282 year-old rum

This woman got a chance to drink some 282 year-old rum. I found it interesting that they claim the bottom of the bottle contained coconut fiber, and that it had lemon and lime juice added to prevent scurvy. My understanding was that the link to scurvy wasn't well known until the mid 1700s, but interesting nonetheless: http://packedsuitcase.com/2012/10/the-day-i-drank-282-year-old-rum.html

I wish I could ask a question --- what was the bottle sealed with that allowed it to last 200+ years in the ocean? Here where I live, they pull stuff out of wrecks quite frequently. Sometimes they get bottles, but here off the coast of Florida I have never seen or heard of a bottle with its closure and the contents intact. And often the glass is so very thin and so very brittle so that you must handle it very delicately, so much so that you almost cannot handle it at all. This rum truly is a lucky find. I would pay to have that rare experience.

And he shared it with this idiot??? Wow. I want to go visit this place myself as a blogger and see if I can get a taste!

There have been many auctions of salvaged booze over the years. Champagne, etc. The cold of the ocean floor keeps the contents if the bottles can be kept intact.

But reading "And a Bottle of Rum" I would expect the rum of that era to be extremely awful. Rot gut. Rum didn't get "good" until maybe the 1930s or 40s. The Bacardi era. The whole reason for cocktails was to hide the taste of crappy rum!

On 2013-11-18 06:29, Swanky wrote:
And he shared it with this idiot???

Bit harsh Swanky!

In fairness to the lady who was lucky enough to try the rum she did describe some flavours rather than saying 'it burnt'. I would have liked to have seen the rum compared to a modern brand we all would know.

Regarding old rums:

The oldest stuff I've tried is some long open bottles from my parents house.

I visited the Merchant Hotel in Belfast where they have a collection that included white Appletons 151, some 30s/40s Bacardi & a distillers sample of barrel strength Wray & Nephews 17.

I recently saw a half bottle of 110 proof agricole from the 50s for sale for £50 at antiques fair - I thought 'do I don't I...'. I didnt but maybe it was a missed opportunity!

I don't think she meant that that particular rum had lemon and lime juice added to it. That was just some information she learned and the way it was written it comes across as it being in there along with the coconut fiber.

I tend to agree with one of the comments left on that article though, that i find it hard to believe that something so rare and expensive is just going to be given to some internet blogger in a plastic cup for nothing, regardless of the free publicity. I'm sure the original contents of that bottle were drunk long ago and it was refilled with some rubbish which the owners offers to every tourist, along with the story, that walks through the door.

To be fair, she never said she didn't pay anything for it:

"In the end, I discovered that the bottle that I had drank from was 145 proof Royal English ration rum, one of 18 unopened bottles recovered and valued by Sotheby’s in New York to be worth $20,000/ bottle… which meant that my portion was worth around $300. But regardless of the monetary value, to me, just having the opportunity to taste a part of history was priceless."

I did read the article, i don't need it quoted back to me.

But if we are going to play that game.

The Day I Drank 282 Year-Old Rum
(70,000+ views and counting!)

"On a recent trip to Southern Delaware, I was given a shot of rum from a 282 year-old bottle recovered from a 1733 Spanish shipwreck. Whoa..."

[ Edited by: swizzle 2013-11-18 18:43 ]

[Deleted]

[ Edited by: TikiTacky 2013-11-18 22:30 ]

I would agree with Swanky "rum of that era to be extremely awful"

I have friends who make rum at home and it's even worse, I've got to believe all modern Rums are spiced and not straight from the Still to the barrel to our bottle at home.

I love my El Dorado's, but I can taste the spices in it.

Also, I've always been told that nothing is gained once a rum has been bottled and that once the bottle is opened, it starts to degrade. So that said,

I really question the drink-ability of a 300 year old rum from a bottle.

-Longboard

I'd give it a try.

I suspect that most of us would give it a try, and I agree with others who have posted here that the older distilled spirits are just not as good as what we are accustomed to drinking today. With the advent of the modern mechanized age our processes and equipment to produce both raw materials and the finished products are waaaaaay better than what they were able to come up with in the old days. I'll drink to that! :drink:

Probably the romantic IDEA of 282 year old shipwreck rum is the biggest thrill of the experience, even if the idea doesn't quite match the reality. If you think about it, it's not that far from the romantic idea of other exotic fantasies that much of poly pop is about simulating.

BUT, with that said, if you read the article carefully, she never directly says that the RUM is 282 years old. The BOTTLE is, and the rum is from the bottle, but there's never an explicit claim that it's the SAME rum that was in the bottle when it was found.

*"No, this shot of rum was from a 282 year-old bottle that was recovered from a 1733 Spanish shipwreck on the bottom of the ocean."

"The antiquated rum was strong but it also had surprisingly nice flavor"

"...the bottle that I had drank from was 145 proof Royal English ration rum, one of 18 unopened bottles recovered and valued by Sotheby’s in New York to be worth $20,000/ bottle"*

These would all still be true if the original contents were long since consumed and replaced with something else not quite as "antiquated". But no big reason to be a buzzkill - like she says, it still sounds like a fun place to visit, and even try the rum poured from a 282 year old BOTTLE.

-Randy

I've got an old bottle. Maybe I should put my Smith Cross in it and see if it improves the flavor. :P