Post #770353 by Quince_at_Dannys on Thu, Nov 17, 2016 6:50 AM

I posted this on the Mai Kai thread, but it probably bears repeating here...

I've been playing with blends for awhile. I had been playing around with a Coruba/Hamilton Pot Still/Appleton Signature mixture, but when I found out the Mai Kai was using Appleton Reserve, I immediately altered course and came up with the following:

5 parts Appleton Reserve Blend
1 part Lemon Hart 151
1 part Hamilton Black Pot Still Rum

The Reserve delivers most of the rich flavor and the Hamilton brings the funk. It's possible Kohala Bay actually contains (contained) some of the same rums as Appleton Reserve with the addition of funkier pot still varieties.
The LH 151 in the mix is basically to get the ABV in the ballpark without disrupting the overall flavor profile.

The net result: a 91 proof Dark Jamaican that is very close in flavor to Kohala Bay and mixes like a champ. There is a missing high note, but it's a subtle difference. The original Kohala Bay would have been proofed down from higher proof barrels of rum instead of incorporating a foreign element like Lemon Hart, so that accounts for the difference.

[ Edited by: Quince_at_Dannys 2016-11-17 06:52 ]