what happened to Barcardi and Gordon's

As I study more and more vintage cocktail books I notice that a lot of the recipes call for both Gordon's and Barcardi by name. Most people now would agree these should be well liquors at best. What happened? Did the world's pallets change? Did the distillers cheapen their products? Or perhaps did the competition get that much better?

Storm

These are now owned by big corporations, decisions were made to mass produce large quantities
and take short cuts in in the formulations & aging of the liquor & use cheaper ingredients over the years

So you now have a very inferior product, the primary consumer of these brands are spring breakers, fraternities & sororities
by moral imperative, these brands are not allowed in my dojo.

Bacardi's current offerings (aside from their 8 year old, which I like) seem to be a far cry from what they used to make if the limited edition "heritage" bottling is any indication, probably because they got really big and really widespread and quality got sidelined for quantity. I still rather like Gordon's though, and my general impression from gin snobs is that Gordon's is a quality example of the traditional london dry style, the total lack of bells and whistles not withstanding, though my fervent desire to believe that plastic bottles don't correspond to bad booze might be influencing me.

I agree with PalmTreePat:

Gordon's is alright as gins go - others are more impressive for your martinis etc but Gordons is a basic bar pour that is not too shabby, for tiki drinks Gordon's works fine... it's popularity in old recipes could be due to it being a brand that people would know.

Goodness what happened to Bacardi - I personally think it's possible that when they left Cuba overtime they 'lost' something (blending stock / yeasts / techniques) that had once made their rums great & made decisions that made mass markets products over quality. Still the 8 year is nice to mix or sip IMO :)

What happened to Bacardi was vodka came onto the market. As sales of vodka increased Bacardi changed their product to something more neutral tasting in order to compete with this new product that was eating into their sales.

And as for Gordons, i personally think it's fine (i have to admit, although i do love rum i'm probably more of a gin fan). Sure there are tons of brands on the market now that are certainly more interesting flavour wise, but there are also a lot of new ones that are really nothing special either (Aviation i'm looking at you) when it comes to comparing them to those that have been around for a long time, like Gordons, Beefeater, Tanqueray etc.
Besides Bacardi, i wouldn't say anything happened to Gordons, it's just been left behind (if that's how to describe it) in terms of flavour with all the new artisanal brands now available.

If you're looking for a dry London-type gin, I'd recommend Broker's --- good price and higher proof than most

I like Gordon's fine for mixing, my only complaint is that you can't get the 95 proof stuff here (which is much more flavorful). If you can get your grubby mitts on Bacardi 1909 do it, otherwise sub Flor de Cana or Platation white for recipes that call for "Bacardi"

[ Edited by: Chip and Andy 2015-10-19 13:22 ]

Thanks for the replies all. I have always suspected that Barcardi slowly changed their white rum over the years to make it more vodka like (bland) as well as loose something due to the high capacity distillation. This is not to say that Bacardi doesn't make quality rums. As said before the 8 is fabulous and their Añejo is good as well. Their coconut rum was the only one I'd use until I tried Koloa's version, still I don't think it can be beat for the price. While I am not a big Gin guy I use Gordon's and Bombay as my go to gins. I don't see the hype with the likes of Hendricks especially when you consider it is more than 3 times the cost of Gordon's. Like Quince I do wish Gordons would make a higher proof Gin available.

Storm