Post #246851 by thejab on Fri, Aug 4, 2006 2:39 PM

I used to buy and use Coruba as my preferred dark rum, for 4 reasons:

1. The Tiki Ti uses it.
2. Jeff Berry recommends it.
3. I tasted it side-by-side (though not blind tasting) against other dark rums including Whalers, Myers's, and Goslings a few years ago and preferred it to the others.
4. And finally, kick-the-reverb's cheap dark rum tasteoff picked it as the favorite: http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=15690&forum=10&hilite=dark%20rum.

Now it is almost impossible to find in the Bay Area. Bevmo no longer stocks it, and I checked most liquor stores. Two stores that may have it are pretty far out of my way: Walker's in San Francisco, and Weimax in Burlingame.

So, I ask: What is the second best inexpensive dark rum? Myers's? Whaler's? Trader Vic's? (they make two different ones). Black Strap?

And another question: Couldn't one use Cruzan Dark Rum (what they call their "gold rum")? It's very dark for a gold rum. Try this: pour Cruzan dark into a shot glass, and Myers's (or Coruba) into another glass. They are about the same "darkness".

Shouldn't a dark rum be rich and full-bodied, rather then just dark and one dimensional? Myers's is a young rum with lots of caramel coloring to darken it but it doesn't have much complexity. So is Coruba, according to world renowned rum expert Edward Hamilton (see quote at bottom of this web page: http://www.avirtualdominica.com/rum.htm). But Cruzan Dark Rum is two years old, and has body from aging (although it may have some coloring added as well). And it tastes great.

Recently I found a bottle of El Dorado Dark Rum from Guyana. It's a Demarara but it costs less than Coruba (about as much as Myers's). It has lots of body and is very dark. I have been using that one lately as my dark rum with excellent results.

Lastly, recently there was a blind taste test of dark rums at Forbidden Island that I took part in. We had no idea which ones were served to us, and we tasted them both neat and in a cocktail. You may be very surprised which ones came out on top. Martiki, would you be willing to post the results here?

What are everyone's favorite dark rums? Mine currently are El Dorado Dark and Cruzan Dark (not black strap).