Post #757167 by JenTiki on Tue, Jan 12, 2016 1:35 PM

On 2016-01-12 12:04, Warboys wrote:
Jen, would the Lemon Hart Original work in place of the Clement? I got that already :P

Do you mean the yellow label Lemon Hart 80 proof (or maybe it's 86)? If so, sure! It has great depth of flavor to hold up against the other ingredients in a mai tai.

Personally, I'm not a fan of Clement, but only because I can't stand that style of rum, except in a very few, well-aged expressions of it. You see, I buy rums I don't mind drinking neat, or on ice. Really the only rums I buy strictly for cocktails are the Denizen I mentioned in my previous post, a couple of white rums (Puerto Rican and Panamanian) and the overproof Demerara rums. Certainly I use a lot of my sipping rums (but not all of them) in simple cocktails that highlight the spirit, like a daiquiri or a rum old fashioned, or some variation of that. But if I can't sip it neat, it's unlikely I'll spend money on it.

Agricole rum (Clement, Saint James, Rhum JM) tends to be divisive amongst rum-lovers. Some of us love it, some of us can't stand it, very few of us fall in between. I'm on the "can't stand it" end of that range. The aroma reminds me of burning tires and the flavor to me is like grass that was cut a week ago and left to mildew on the moist lawn. Yes, it has its place in some cocktails, I just don't usually go those places.

All that being said ... Clement also makes Creole Shrubb which is a rum-based orange liqueur that works very well in place of orange curacao in a mai tai! It's even nice on the rocks for you or your guests that enjoy a sweet liqueur. It's like Grand Marnier or Cointreau, but better!