Any ideas of what to do with a bunch of spiced rum?

Besides the obvious answer of "Pour it down the drain and make lamps out of the bottles..."

I have a lot of well meaning friends who, when they come over to my home bar/lounge, bring a bottle of rum as a present. Unfortunately this has led to me now having a small shelf full of various Liquor store brand spiced rums including Cpt Morgan "Tattoo" Cpt Morgan "Private Stock" and Bacardi "Oakheart". I think I've convinced my friends to stop bringing these well meaning gifts over, but I do a very traditional drink menu using Remixed and the Grog log and I can't find any use for these (lower rent) spiced Puerto Rican rums and I refuse to use them as substitutes in traditional drinks. Has anyone every made a punch of some kind using this type of stuff or am I going to have to make some lamps?

[ Edited by: SoCal Savage 2013-07-13 14:13 ]

A nice Rum Punch should mask the inferior taste of these "not quite toxic" rums drinkable, it's Party Time!

On 2013-07-13 14:51, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:
A nice Rum Punch should mask the inferior taste of these "not quite toxic" rums drinkable, it's Party Time!

Thanks ATP. Any suggestions on a recipe? I usually do the Blood of the Kapu Tiki for gatherings. I suppose that may work since it's a pretty spicy (bitters heavy) mixture anyway...

A punch with Coconut creme or syrup such as a Caribbean punch works well
I will find that recipe here some where......

On 2013-07-13 15:01, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:
A punch with Coconut creme or syrup such as a Caribbean punch works well
I will find that recipe here some where......

Awesome. Thanks!

I only use spiced rum in my christmas eggnog- it's excellent.

(isnt the Private Stock supposed to be pretty good? thought that was a rum called for in one of the Beachcomber's Zombie recipes...)

I can appreciate your dilemma. You could re-gift to friends who have parties or to those who host or attend tailgate parties. Fortunately spiced rum & coke is fairly popular among the general population.

As a cocktail enthusiast I would find it difficult to offer my guests simple rum & cokes at my home bar when there are so many other excellent things to offer. But some folks are not very adventurous, so keep one or two bottles of spiced rum around to mix with coke.

Found it:

RUM PUNCH FOR A CROWD (ATPs version is called "Polynesian Punch"

1 (46-ounce) can orange juice
1 (46-ounce) can pineapple juice
1 (16-ounce) can Coco Lopez (I sub 10 ounces of Monin Coconut syrup)
16 ounces of Cruzan Rum Dark ( Sub your spice rum ,I may also double the amount of rum to taste & depending on the flavor of the rum)
Roses Grenadine, for added color and flavor (I sub Monin Pomegranate syrup)
(I also add 6 ounces of Orgeat Syrup & juice from 6 to 8 Limes to customize the recipe some more)

Fresh seasonal fruit for garnish

Combine all ingredients, except the garnish. Chill. It will make about 20 8-ounce servings. Decorate the punch bowl base with artificial tropical flowers. Add garnish.

Serve over ice.....

You could use up Captain Morgan's making Cable Cars. A Tony Abou-Ganim riff on a classic Sidecar, subbing Morgan's for brandy, and subbing a cinnamon sugar rim for the straight sugared rim in the original, it's a solid cocktail and maybe the only reason to keep Captain Morgan around.

It's also one of those "gateway cocktails" that can help get the unwashed rum and coke masses to try something a bit more adventurous but still very accessible.

Painkillers.

ATP - thanks so much for finding that recipe. I'm going to save it and whip up a batch with the spiced stuff at my next gathering.

Hale Tiki - I always use Pussers or Goslings black in my painkillers. I don't think I could get myself to use the spiced stuff, though I imagine the coconut cream may mask the taste better than other cocktails...

Porpoise I suppose if this stuff is still around in December I can use it for egg nog. Good idea. The Private stock actually isn't all that bad as something to sip on it's own, but I don't know of any Zombie recipes that call for it.

I wrote a long post & lost it! Anyone else hate it when that happens? D'oh :)

Tiki drinks are made up of dominant ingredients (Jamaican rum, Demerara rum, lime, lemon, grapefruit, honey, pimento, falernum, cinnamon, bitters, Pernod, etc) but some are less dominant.

In a comparison of 4 Navy Grogs using different Jamaican / Demerara / Puerto Rican combinations, the Puerto Rican mattered the least IMO.

Try substituting the non dominant rum in each recipes.

If you really cant bring yourself to mess with recipes, try making Grog or Bumbo - great for working on flavour appreciation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grog
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumbo

My fave is rum, honey mix, lime, bitters, nutmeg & cinnamon sprinkles, shaken with crushed ice... Sounds suspiciously like old school sailors grog! :)

PS You're not alone - I've just counted & I have about 8 rums I consider 'non essential'. I just make a drink with them each time I have a drink - eventually they'll be gone!

Would I pour them away? Never!

They'll just go to parties with me & get left if they really are awful :)

[ Edited by: AdOrAdam 2013-07-15 06:37 ]

One of the restaurants here serves a Spiced Mai tai which is pretty tasty:

Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum
Disaronno
orange
pineapple
lime
cinnamon

At Professor Cocktail, we just did a taste test of spiced rums.

Not surprisingly, most of them were pretty bad.

http://www.professorcocktail.com/2013/07/spiced-rum-taste-test.html

On 2013-07-15 12:38, djmont wrote:
At Professor Cocktail, we just did a taste test of spiced rums.

Not surprisingly, most of them were pretty bad.

http://www.professorcocktail.com/2013/07/spiced-rum-taste-test.html

Interesting. I have a bottle of that Oakheart laying around... Nice to see you guys recommended it.

Keep in mind that the tattoo has an orange component.

I find Shellback to be servicable.
Sailor Jerry to be undrinkable.
Captain Morgan to be the rum equivalent of Budweiser.
Coruba is ca-rap-a.
Oakheart to be acceptable.
And Cruzan to be a disappointment.
Trader Vics is delightful (unlike every other rum they make).
Blackbeard and Blackheart are two tasty treats.
Seven Tiki is good.
Kraken is good in...something. Never by itself.

Just my 2c. Which is kind of irrelevant. So ignore me.

El Dorado makes a "Cuba Libre" spiced rum that i've yet to try, anybody had that one?

None of the ones we tried would I drink straight. MAYBE with Coke....although I don't drink Rum and Coke.

On 2013-07-15 15:16, djmont wrote:
None of the ones we tried would I drink straight. MAYBE with Coke....although I don't drink Rum and Coke.

Hahahaha. Agreed!

(Though I used to drink Rum & Coke. Couldn't tell you how many kidney stones it gave me. Sheesh. But it was with Trader Vic's most of the time.)

Coruba makes a spiced rum??? Where available?

They make a Coconut, Mango and Pineapple Rum as well. I don't think they're widely distributed, but I've seen them a couple places.

The spiced wasn't worth the trouble.

what about their other flavored rums you mentioned, any good?

The only one I have is the Coconut, but I haven't tried it yet. I'll let you know when I do.