Post #311732 by Swanky on Fri, Jun 8, 2007 6:38 AM

On 2007-06-07 23:48, Registered Astronaut wrote:

Well, no, that makes no sense. It's like saying you like the taste of Hershey's milk chocolate over the taste of Lindt, and so, from now on, all recipes that call for chocolate will get Hershey's.

Maybe I am mis-reading you here. You can't just say "side by side, I preferred X and so I will use X instead of Y in recipes." Well, okay, you can, but then you are changing the recipe.

I had left Bacardi out of my bar and noticed The Bum called for it in certain recipes. I was shocked! Well, he knows his rums and he chose Bacardi because it has a certain flavor he was looking for. I may not drink it, but if I want to make that recipe as he makes it, I can't just exchange some Appleton White and get it.

Certainly, I take shortcuts with recipes. I will use any old rum to sample a recipe rather than finding the exact one called for. But I keep a lot of rums on hand and try to get close.

It would be a mistake to pick a favorite rum and use that in all cases, though maybe I am reading more into your post than I should.

I don't even know why I bother with the Tiki Central Forum sometimes... I step away for a few days, and everybody does their typical snobbish, rummier than thou crap, and I have to ask myself why I should make the effort to share if everybody's going to just one-up each other all the time. Maybe because I don't post 500 times a week some people think my opinion is invalid.

Listen, I make a lot of drinks. I know what Lemon Hart tastes like. I would have never expected it to taste similiar to Bacardi Select, but it does. If you don't believe me, try the Pepsi challenge yourself. They taste similar, but Bacardi is smoother. I would never substitute a puerto rican for a jamaican or a west indies for a cuban or vice versa. I also don't think I'm cutting corners if I feel I'm using the best possible products I can use to match the taste of what I'm trying to reproduce. Jeff Berry made a few mistakes hin his books if you compare and contrast them with other old tropical Bar Manuals. For instance, in his Demerara dry float he calls for 2 1/2 ounces of lime Juice. The trader calls for "juice of one lime." I don't know when the last time one lime made 2 and a half ounces of juice. Not trying to get off topic, but I get agitated when the Bum is invoked to squash a debate. He is solely responsible for my interest in Tropical drink making, but he's not god. If he calls for something, I take it as a suggestion, and then cross check. After all Tiki Ti doesn't use any Demerara rum in their drinks besides the Great White Shark, and they make Zombies with Matusalem 151. Blah.

Can I go now?

Hey, lighten up. I think you may be reading more "snobbish" in there than exists. Since you quoted me, I am just going to point out my statements that are not telling you you are wrong or being snobbish. I say several times that I am not sure exactly what you are implying and so, I responded on various levels. I am no rum snob, though I wish I could be perhaps.

If you reread, you'll see my point is that A) if you want to be traditional about it, you make the drink according to the recipe. B) you are free to do whatever you like and I mean like, as in enjoy. I just am upholding tradition and would like for people to try to make drinks the way they were created, and not start out by changing them if possible. Not that I was sure you were, only that you might have been. I wanted clarity on that point.

You'll also notice that I embrace Bacardi as The Bum does. I am sure he has done far more research on these drinks both in written form and in tasting than nearly all of us, but that does not make it the end. I change a large number of his recipes to my own tastes.

It is a bane of the Internet world that more can be read into a simple paragraph of text than anyone ever intended. But I encourage you to read the words here as not snobbery, but as an educated and thoughtful conversation. You didn't come here to preach and us listen, but to discuss. And having met and talked and drank with a lot of these folks, I can assure you we're a genial bunch, who may, at times, get a little nerdy about our subjects, but are not given to rummier than thou snobbery, but more like, please make good drinks not crap snobbery, as I am sure you are too.

So, relax and talk.

Your point is now clear to me. You are saying Bacardi Select is a good substitute for Lemon Hart 80. That is good to know as that rum is very hard to get anywhere right now, and is never available in my area.