Rum Review: Mount Gay Sugar Cane Rum

Barbados: the defacto home of the original reference classic rum as we know it. God bless the Queen! And Mount Gay!
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How do you rate Mount Gay Sugar Cane Rum (5 is best)?

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Total votes: 1

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Capn Jimbo
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Rum Review: Mount Gay Sugar Cane Rum

Post by Capn Jimbo »

Mount Gay Sugar Cane Rum: "Sweet River of Grass"

Mount Gay is an amazing company that has managed to maintain top quality along with it's growth. Its Sugar Cane Rum is counterintuitive. Though named as though it was a cane juice (agricultural) rum, it is molasses based. Though molasses-based it really does taste as though it were a fine quality agricultural like Haiti's Barbancourt.

A delicious contradiction. The reviews:

Sue Sea:
Jimbo and I are big fans of Mount Gay; we'd really like to visit Barbados and get to tour MG and Seales as well. MG Sugar Cane Rum comes in a screw top, classic tall bottle - really pretty average in the world of rum. But the rum itself is really far from average. We live in Florida and have had the opportunity to visit the Everglades, also known as the "River of Grass", with very shallow waters wending its way through hundreds of miles of grasses, reeds, mangroves and the like. When you get out of the car, your first impression are those reedy aromas.

Those aromas were my first impression of Mount Gay Sugar Cane: reedy, bamboo-like, palm fronds, very lightly smoky wood (like a chicory/hickory/mesquite) , almondy and a little caramel. With breathing more and more light vanilla became apparent to me. The taste is very consistent but light, with a medium-light body, and very, very smooth. It is consistent with the vanilla carrying through. At mid palate a pepper, not clove, holds forth. Sugar Cane's finish is marvelous - very smooth and long and leaving that wonderful, lightly sweet and reedy aftertaste, more like a lightly woody glow. Sugar Cane displays what I call an echo that occurs at the end, and came back to the front of my mouth. Superb!

Mount Gay Sugar Cane is more about aroma and finish connected by its light taste. Still, this is one of my top three rums.
Me:

I honestly don't know how Mount Gay did it. A molasses rum that really does present as the sugar cane (juice) rum after which it is named. It's color is a brilliant light amber with a rare hint of a light green surface sheen. I found its aromas sweetly reedy, with light oak, a hint of vanilla and a bit of alcohol (but not offensively so). Sugar Cane's body is medium/light, completely consistent and buttery smooth. The late palate is very lightly peppery. The finish is long, very lightly peppery or woody and leaving you with a consistent aftertaste - the kind that, as Sue Sea loves to say...

It makes you want to drink more!

And as Sue Sea noted, Sugar Cane is what some might call a "hollow" rum - where the taste, though pleasant, is less remarkable, but is bracketed by more striking and memorable aromas and finish. However true, this is NOT a criticism. An exceptional rum that belongs in your collection.

Rating (10 is best): Sue Sea - 9, Jimbo - 8.
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Post by Capn Jimbo »

Rum Review Redux: Mount Gay Sugar Cane Rum - Hot Caramel Sundae


It was a shame to hear that Mount Gay Sugar Cane Rum may have been discontinued, although you wouldn't know it in our south Florida and Keys Paradise. There's still plenty here, but just in case I bought another 750, along with the Mount Gay Eclipse Black (1 liter), both awaiting Sue Sea's return for a real tasting...

It was well worth the wait. You can always count on Mount Gay for classic, well-blended rums representing literally hundreds of years of experience and not least, the artistry of Jerry Edwards.

The review above was one of our first, years ago, so its always interesting to see how our experience may have changed over time and the hundreds of spirits that have passed our gullets. Basta! The reviews:

Sue Sea:
As you must surely know by now, I am a lover of the entire rum tasting experience, from lighting, to (hopefully) enjoying the bottle, the opening and first aromas and then on through the extended nosing and tasting, concluding with our discussion and reexamination of the rum at hand.

