TN: Rum Tastes (Oct 17, 2019)

J

Jeff Grossman

Jeff Grossman
In-store tasting at Chambers St, in the order presented:

Habitation Velier Worthy Park 2007 - 59% (and that's watered back from cask strength (which is nearly 80%)), this is rum made by Scotsmen and it tastes like a Scotch Whiskey, it has aged an extraordinary length of time - 10 years - in used bourbon barrels; I'd say this is to be drunk neat

Hampden Estate Pure Single Jamaican Rum - 46%, a "high ester" rum, 7 years in barrel, this tastes more like you expect rum to taste: some sweetness to support the banana, vanilla, coconut(?) flavors but lots of leather and cellulose and a spot of kerosene to remind you that this is hard liquor

Velier Clairin Le Rocher Sugarcane Rum Haiti - 46.5%, David (from PM Spirits, who is pouring) says that Haitian towns-folk make rum but country-folk make clairin; it's transparent so I was expecting an island moonshine but it is essentially a rhum agricole; anyway, the nose is fascinating: not so distinctive as either caramel or vanilla yet definitely somewhere in that family... I eventually settle on penuche, the mild cousin of fudge, as the closest aroma match; alas, the palate is less interesting, somewhat flat and simple; I'm very conflicted about whether I like this drink or not

Transcontinental Rum Line Fiji Single Barrel Rum - 48%, 3 years in barrel, a nice rum but definitely being shown-up by the company it keeps tonight
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
Habitation Velier Worthy Park 2007 - 59%...I'd say this is to be drunk neat
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!!!!

I'll take your word for it, but not sure it would be for me.
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The not-watered-back version, which David had a sample of, is truly like paint thinner. How the master distiller can handle this stuff is beyond me -- and he makes ~10 different bottlings from the same stream (triple-distilled copper pot). But I said this should be drunk neat because it would be a waste to toss it into Coca-Cola or a daiquiri.
 
Fair enough. But you made the comparison to scotch so I was wondering if an ice cube or a splash of water might help increase the appreciation.
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
Fair enough. But you made the comparison to scotch so I was wondering if an ice cube or a splash of water might help increase the appreciation.
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Those would be fine. And take the edge off the alky, too.
 
My nephew's partner taught me to put just a few drops of water in scotch to bring out the perfume. It doesn't really do much to cut the alcohol. An ice cube would do that, but it also cuts the flavor.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
My nephew's partner taught me to put just a few drops of water in scotch to bring out the perfume. It doesn't really do much to cut the alcohol. An ice cube would do that, but it also cuts the flavor.
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Not sure I'm following the logic of ice cutting flavor while and water cutting alcohol. Both do both. It's more about the amount of ice/water as opposed to whether you use ice or water. And if anything the ice cube has more effect on the flavor by diluting and cooling.
 
If you only put a few drops of water, splashed into the scotch, you get the effect on perfume and flavor with very little adulteration from water. An ice cube adds much more water as it melts.
 
A shot of scotch is one and a half ounces. How big does the ice cube have to be to dilute it? But, since you began by being concerned with alcohol, really slight diluting is part of your aim. I have also never found that an ice cube does anything to scotch beyond cooling it. That is not the aim of adding in a couple of drops of water.
 
Let's just agree that we have different drinking practices. When I plop a small ice cube in a glass of scotch and sit with it for 20-30 minutes as it goes through various temperatures and stages of flavor evolution, dilution and calming of alcohol are both involved. But drops of water are also fine.

To get back to Actual Products, one of the bottles I am currently enjoying is the Navarre Vieille Réserve Grande Fine Champagne Cognac. 45 percent and I wouldn't mind a touch less heat on the palate. But I never dilute because this is such special stuff, so many crazy deep and kaleidoscopic flavors. So happy it exists!
 
Back in the TGJP days, the late pab and the gang were big fans of Clairin, especially that of Michel Sajous that was available in Paris at the time. I forget the details but it's made from a different part of the sugar process (a quick google finds something about cane juice rather than molasses). I am not much for spirits, but there was something rustic and moonshiney about it that I did not get from regular rum (or rhum).
 
originally posted by Cole Kendall:
I forget the details but it's made from a different part of the sugar process (a quick google finds something about cane juice rather than molasses).
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I believe that is the distinction between rum -- made from molasses -- and the other two: clairin (made only in Haiti) and rhum agricole (everyplace else in the Caribbean).
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Cole Kendall:
I forget the details but it's made from a different part of the sugar process (a quick google finds something about cane juice rather than molasses).
Click to expand...
I believe that is the distinction between rum -- made from molasses -- and the other two: clairin (made only in Haiti) and rhum agricole (everyplace else in the Caribbean).
Click to expand...

I have talked to someone who spends a lot of time in the Dominican Republic who also used the term clairin for nonmolasses distilled products.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Cole Kendall:
I forget the details but it's made from a different part of the sugar process (a quick google finds something about cane juice rather than molasses).
Click to expand...
I believe that is the distinction between rum -- made from molasses -- and the other two: clairin (made only in Haiti) and rhum agricole (everyplace else in the Caribbean).
Click to expand...

Also the case for Cachaça, made from sugarcane juice. Cachaça has a bunch of other names, too. A night that starts with caipirinhas can end in memorable ways. I wonder if Oswaldo's got an interesting caipirinha story. Mine involves a sibling and a neighborhood guard dog gotten loose.

If it's sweet, let's ferment it. If it's fermented, let's distill it.
 
originally posted by Ken Schramm:
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Cole Kendall:
I forget the details but it's made from a different part of the sugar process (a quick google finds something about cane juice rather than molasses).
Click to expand...
I believe that is the distinction between rum -- made from molasses -- and the other two: clairin (made only in Haiti) and rhum agricole (everyplace else in the Caribbean).
Click to expand...

Also the case for Cachaça, made from sugarcane juice. Cachaça has a bunch of other names, too. A night that starts with caipirinhas can end in memorable ways. I wonder if Oswaldo's got an interesting caipirinha story. Mine involves a sibling and a neighborhood guard dog gotten loose.

If it's sweet, let's ferment it. If it's fermented, let's distill it.
Click to expand...

To impress a girl when I was eighteen in Brasília I downed several shots of straight cachaça with no apparent impact. At some point, it all hit me and as I drove home in the wee hours (alas, solo) I came to a deserted roundabout and kept going around and around and around like a demented banshee.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
originally posted by Ken Schramm:
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Cole Kendall:
I forget the details but it's made from a different part of the sugar process (a quick google finds something about cane juice rather than molasses).
Click to expand...
I believe that is the distinction between rum -- made from molasses -- and the other two: clairin (made only in Haiti) and rhum agricole (everyplace else in the Caribbean).
Click to expand...

Also the case for Cachaça, made from sugarcane juice. Cachaça has a bunch of other names, too. A night that starts with caipirinhas can end in memorable ways. I wonder if Oswaldo's got an interesting caipirinha story. Mine involves a sibling and a neighborhood guard dog gotten loose.

If it's sweet, let's ferment it. If it's fermented, let's distill it.
Click to expand...

To impress a girl when I was eighteen in Brasília I downed several shots of straight cachaça with no apparent impact. At some point, it all hit me and as I drove home in the wee hours (alas, solo) I came to a deserted roundabout and kept going around and around and around like a demented banshee.
Click to expand...

Video, or it didn't happen!

Mark Lipton
 
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