Post #310874 by The Gnomon on Mon, Jun 4, 2007 12:38 PM

On 2007-05-30 11:00, The Gnomon wrote:
Of course, Joy's indirect endorsement could be company hype to sell more OP, but the combination does sound like it has merit. Even though I'm not a big fan of mixing cocktails with any kind of overproof rum, I've been definitely planning to give this a try.

It sucks I'm sad to report. I still haven't totally given up on it, only because it is a supposed favorite of Joy Spence. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have tried it a second time.

I made myself about a dozen Overproofs & Ting over a four day period. The first one was awful and never got better. I found it unappealing for two reasons: 1) the rum completely wiped out the flavor of the Ting, which is shameful; and 2) the Ting did nothing to mask that "kerosene" flavor that characterizes W&N White Overproof. It was somewhat surprising that the addition of Overproof to Ting still almost tastes like Overproof straight.

Anyway, I'm guessing that this is an acquired taste. If I actually liked the taste of Overproof straight, but found it to be way too strong on its own, combining it with Ting would be a way to water it down without losing the flavor of the Overproof (as if). Why not just use water? Maybe the water isn't so good throughout Jamaica. In South America we used to drink beer, wine, and soda instead of water because the water was so...microbial. But Overproof definitely obliterates the flavor of the Ting.

On 2007-05-30 11:00, The Gnomon also wrote:
In the 50's and 60's, Coca Cola tasted like Coca Cola, Dr. Pepper tasted like Dr. Pepper, and Squirt tasted like Squirt. I think it was in the late 60's that Coke changed its formula, ruining it. I don't think Dr. Pepper was ruined until the early 70's. I have no idea when Squirt lost its identity. None of these sodas today taste anything like they were when they were great. Schweppes owns Squirt now, but it's produced in the US by Dr. Pepper/7-Up.

Anyway, while a real Coke and a real Dr. Pepper are things of the past, you can get the effect of a real Squirt because Ting tastes just like original Squirt. In fact, Squirt used to be the only soda I recall that was sold in little 10 oz. bottles, dark green, just like Ting. I think Ting copied Squirt in every way possible, but fortunately, Ting still tatses like Squirt. Now Squirt tastes awful.

I was in an international supermarket the other day and in the Hispanic section I ran across some Squirt and CocaCola that was bottled in Mexico. I'd forgotten about the fact that the bottling factories throughout Latin America that were initially established by Coke, Pepsi, and other US soda companies ages ago (50's? earlier?) continued to manufacture soda according to the formulas they had from their beginnings. When the formulas changed in the US they did not change in Latin America. I don't know if they have changed yet. I'm hopeful that they have not.

The sodas I picked up are in the typical returnable bottles designed for old-fashioned soda machines. The glass is really heavy duty and are scuffed and worn on the outside. One looks like it has made about 10,000 trips through vending machines. I'll take some pics. They were all sticky on the outside, which is a good sign (kind of a certificate of authenticity).

If the Coke from Mexico has the same flavor and qualities as the Coke of the 50's and 60's, then Overproof might make a good Cuba Libre.