Post #723537 by jokeiii on Wed, Jul 23, 2014 11:51 AM

On 2014-07-23 09:22, arriano wrote:
This might seem sacrilegious, but if you're making a 1934 Zombie, what if you switched the Puerto Rican Gold with Bacardi/Cruzan 151, and switched the Lemon Hart 151 for 80-proof El Dorado Demerara? Seems to me you would retain the Demerara flavor and the extra kick. Unfortunately, I have neither Bacardi 151 nor El Dorado currently to test this.

No less an authority than Jeff "Beachbum" Berry himself has suggested (to me, directly, as we were discussing this subject at The Hukilau) this very course of action, calling it "the switcheroo." The catch -- and there's always a catch -- is that it really only works in recipes which call for the same amount of a PR gold AND of LH151. The 1934 Zombie calls for 1½oz of PR gold rum and 1oz of LH151, so in this case it won't work quite so well, as you'd have to do a bit more math (½oz PR gold + 1oz Bacardí 151 + 1oz ED5/8/etc.) and the approximation will be less exact.

That said, the 1950 Zombie -- a better drink, IMO -- does call for 1oz each of PR gold and LH151, so you could comfortably do the switcheroo there.

You could buy a mini or two of the Bacardi 151 and the El Dorado (I've only seen ED12 in mini, though) to test it out.

Me, personally, don't find the Bacardí 151 to be any more or any less than a high-octane version of their gold rum, so I have no qualms slotting it in in recipes which feature PR gold. (Once I run out, I'll play with Cruzan 151, but this is not among those things keeping me awake at night.)

YMMV,