Substitute for Demerara Rum??

I have Bacardi Light , Bacardi 8 years, Rum from Barbados, Dark jamaican rum, jamaican spiced rum, venezolan rum, cuban rum,.....a lot of rums but I'd like to know the best substitute as I can get demerara rum her ein spain :(

I'm not sure, but if I was in the same situation, I would try either amber Martinique rum or Havana Club Anejo Reserva as a substitute for Demerara.

Klas, welcome back.

[ Edited by: pablus 2010-07-22 12:46 ]

On 2004-05-08 17:29, pablus wrote:

Klas, welcome back.

Thanks Pablus :) (although I never really left, just didn't visit as much)

On 2004-05-08 17:29, pablus wrote:
Demerara is a spiced rum

I may have to disagree with you, my friend. I don't think it's spiced. This is from Grolier's Encyclopedia (via a web site):

The darker, heavier Jamaican rums--made for the most part in Jamaica, Barbados, and Guyana -- are produced from a combination of molasses and skimmings from the sugar boiling vats; the darkest, Guyana's Demarara, is produced by very rapid fermentation and is not particularly heavy bodied. The fermentation of other substances in the molasses enhances the liquid's flavor and aroma.

marcoslive - Did you look for rum from Guayana? All Demararas are from Guyana, but not all Guyanan rums are Demararan (only the ones made in Demarara region). So, you may want to ask around for Guyanan rum.

You're right, of course.

I should have written "Demerara has a slight spiced flavor."

My goofy recipe is an approximation proffered by someone who lives in Tampa and has only now found one location within a 35 mile radius to buy El Dorado (both kinds).

Ain't nothin' like the real thing.

The simple answer is, use dark rum.

On 2004-05-10 14:23, pablus wrote:
My goofy recipe is an approximation proffered by someone who lives in Tampa and has only now found one location within a 35 mile radius to buy El Dorado (both kinds).

Pablus,

Florida liquor stores can ship to Florida addresses, so order up a few bottles and pour the mailman a Demerara Dry Float as a "thanks" for taking such fine care of your fragile shipment:

Wally's Mills Avenue Liquors in Orlando will probably ship and they have great prices on all the El Dorado rums.

On 2004-05-10 14:29, Swanky wrote:
The simple answer is, use dark rum.

I have to disagree with this. The beauty of many classic tropical drinks was the careful blending of aged rums from different areas each with different characteristics in order to achieve a complex and unique flavor. Just dumping Myers's or other dark rums that are young and artificially colored into a drink will not produce the same taste as an aged Demarara would.

On 2004-05-10 15:23, TheMuggler wrote:

Wally's Mills Avenue Liquors in Orlando will probably ship and they have great prices on all the El Dorado rums.

Muggler, does Wally's have a good selection of spirits that you can't find at ABC and all the other chain liquor stores? I live pretty close to Wally's but never went there because it looks kinda dumpy. I've been trying to find a liquor store in the area with a decent selection. I hate reading about spirits and liqueurs here on TC and then find out that my neighborhood liquor stores can't even special order the stuff (Trader Vics, Aqwa etc). Any other liquor stores in the area that are worth checking out?

Thanks to this post and a weekend in Orlando, I've finally acquired Damerera rum!

A visit Wally's did the trick -- I picked up two bottles of El Dorado, the regular and the dark, just for kicks. They had the 15-year reserve there, and if I like the others, I'll be back for that one too!

I struck up a nice conversation with Wally -- it seems his wife and my girlfriend have mutual friends, so he's going to see if he can get Lemon Hart. We shall wait and see.

With the exception of a bottle of Watson's I picked up in Scotland, I've exclusively used Lemon Hart for my Demerara. I see talk here (and just saw on the shelf at Hi-Time) about El Dorado. How does it compare to Lemon Hart? It's priced a lot less, lemme tell ya...

el dorado is good and will work, but is no lemon hart

I've been using Pusser's as a Demerara substitute. Am under the impression that Demerara is a substantial component of this blend. I think they say it's the same recipe the Royal Navy traditionally used.

Am I all wet on this?

JTD

O.K., so I was reading Trader Vic's Tiki Party book by Stephen Siegelman. In the Rum "Rundown" section he states that you can substitute a spiced rum for Demerara. I have never had Demerara so I am blissfully ignorant of what I'm missing out on. Either way, this sounds horribly misguided given everything I have read here.

What tastes the most similar?

If I WAS to use a spiced rum as a substitute, which one would you recommend? (I still haven't found one bottle of lemon hart or El Dorado)

wow, spiced rum is way off. not remotely close.

can you get Pusser's rum?

Is it possible that spiced rum wasn't as overpoweringly spiced as it is now back when Vic wrote that?

On 2014-06-28 21:46, TikiTacky wrote:
Is it possible that spiced rum wasn't as overpoweringly spiced as it is now back when Vic wrote that?

Trader Vic didn't write that, it was from Trader Vic's Tiki Party book by Stephen Siegelman, published in 2005.

Wouldn't something like Pyrat XO make a decent sub for Demerara? I believe its made in Guyana with Demerara in its blend.

On 2014-06-28 22:48, Hakalugi wrote:

On 2014-06-28 21:46, TikiTacky wrote:
Is it possible that spiced rum wasn't as overpoweringly spiced as it is now back when Vic wrote that?

