Which spiced rum to try?

edited January 2020 in General

Doing some R&D on spiced and aged rum.

I'm a novice. Which ones should I try?

Ones that don't feel mass produced.

Only one I have tried recently is "The Kraken" by Proximo Spirits.

Not that keen on it.

Comments

  • Definitely try Siesta Key . If you are REALLY lucky, get a bottle of their Distiller's Reserve Spiced. They release it once a year and it is absolutely incredible. Made using the solera method.

    FC

  • edited February 2020

    Really like this rum:

    image

    Really smooth.

    Thing is it is only 35% ABV. Which in Europe is technically not rum. Needs to be minimum 37.5% in Europe.

    Maybe because it is made in Barbados and imported.

    If you are a rum connoisseur then it might not be for you. There is a strong banana element to it.

    bumbu-spiced-rum.jpg
    248 x 600 - 30K
  • Often times 35% is code for back sweetening.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • technically, it is 'Flavored Rum', as indicated by the "Rum with Natural Flavors" class/type description which must be present on all products in the US. so it also likely has far more sugar than the 25g/liter (which is a lot by itself) of 'Rum'.

  • edited February 2020

    @Smaug and @CothermanDistilling

    I've been reading some review sites, where they do hydrometer tests. From that, they can deduce how much additives (mostly sugar) are added.

    Their results seem to correlate pretty accurately with what the producer admits to adding.

    Something I never knew. Some of the commercial rums have a LOT of sugar added to them.

    Some as much as a 100g per litre.

    Tests here:

    Hydrometer Tests @ TheFatRumPirate.com

  • Sure. There is an entire sector of consumers that have no idea, and mostly don't care.

    Rum geeks want it to resonate as sweet on the palette but not be sweet on the tongue.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • edited February 2020

    It’s created a lot of cognitive dissonance in the market, as rums that were thought to be far superior to others simply had more sugar added to them. I think a lot of people ended up with egg on their faces.

    I’m not talking about the sugar bomb rums, I’m taking about the sub 15g/l categories.

    You get 75% of the flavor modification impact by 5g/l. This was based on my own testing as well as having customers do a/b test. The impact starts falling off after that, requiring significantly more sugar addition to have a perceptible change. The flavor profile difference between 50g/l and 100g/l is not huge. Think of it as logarithmic - the more you add, the more you’ll have to add to perceive a change.

    So now we are entering a period where this is almost becoming religion. You have camps that believe that dosage is the devil, and others who just don’t care at all.

    Dirty little secret - it’s the cognac world where this started.

    It also exists in US vodka as well, where many brands add sugar to modify the palate perception - smoothness.

    Like I said above, the difference between 0g/l and 2g/l - that’s massive.

  • So what sugar is added exactly?

    Sucrose?

  • Sucrose - not glycerin like the hobby community was fixated on for a long time.

  • and more specifically, sucrose from cane, that way you are 100% legal in calling it Rum...

  • Hi, You might want to try Captain Morgans Gold. Lots of traditional rum makers are now looking at a Spiced rum. Its pretty much going down the same road as gin and Vodka. Base spirit then add what you like.

  • edited March 2020

    I made a test batch of spiced rum using a high-end chai tea.

    Made for a very interesting spiced rum, much more complex than your typical sorority girl style.

    I think the black tea adds a really interesting dryness and tannin structure to it. The candy-profile botanicals were far more subdued than in a typical spiced rum (cinnamon, vanilla).

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