Post #737009 by wupput on Mon, Feb 9, 2015 6:26 PM

Hi all,
I'm a bit of a newbie to making tiki drinks though I have enthusiastically been knocking out one or two a night for a couple of months. Anyway, apologies if I am duplicating an already discussed topic, but I searched and didn't find quite what I was looking for. I have some questions for you mixologists and rum experts on DARK RUMS.

So far I have been making drinks from the Beachbum Berry books and a few from this board and have tried a variety of dark rums. Here's my question:

It seems like a lot of the recipes call for dark Jamaican rums specifically. In Intoxica Berry recommends Myers but I'm one of the lucky ones who can actually find Coruba cheaper locally. I LOVE Coruba so far. Only OK as a sipping rum but I'm really enjoying it in my drinks. Every drink I've made with it has basically been a winner.

My question is, how substitutable are other rums for Coruba/Myers? For instance, I have Goslings and have tried that in place of Coruba and in some drinks it seemed totally fine. I've also tried Zaya which is a bit sweeter and more vanilla-tasting, and it certainly seemed to blend well with Appleton in a mai-tai, but might work for some drinks better than others. I also have Pussers, and have been thinking of picking up Cruzan Black Strap. But is Black Strap interchangeable with dark Jamaican? And where does a dark Virgin Island rum like Pussers fit in the greater scheme of rum categorization? Pussers looks pretty dark but the flavor seems a bit less sweet and more alcohol-forward than the other darks. And then isn't there a dark Appleton? Would that be a good substitute? Any others?

Finally, I realize that Demerara rums are their own thing and that they have a different flavor profile than the dark rums. Are they in any way interchangeable? Would using dark rums in place of demerara substantially change the flavor of many drinks? What about vice versa - using a demerara instead of Coruba? I have El Dorado 5 and Hamilton's 86. I thought about trying a hurricane with Hamilton's instead of Coruba, just as an experiment, but of course good rum is valuable and I don't want to misuse it.

Any comments or advice would be appreciated. I'm learning a ton from this board and friends and family seem delighted with my new-found hobby. Drinking a Chief Lapu Lapu as I type this...