Post #691357 by Limbo Lizard on Sun, Aug 25, 2013 10:01 AM

On 2013-08-25 07:03, Dapuma1 wrote:

On 2011-08-28 21:42, Limbo Lizard wrote:
Queen's Park Swizzle (low carb version, only 1½ grams carb):
Juice of ½ lime
½ ounce Monin Sugar Free Sweetener
Mint leaves
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 ounce Lemon Hart 80°
1 ounce dark Jamaican rum
1 ounce Cruzan or Puerto Rican 151° rum

Put several mint leaves, sweetener syrup, lime juice and bitters in a tall glass. Add some crushed ice, and mix/muddle a bit. Fill glass to top with crushed ice, add rum, and mix/agitate with a spoon, until glass frosts. Enjoy.

(If you have Lemon Hart 151°, use that and 80° Cruzan or Puerto Rican rum.)

Aren't there a lot of carbs in the rum's that you are using?

Hmm, very good question, actually, and one I've wondered about - but not enough to do any serious research, I guess. (If you're referring to the alcohol, of course it represents calories, but it isn't processed and metabolized like carbs, so that's not a big issue.)

Obviously, they must add sugar in sweet flavored and spiced rums (e.g., Malabu, Capt. Morgan, etc.). And surely there is blackstrap molasses added to Cruzan Blackstrap.

But do (any) distillers add sugar to their "traditional" rums? I don't know the answer, but expect that some might add a little, and most don't. I read that many use some caramel coloring (burnt sugar), if only to even up the color of the rum, and achieve a consistent appearance, from batch to batch. But I don't think that's significant, carb-wise. But it might be in some very dark colored rums - like Myers's - that could require quite a bit of caramel, and do have a noticeable sweetness. Then, again, Coruba is as dark as Myers's, but not nearly as sweet. So maybe Myers's sweetness is not from the caramel color, but from... brown sugar?
Perhaps Swanky, or someone else, with more specific knowledge of various distiller's practices, can enlighten us. Or, maybe we should pose the question to Ed Hamilton, at Ministry of Rum.