated it's actually a cane juice rum by by Cubans. We loved the 3 year. The younger rums will retain more of the cane juice characteristics,
Our other experience was with the Ron Santero, no longer available here. We were shocked to find that their coffee rum was made with Columbian Coffee and - get this - a 7 year rum (assuming the label is honest, a turkeyshoot). It was by far, the best coffee rum we'd tried (not to mention my favorite coffee is Columbia Supremo).
Good luck. You'll have to rely on your own tastesbuds, but do share your findings...
Last edited by Capn Jimbo on Mon Sep 01, 2014 9:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
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The Black Tot
- Admiral
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- Location: Houston TX and Caterham, UK
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The Black Tot
- Admiral
- Posts: 282
- Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2014 6:45 pm
- Location: Houston TX and Caterham, UK
OK...
So, I'm here in a hotel in Santa Marta. More of a compound, really - and not the sort of vacation experience I would seek out. But I'm on stand by and it's someone else's dime, so...
Turns out it was pretty difficult for me to find a good liquor store here in Sata Marta. I found an open air market, but the selection was very strange. Firstly, there seems to be some sort of national incentive for spirits to be at 35% alcohol. Boo. Nearly all of the rums I saw were 35%, except for one import - Zacapa.
In the end I chose to buy a bottle of Santero 9yr Reserva Especial. I could not tell if this was older than their anejo product, because the anejo did not have an age statement.
The review:
The bottle is attractive enough, with a little faux wax seal (made of plastic) dangling from a string to break the foil. Synthetic unibody cork (I am on board with logic, durability, and the repeatability of the synthetic cork movement). Has a nice little ship embossed on the glass. Where is it from? No way to know - the only addresses involved on the back say "producido por" Santana Trading De Columbia in Barranquilla, and also, "Importada por" Santana trading co in Bogota.
So it was "produced" somewhere for Santana, and then imported. It does say Ron Del Caribe, and also says "Elaborado, anejado, y embotellado por Maestros Roneros Cubanos". My Spanish isn't very good at all, but I think that's something, aged, and bottled FOR Cuban rum masters? Doesn't sound like a useful comment. I have no idea yet which of the big rum styles this would fall under.
Nose: Big cinnamon is the dominant note. Accompanied by what I might call a Venezuelan vanilla undertone. Not overly complex.
Entry is sweet and buttery, but not like the sugar bomb Z rums. Crosses the mid palate with decent balance. Light, a bit of the taste of iron...
...and then, yowza. I read with interest the Cap'n's comments on the different types of pepper last week. Well...this is the first spirit I have ever tasted where I could identify the pepper type. And it's, no kidding, jalapeno. This rum is HOT. I did not expect this AT ALL from a rum at 35%. It's a neat idea, but it is way overdone in this rum. The dominant experience is jalapeno with a cinnamon tint. The speed with which you sip this rum is going to be metered by your tolerance for the heat and spice. The rum had a chance to be a very pleasant rum, but having the peppery note turned up to 11 just made it sort of hard to get at the flavors.
I (over)paid $35 at the airport for this 700ml bottle, because I didn't know how to find the local liquor stores. Probably it would have been $20 elsewhere. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd call this a 5. It was drinkable, which is how it got that far. It didn't make me wince. But in a sort of "there is no Dana only Zuul" way, there is no flavor only jalapeno.
Edit: I did not add water to this rum because at 35%, enough water had been added for me. Also, what water I had access to tasted like plastic, and could only have subtracted from the experience.
So, I'm here in a hotel in Santa Marta. More of a compound, really - and not the sort of vacation experience I would seek out. But I'm on stand by and it's someone else's dime, so...
Turns out it was pretty difficult for me to find a good liquor store here in Sata Marta. I found an open air market, but the selection was very strange. Firstly, there seems to be some sort of national incentive for spirits to be at 35% alcohol. Boo. Nearly all of the rums I saw were 35%, except for one import - Zacapa.
In the end I chose to buy a bottle of Santero 9yr Reserva Especial. I could not tell if this was older than their anejo product, because the anejo did not have an age statement.
The review:
The bottle is attractive enough, with a little faux wax seal (made of plastic) dangling from a string to break the foil. Synthetic unibody cork (I am on board with logic, durability, and the repeatability of the synthetic cork movement). Has a nice little ship embossed on the glass. Where is it from? No way to know - the only addresses involved on the back say "producido por" Santana Trading De Columbia in Barranquilla, and also, "Importada por" Santana trading co in Bogota.
So it was "produced" somewhere for Santana, and then imported. It does say Ron Del Caribe, and also says "Elaborado, anejado, y embotellado por Maestros Roneros Cubanos". My Spanish isn't very good at all, but I think that's something, aged, and bottled FOR Cuban rum masters? Doesn't sound like a useful comment. I have no idea yet which of the big rum styles this would fall under.
Nose: Big cinnamon is the dominant note. Accompanied by what I might call a Venezuelan vanilla undertone. Not overly complex.
Entry is sweet and buttery, but not like the sugar bomb Z rums. Crosses the mid palate with decent balance. Light, a bit of the taste of iron...
...and then, yowza. I read with interest the Cap'n's comments on the different types of pepper last week. Well...this is the first spirit I have ever tasted where I could identify the pepper type. And it's, no kidding, jalapeno. This rum is HOT. I did not expect this AT ALL from a rum at 35%. It's a neat idea, but it is way overdone in this rum. The dominant experience is jalapeno with a cinnamon tint. The speed with which you sip this rum is going to be metered by your tolerance for the heat and spice. The rum had a chance to be a very pleasant rum, but having the peppery note turned up to 11 just made it sort of hard to get at the flavors.
I (over)paid $35 at the airport for this 700ml bottle, because I didn't know how to find the local liquor stores. Probably it would have been $20 elsewhere. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd call this a 5. It was drinkable, which is how it got that far. It didn't make me wince. But in a sort of "there is no Dana only Zuul" way, there is no flavor only jalapeno.
Edit: I did not add water to this rum because at 35%, enough water had been added for me. Also, what water I had access to tasted like plastic, and could only have subtracted from the experience.