Trader Vic didn't write that, it was from Trader Vic's Tiki Party book by Stephen Siegelman, published in 2005.

Ack!

On 2014-06-29 09:13, kkocka wrote:
Wouldn't something like Pyrat XO make a decent sub for Demerara? I believe its made in Guyana with Demerara in its blend.

may be in the blend, but Pyrat is way too sweet imo.

I've always heard Pussers had some demerara in its blend as well, and it tastes to me like a jamaican/demerara blend.

the other thing that may work well, is if you're making a cocktail calling for demerara and simple syrup, use dark jamaican and make your simple syrup from a brown sugar...

Pusser's would be my first suggestion to substitute for Lemon Hart Demerara, 80° or 151°. But it is not always available, either. What commonly available rum can be used in place of LH, in a pinch?
There was a discussion about whether Bacardi Select was an acceptable sub for Lemon Hart 80, a while back. I tried it, side by side with LH80, at the time, and remember it was surprisingly similar. Bacardi Select is not as complex, etc., as the LH, of course, but if LH (or El Dorado) is available to you, you wouldn't even asking the question. Yes, it is made by the TC-despised Bacardi,... sorry. But for those who are very limited in available rums, it's too cheap not to give it a try.

(I'll refresh my memory with an updated taste comparison, when I retrieve the Select from the houseboat.)

Last week I ran into a bottle of Bacardi Gold in the back of my liquor cabinet. I tasted it neat and was surprised that it didn't taste like acetone. I will admit that there are worse rums than Bacardi out there. Nevertheless, I'm going to figure out a way to use it up, I just can't bring myself to dump it down the drain.

Bacardi does make some good products, although they are best known for their lower-end products. Their Bacardi 8, Bacardi Select, and even their Seven Tiki are steps in the right direction which we should encourage. TC'ers, stop hating on Bacardi when they actually are trying to bring some new and good things to the market. I think they get the picture that better products can bring better sales and image.

On 2014-06-29 09:13, kkocka wrote:
Wouldn't something like Pyrat XO make a decent sub for Demerara? I believe its made in Guyana with Demerara in its blend.

I think Pyrat XO is too light in color - there's not enough "dark sludgey goodness" in Pyrat to compare with the dark Demerara rums.

I was just gifted my first bottle of Pyrat XO after having looked at it on the store shelves for about a year. So the comment above was pulled completely out of my grass skirt.

What if China started making rums the same way they mass-produce all kinds of other stuff? Hmmmmm...

On 2014-06-29 11:26, thePorpoise wrote:
I've always heard Pussers had some demerara in its blend as well, and it tastes to me like a jamaican/demerara blend.

I have never heard that about Pusser's, I thought it was an entirely BVI/West Indies product. The Pusser's web site says British Navy Pusser's Rum is the same Admiralty blend of five West Indian rums as issued on board British warships, and it is with the Admiralty's blessing and approval that Pusser's is now available to the consumer."

here is an interesting discussion about the rum contents of Pussers, including a post by a purported pussers exec:

http://rumproject.com/rumforum/viewtopic.php?p=4626&sid=013eba7388b4624cd8cf965647bd7069

Tis a shame if some people can't get demerara rums!

A while ago I tried making a Boo Loo & switching the rums around to see if I could recreate the flavour or make a drink more to my tastes with different rums.

For those who don't know the Boo Loo is:

'Round 1' I used LH151, El Dorado 8 & Coruba

'Round 2' I used Goslings 151, Pussers Blue Label & Cockspur

I made the 2 'rounds' a few months apart but the taste was in the same ball park ('Round 2' was less Jamaican if anything).

I like mai tais with Appleton 12 & El Dorado 12 but have also made them with Appleton 12 & Ron Zacapa 23. Some depth of flavour / woodiness of the Ron Zacapa 23 was nicely present in the mai tai (again, I didn't do a side by side comparison but it was not unlike what you gain from using a demerara rum).

I would definitely order some demerara rums via the internet if I couldn't find any on a shelf near me & suggest this thread for ideas what to order :)

[ Edited by: AdOrAdam 2014-07-01 14:24 ]

I would actually suggest substituting a moderately aged Trinidad rum for 80 proof Demerara. The soil is different and certainly there is no equivalent to the distillate coming off of the coffey still, but Guyana and Trinidad rum production techniques are both an amalgam of Spanish and British traditions so I think there is some shared historic DNA that might show in the product. Angoustura 7 year is showing up on more and more shop shelves and it has a good price point compared to the more aged Angoustura expressions. I would give that one a try.

[ Edited by: Sunny&Rummy 2014-07-01 09:05 ]

Thank you, Sir. I'll use the select till I can find the real deal. I just wanted to make sure that my cocktails come out with the proper flavor profiles (or as close to) as the original creator intended. Tiki drinks are a great balancing act of flavors that seem to easily topple if improvised or guessed at. It's difficult when you have no frame of reference.

On 2014-07-01 17:42, TikiKohler wrote:
Tiki drinks are a great balancing act of flavors that seem to easily topple if improvised or guessed at. It's difficult when you have no frame of reference.

This should be the "Newbie Creed", it certainly applies to me.
So glad there is online help and guidance.

Cheers!

Quote:
"British Navy Pusser's Rum is the same Admiralty blend of five West Indian rums as issued on board British warships, and it is with the Admiralty's blessing and approval that Pusser's is now available to the consumer."

So I guess there will be Pusser's Galore...