The Worst Rum List.

On 2010-09-20 01:54, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:
Really? we are on our 4th large bottle of Krakan since Tiki Oasis
but to be fair we have been serving a few drinks lately.

Makes a good Painkiller!

[ Edited by: Atomic Tiki Punk 2010-09-20 01:55 ]

I'll give it a shot in that and see how it goes.
I just find it really harsh and can't get a grasp on a flavor I like in it.

Admiral Nelson is fairly repulsive, but I have to agree that Kraken is a might fine rum that I drink more then my share of as of late.

Trader Joe's carries a rum named Whalers or Whaler's whatever.
RUN from this rum.

Seagrams Brazilian Rum.....Yechhhhhhh.

How about the house rum of any grocery store!

Someone on here dissed Sailor Jerry's, but we think that is a really tasty rum. Each to their own!

I don't know if anyone has dissed Seven Tiki, but for a Spiced Rum it's not too bad. at Damon's in Glendale, they can make your Chi Chi, or Mai Tai with it, and I gotta admit, It does make their cocktails taste a whole lot better. The Chi Chi's usually taste like Sun Tan lotion, and the Mai Tai's are decent.

I have been really lucky that I have not come anywhere close to the Rums you guys have
mentioned,but we have Hi-Times Liqueur here and they have saved me from buying a nasty rum in the past.

On 2010-09-20 07:50, Pikeys Dog wrote:
Lambs Spiced Rum.

Tried a shot of this yesterday.

Watery with a very subtle hint of Meths.

Cheers. That saved me £13

On 2010-09-30 09:23, Kon-Hemsby wrote:

On 2010-09-20 07:50, Pikeys Dog wrote:
Lambs Spiced Rum.

Tried a shot of this yesterday.

Watery with a very subtle hint of Meths.

Cheers. That saved me £13

I agree with Pikeys Dog, It's GRUESOME, Kon-Hemsby.

Stay well clear.

Heaven Hill gold. It was the only rum at a party to work with, and even after mixing it, I thought i was drinking something that could fuel one of those alcohol burners from science class back in high school.

Porpoise get Grog joke.

Tanduay.
Not good.

I personally like Brugal.

On 2011-05-16 18:24, pablus wrote:
Tanduay.
Not good.

Last - and only - time I tried Tanduay (brought from the Philippines, in the early 80's!), I thought it tasted a little like tequila, not so much like rum.

I like Tanduay 12 y.o. and 15 y.o. very much, in fact have a few bottles being flown over right now.

I think the Wray and Nephew overproof is pretty skanky stuff. tastes like karo syrup.

[ Edited by: thePorpoise 2011-05-16 19:46 ]

I make good Mai Tais with the Tanduay gold rum, it mixes well for many drinks, though the Dark Rhum is quite stringent and there's only a handful of drinks I can use it with. Though overall you reall can't complain about a bottle of rum that costs 75 cents. (The exchange rate for USD to Pesos is ridiculous)

Well, cheap as I am, I'd agree it's hard to complain about a bottle of 80° anything that costs 75 cents.

dang, two of my four bottles of Tanduay were broken in transit.

Thanks, Delta!!

I'm not being very creative, but Capt. Morgan is crap. And I was given a bottle of CM Spiced Gold and man, that was hard to swallow.

I find it interesting that so many of the rums listed in this topic actually won pretty high-marks at Rum Renaissance....

http://www.rumrenaissance.com/Competition2011.html

Having said that, I would like to offer my candidate for Worst Rum (on my bar):

Old Monk.

Its not that it is bad or undrinkable or anything, it just doesn't play well with anything other than ice. And, to me at least, it is not a sipping rum.

Old Monk is actually a key ingredient in the Wai Tai, one of the signature Waitiki cocktails.

My vote for worst is a tie between Mekhong, from Thailand, just dreadful, although one of the components of the Blind Squirrel, a rare cocktail made up of horrible ingredients that all together aren't all that bad, and Bundaberg, from Australia, for which I have found no redeeming value whatsoever.

On 2011-05-26 10:07, The Mayor Of Exotica wrote:
Bundaberg, from Australia, for which I have found no redeeming value whatsoever.

Sadly, I have to agree with this one.
After bringing back a bottle a number of years ago, we have tried & tried to find a good way to mix it, but to no avail.
And, like Old Monk, it's certainly not a sipper.

I use Captain Morgan's for one thing only-- the Christmas eggnog, for which it is perfect...

On 2010-09-13 12:37, Mr. NoNaMe wrote:
I'll start.

Porfidio Plata! If they had described it as Mexico's answer to moonshine, It was on sale for $20 Label say "Pure Cane Rum" and "single-cane, triple distilled"
Buy the grocery store brand before this crap.

In the Carribean this year I was asking around at a shop and they pointed that stuff out as one of the best Rums they had. Where most rums were $15 dollars, this stuff was $100 as I can remember.

