M
Joined: Apr 11, 2006
Posts: 136
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M
On 2007-06-12 12:09, Scottes wrote:
Bacardi and Don Q are really your only choices for Gold Puerto Rican rum (well, I know of a couple/few others, and they are atrocious).
In my opinion, the reason for using a Puerto Rican Gold rum is to get a decent rum flavor, not overly sweet, and not overly complex/floral/aromatic. That is, a basic rum with more body than a Puerto Rican white rum, more or less mid-line in flavor.
I'm not sure if I'm explaining my thoughts correctly... Remember that Puerto Rican rums were noted for being clean, light rums with mellow tastes that did not detract from a simple cocktail. Column still distillation tend to produce such a light spirit. This lightness is the Puerto Rican style - as compared to Jamaican rums which tend to be heavier and more aromatic and have more tastes of the underlying molasses. Most of these heavier, more earthy tastes are brought on from pot still distillation or blends with pot distilled rums. Barbados rums tend to be in between, slightly sweet and aromatic.
Gold rums are the same, but aged, and with a fuller body and more rum taste. So a gold Puerto Rican will have more taste but not necessarily distinct molasses taste like Jamaican rum. Again, Barbados is somewhere in between. There's definitely some, but not a lot, of diference when going from classic Puerto Rican to Barbados to Jamaican - especially if you're just starting out.
You might find that the Mount Gay Eclipse works well for you in place of the Puerto Rican Gold. If you find that it's too much rum taste then you have a good reason to try a more classic Puerto Rican.
Tikiskip has some excellent advice - make the recipe as close as you can, and definitely as accurately as you can. Do you like it? If so, then it's a winner. If not, what don't you like, or what would you think would make it better? Then try something a little different.
Another piece of excellent advice from DinkBoy, aka Robert Hess: Don't try to stock your bar all at once. Instead, pick a drink or two, and buy what you need for those drinks. Nothing else. Next week pick another drink, and buy more ingredients. And so on and on. Eventually you will have a nicely stocked bar, and you'll have intimate knowledge with a number of drinks.
http://www.drinkboy.com/Essays/StockingTheBar.html
http://www.drinkboy.com/Essays/SelectingYourBrands.html
http://www.drinkboy.com/Essays/SpiritBrands.html
Excellent advice and great reading on your site! Using mt gay eclipse in place is an excellent suggestion. Coruba is a great dark, although myers's taste is its own, it'll really come down to what you prefer, as mentioned above.
My suggestion would be to follow the bar-stocking process above, but also, whenever you get to half of a bottle of a particular rum type, go pick up a new bottle of a different brand of the same type. You'll end up with a larger selection to choose from in the end.
-adrian
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