When we've reached a tentative conclusion, we are often reminded of other rums, which are then brought out for a side to side comparison. The acid test is comparison to our reference standards which really bring some hard truth to the matter. More than once we've scored a rum highly, only to then compare it to our top-rated standard to discover the real, often lower rating.

Mount Gay Sugar Cane Rum comes in the classic and traditional Mount Gay bottle, which likewise sports a traditional Mount Gay label, dated 1703, and often featuring a map of Barbados. There's only one way to describe Sugar Cane's aroma - heavenly, enticing and captivating. It opens with a sweet reedy cane, over a bit of leather, ginger, cinnamon, and clove - and a rich impression of caramel. Just lovely.

The early palate is sweet, creamy and buttery like a warm caramel topping poured over vanilla ice cream. I'm serious! Mind you, Sugar Cane Rum is not syrupy sweet, but feels warm and thick. Spices then emerge in the middle palate, including the aforementioned clove, cinnamon, ginger and just a hint of chocolate. The rum continued warming to a lingering, almost hot and dramatic peppery finish. The aftertaste is long and pleasant, leaving behind black licorice, nutty banana. Smooth and sweet.

I found Mount Gay Sugar Cane Rum to be completely interesting from start to finish. I can only compare the experience to that of a marinated dish, where the flavors keep emerging. Its lovely warm finish leave the kind of tingling glow that makes you want yet another, and another sip. Sugar Cane rum thus is one of our "dangerous rums", like Santa Teresa Anejo or Ron Matusalem Gran Reserva - way, way too pleasant and easy to drink. Rent a room.
Me: In retrospect, Mount Gay Sugar Cane Rum never achieved the notariety of MGXO, but perhaps it should have. If this rum is truly discontinued you owe it to yourself to stock up. Mount Gay Sugar Cane Rum is a stunningly clear golden amber with pure legs. This fine rum opened with a light, sweet cane over a classic caramel and spicy background. This is a classic profile as only Barbadian rums seem to achieve - smooth, pleasant and that draw you in. There are but a few rums that cause you to pause at the nose, and this is one of them.

The opening palate was completely consistent with a vanillan spicy caramel. Leather and spice smoothly built to a hot, sweet, black pepper finish leaving a warm and consistent afterglow.

My recommendation: if you see it, buy it. You may never get another chance.


Score (10 is best): Sue Sea - 10, Me - strong 8
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Post by NCyankee »

Have you still been able to find this? I am vacationing in orlando in a couple weeks and I really want to get ahold of a bottle of this, though it has disappeared from Total Wine's online inventory within the last couple months.
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To Yank...

Post by Capn Jimbo »

Short answer: yes!


But they are few and far between. You really have two or perhaps three marketplaces in south Florida: the majors like Total Wine, ABC or Crown, the food and other stores liquor departments and last (and most thankfully) a bunch of semi-related moderate sized shops run usually by India Indians (not the Seminoles, also present). The Indian stores are treasure troves, with many dusty and unsold jewels here and there, and often heavily discounted.

Whereas the majors are run based on volume, and lines are cut frequently and suddenly, the small stores rely on intuition. They are not afraid to hold on, serve their local customers or to discount as needed.

It is at these Indian stores that I still see a bottle or two of Sugar Cane along with a very light blonde MG offering whose name I disrecall right now (but also "discontinued" by the majors).
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Post by NCyankee »

I think the one you are having trouble remembering is this one, I managed to find a bottle at some point last year.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/819501
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Post by Capn Jimbo »

Yup!


Yup, that's it, Mount Gay Special Reserve. This was the very first bottle of rum I ever bought, as a gift for a friend. We drank it the next night while touring the annual Christmas lights by boat, a memorable night, short of this nice rum.

The Special Reserve was/is a light straw color and rarely I still see a lone dusty bottle of it.

Thanks for reminding me...
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