I disagree about Pyrat XO. A great mixing rum at a good price. I use it in my Dead Bastards.

Captain Morgan and Malibu rums (and all they represent) are HORID! Don't even accidently pour a shot of the lime flavored Captain Morgans rum. Bleech.

Most underated family of rums - Mount Gay

I find Pussers rums underwhelming, even when used in a Navy Grog.

On 2010-09-14 21:02, Shaun of theTiki wrote:
A few overrated rums:

-Pyrat XO and Pyrat Pistol (both taste like Big Red gum)

• 23 year Ron Zacapa - (I swear it's 90 percent corn syrup)
  -St. George Agua Libre Fresh-Squeezed Rum (I liked it at first until I realized that it's swill compared to the great agricoles from Martinique)
  -Hudson River Rum (made by an otherwise great whiskey distillery that should keep their rum away from their whiskey barrels)
  -Malibu Pineapple (a mere shot gave me a nasty headache)

[ Edited by: Shaun of theTiki 2010-09-14 21:03 ]

[ Edited by: Shaun of theTiki 2010-09-14 21:03 ]

I agree with Vince--
Mount Gay makes some very nice rums.

Worst rums ev-ar:
Definitely Porfidio. The bottle's beautiful hand-blown glass (maybe good for a lamp?) but the rum is just... eccch. It kind of reminds me of that Orwell quote about a boot stomping on a human face... forever. Porfidio is that rum.

I was underwhelmed by the Tommy Bahama rums more than finding them disgusting. Pretty packaging and probably good for a mojito, but in a glass neat? Not so much.

One Barrel, from Belize is the most disgusting rum I've ever tasted. It tastes like maple syrup and cannot be disguised by any combination of juices & mixers. Its manufacturer used to hold a monopoly on rum production and sales in Belize, so 2 years ago, at least, you couldn't get anything else. There's also a Two Barrel and Five Barrel version but they're all rotten.

The only upside is that they don't export the stuff. Grisly.

David

[ Edited by: edurban 2011-06-06 20:08 ]

Stroh 80 is NOT good if you're looking at it as rum. It's made in Austria, and the 80 is the top-proof version at 160. It smells like a Butter Rum Life Saver. It tastes like fire. But I use it in Spanish Coffee and it works very well. I use the Stroh like most use 151, to caramelize the sugar rim on the glass, toast some cinnamon (shake right into the flame), and top with liqueurs, coffee and whipped cream. NOT a tiki drink, but good stuff.

I've tried some sort of Captain Morgan "reserve" rum, and it was fairly tasty. Not great, but not bad.

I did not try PortaShots Fletcher's Gold, Silver or Spiced Rum in a pouch so they could be very tasty. Even if it tastes bad, it's marketing genius.
Although I'm not sure if I trust a company that misspells Silver on their website.
http://www.portashots.com/our-products/fletchers-silver/
The Sliver Rum has led to many lip smacking remarks, from “Delicious”, “WOW” and “I Love It” to “OH MY !!!!”

Each bag contains 25 30ml packets of rum. They also have whiskey and vodka in a packet. These are made in South Africa. Tequila, gin and Scotch will be coming soon.

I love the quoted reviews ~ “Delicious”, “WOW” and “I Love It” to “OH MY !!!!”
These might be just the thing for sneaking on the airplane if you are desperate enough to risk a complimentary full cavity search by the TSA :lol:

(Speaking of which, some cheap lush friends of mine just went on a cruise where they smuggled vodka on board in shampoo bottles)

TSA shouldn't care if you bring alcohol through a checkpoint as long as it meets the requirements of the 3-1-1 rule and is less than 140 proof.

Airlines often have a ban on consuming your own booze on the plane, but it isn't TSA's job to enforce that.

-Rev

We had a party a few years ago and at the end they broke out warm Coke and Kraken. With no ice on hand. The thought of the Kraken chills me to the bone to this day... I had a shot of it a few months back, cause I can't say no to rum now that I have a tiki bar in my garage. Still way too sweet for me. I actually like Whalers as a dark rum. It doesn't mask the other flavors in a cocktail and isn't as sweet as most dark rums.

Stuff I refuse to carry at my home bar:
Captain Morgan or any similar - Admaral Nelson, Sailor Jerry
Any flavored Bacardi or really any flavored rums

I do hate Malibu (I don't like coconut flavor at all), but sometimes a drink needs a half shot at most of the coconut rum.

Cruzan makes a good coconut rum, which I like to use in a LeiLani Volcano

Don't be seduced by the label, this rum tastes like English Leather cologne.

On 2012-10-17 08:25, naugatiki wrote:
Don't be seduced by the label, this rum tastes like English Leather cologne.

Ummmmmm.....it actually says after shave on the label. :-?

On 2012-10-17 16:39, swizzle wrote:

On 2012-10-17 08:25, naugatiki wrote:
Don't be seduced by the label, this rum tastes like English Leather cologne.

Ummmmmm.....it actually says after shave on the label. :-?

HaHaHaHaHa!!!!
I actually use Royal Bay Rhum as an aftershave and would never think of drinking it!

I work in a hospital and we get people in the ER who have drunk worse. The latest one a couple of weeks ago was isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol because it was cheap.

Now that is some bad rum!

I recently got back into experimenting with mixology and re-read this whole thread. I don't think Whalers is THAT bad of a dark rum. Bong has made me a million mai-tais with that stuff and it seems pretty good to me as a mixing rum.

In the rum barrel that I made last night, I used Lemonhart, Appleton Estate V/X, and Bacardi 151 for the light puerto rican rum. Beachbum Berry says that that is a suitable rum for a light puerto rican rum. It was pretty sharp. What are alternatives to that? Or is that what you guys use?

Are you using 80 proof Lemon Hart? The think beachbum's thought is LH80 + bicardi 151 = bicardi 80 + LH151. For what it is worth I used Cruzan as my white Puerto Rican.

gabbahey

No, I had two 151s in there... I felt like that was wrong.
SUPER strong though. Haha...

Spike, Cruzan or El Dorado white & not the 151 stength
save that for the Lemon Hart 151 float.

Whalers is cheap rum but passable for mixing large batches of cocktails
not that bad of a taste, I am anti-Bacardi though
I refuse to use it in anything, I just don't like the after taste!

[ Edited by: Atomic Tiki Punk 2012-10-25 19:11 ]

Yeah, the only reason that I even got Bacardi was because it was the suggested rum on the Tiki+ app.... I wouldn't normally trust the stuff either. I'll retry with the adjustments. I already have everything that I need with the swap-out! Thanks, dudes.

On 2012-10-25 16:12, Luckydesigns wrote:
I recently got back into experimenting with mixology and re-read this whole thread. I don't think Whalers is THAT bad of a dark rum. Bong has made me a million mai-tais with that stuff and it seems pretty good to me as a mixing rum.

In the rum barrel that I made last night, I used Lemonhart, Appleton Estate V/X, and Bacardi 151 for the light puerto rican rum. Beachbum Berry says that that is a suitable rum for a light puerto rican rum. It was pretty sharp. What are alternatives to that? Or is that what you guys use?

I always substitute Cruza) when a recipe calls for Puerto Rican rum (either amber or white, depending on the recipe). Flor de Caña and Don Q make decent Puerto Rican substitutes as well.

For dark Jamaican, I'm partial to Coruba rather than Whalers. If I want to hit the gas, Smith & Cross is a great Jamaican rum. Not dark like Coruba, but high octane and highly mixable. It's a little pricey compared to the Coruba however.

For what it's worth, when I make the Rum Barrel from Tiki+, I use Cruzan light (white), El Dorado 12, and either Appleton V/X or Smith & Cross for the Jamaican rum. That drink is fairly strong without the 151, though if I were going to use it, I'd float .5 ounces of Lemon Hart on the top of my barrel.

Kevin

And I'll echo ATP's Bacardi sentiment, with one exception. Bacardi 8 is surprisingly good, both neat and as a mixer. It's the only Bacardi allowed in my liquor cabinet.

I have some Bacardi 151 around because I used to think it was good for adding literal fire to a cocktail via a squeezed lime shell. Then I found the much livelier combination of a good size crouton and lemon extract. At that point Bacardi 151 was rendered completely obsolete.

kevin

I have some Bacardi 151 around because I used to think it was good for adding literal fire to a cocktail via a squeezed lime shell. Then I found the much livelier combination of a good size crouton and lemon extract. At that point Bacardi 151 was rendered completely obsolete.

Kevin, great tip, never heard that before! Makes me wonder, if I don't have a crouton on hand, how a sugar cube might work... You're sending me to the grocery store to seek out lemon extract, and then straight to the lab to experiment! heh...

On 2012-10-27 04:31, AceExplorer wrote:

I have some Bacardi 151 around because I used to think it was good for adding literal fire to a cocktail via a squeezed lime shell. Then I found the much livelier combination of a good size crouton and lemon extract. At that point Bacardi 151 was rendered completely obsolete.

Kevin, great tip, never heard that before! Makes me wonder, if I don't have a crouton on hand, how a sugar cube might work... You're sending me to the grocery store to seek out lemon extract, and then straight to the lab to experiment! heh...

Credit where credit is due...I learned the lemon extract bit from other threads in this same food/drink forum. But I saw the value right away when I saw the impressive flame and the price per ounce on extract. :D I haven't tried a sugar cube, but it should work just fine.

Kevin

The crouton might be the cheap way to do it but unfortunately the downfall is you end up with the smell of burnt bread in the air when it's gone out.