Category: Reviews

Sailor Jerry’s Spiced Rum

  By , ,

Apparently, spiced rum enthusiasts who spend time online really like Sailor Jerry’s Spiced Rum. I’ll spare you the oft repeated stories about the artwork and the guy behind Sailor Jerry’s. It is a spiced rum with a slightly higher proof than others in the category. Oddly, I get a cherry candy flavor from it. And it is fairly pronounced even in Rum and Coke, as well as other cocktails I’ve tried. On review, I also get a cherry medicine aroma.

46% ABV (92 Proof)

Paid: $10 for a 375ml

Buy again: No

Cruzan Black Strap Rum

  By , ,

Do not gaze into the inky darkness!

I wasn’t prepared for this. After a series of exciting discoveries about rum being the right spirit for me, I decided to go all in. I saw the bottle on the shelf, and the liquid inside looked dark and mysterious. As with most Cruzan bottles, it wasn’t expensive. Reviewers warned me that it was an “acquired taste”.

I finally succumbed to curiosity and took the bottle home. Removing the cork (synthetic maybe, but my first bottle with a cork) yielded the aroma or molases, maple syrup, and a sharper alcohol hit. Not stronger, sharper.

A sip. Very sweet, very… musty? Molasses. A challenge!

I tried it in a Rum and Coke. It didn’t work for me. I have used it in a couple of cocktails that were assertive and it definitely holds its own. It will get used, but “acquired taste” was right!

Distiller: Cruzan Rum Distillery/Beam-Suntory

Proof: 80 (40% ABV)

Paid: $17 for 750ml

Buy again: Probably not.

Bacardi Oakheart Spiced Rum

  By , ,

My Second Bottle

Spiced Rum. Who hasn’t heard of Captain Morgan? Even to someone who hadn’t had a drink in 30 years, the name and commercial image of Captain Morgan was burned into my brain. I was intrigued. Here was a category of rum that was, by its definition, loaded with spicy flavor.

Off to the web! The Rum Howler Blog gave Bacardi Oakheart a score well above the other spiced rums that were reviewed (at least among the ones in my local ABC stores). Another factor was the Common Man Cocktails Spiced Rum Blind Tasting linked on the Resources page. As much as people (and Derrick in this case) don’t want to like the Bacardi brand, sometimes it is exactly what you end up liking (look at around 21:00 into the video).

I’m not saying this is the best spiced rum. While quite a few brands are represented at the new (and second largest in the adjacent county) ABC store, many are not. Bacardi Oakheart apparently has a wide distribution, as one would expect for a Bacardi brand.

So, with a bottle in hand, I removed the screw top and was greeted with the smell of maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon and some other sweet and pleasant aromas. A slight sip, well, there is the alcohol again. I can taste the aforementioned flavors, but I wouldn’t try to drink it straight, as is my lot in life when it comes to alcohol. The burn I get when tasting it in a cocktail is more peppery than alcohol.

I tried and enjoyed it first in a Cruzan Car. Then, after remembering one of the reviews, made my first (spiced) Rum and Coke! This hit my taste buds in all of the right places. In time I learned that there are sweeter spiced rums, although this is plenty sweet, but Oakheart is my go to if I want a little less sweetness.

This experience only cemented my interest in rum in general.

Proof: 70 (35% ABV)

Paid: $13

Buy again: Yes

Blue Chair Bay Coconut Rum

  By , ,

Here we get into the gray area of alcohol. Is this a liquor? Or is it a liqueur? Unlike a rum or vodka bottled at 80 proof (40% ABV), this is at 53 proof (26.5% ABV). The lower numbers of the latter case is common in liqueurs.

Regardless, this is a rum with coconut flavor. It smells like coconut, and it doesn’t hit you with the smell of alcohol. It tastes like coconut. It is sweet, but not overwhelmingly so. It tastes more natural to me than Malibu.

In a mixed drink, it adds a nice tropical note.

Proof: 53 (26.5% ABV)

Paid: $16 (on sale) for 750ml

Buy again: Yes

DeKuyper Peachtree Peach Schnapps

  By ,

Sometimes a product name says it all. Such is the case for DeKuyper Peachtree Schnapps.

When you open the bottle, you are hit by the scent of fresh, very sweet peaches. A sip yields the same taste as the aroma suggests. Like many liqueurs, the lower ABV and the higher sugar content lessens the alcohol burn. It’s too sweet for me to sip much of it straight, and for me, that’s saying something.

Of course, with a component like this that has such a potent flavor, a cocktail can be overwhelmed and taste like nothing but peaches. Occasionally, it is necessary to reduce the amount in the mix to end up with a more balanced cocktail that lets the other flavors come through.

And let’s face it. You can’t have a fuzzy navel without it!

Proof: 60 (30% ABV)

Paid: $11 for 750ml

Buy again: Yes

DeKuyper Sour Apple Pucker

  By ,

Okay, I’m not proud of this. I saw ‘apple’ and thought, “that could be good”. I had heard of apple schnapps and was intrigued. I saw this and thought maybe this would do.

Nope. This was not a good idea. The taste is very tart and very artificial. I have tried to use it in a couple of cocktails and I’ve been disappointed each time. It is in another cabinet now, waiting for a purge, or for someone to come along and ask for something that uses it, and then we can both be disappointed.

I’m still searching for that real apple schnapps.

Proof: 30 (15% ABV)

Paid: $11 for 750ml

Buy again: No

Bols Triple Sec

  By ,

After trying Cointreau and the realization that sometimes you just don’t like a cocktail and end up pouring it out, I decided to go lower down the shelf for orange liqueurs for experimental cocktails. This time, I left online research behind. I walked into the ABC store and asked the clerk what triple sec was a big seller. The response: Bols Triple Sec. It was a third of the price of  Cointreau at $7.95. Without hesitation, I grabbed a bottle and headed for the register,

Back at the Lair, I unscrewed the top and poured a small amount into a shot glass. I did the same with a bit of Cointreau. The Bols had more of an artificial, or candy, orange aroma. Tasting the two side-by-side surprised me at how sweet they both were. A tiny taste told a similar story, but as always, the alcohol blew away anything else.

I made a scaled down version of a cocktail from each (it could have been a Margarita, it was two years ago). Mixed in with some citrus or another, and with the primary spirit adding its burn, they were mostly identical to me.

It turns out that this would not always be the case, but for now I have learned that a cocktail did not always demand the more expensive ingredient.

Proof: 30 (15%ABV)

Paid: $8 for 750ml

Buy again: No

Cointreau

  By ,

If you start by reading posts from people who are purists, or who believe there is only one option, no matter how expensive it is, you will end up with Cointreau as your first liqueur. Cointreau is the big dog, and priced to match. As I was just starting out, I picked up the 375ml bottle, at a cost of about $23!

Cointreau is an orange liqueur, and produced “from the dried peels of bitter and sweet orange” (Wikipedia). This adds a hint of orange flavor, aroma, and sweetness to cocktails.

From my perspective, other orange liqueurs work just fine.

Proof: 80 (40% ABV)

Paid: $23 for 375ml

Buy again: Probably not.

Olmeca Altos Blanco and Reposado

  By , ,

My first tequila was found through the usual means of reviews and deep data dives. I decided on Olmeca Altos Blanco (as well as the Reposado). I bought one each in the 375ml size. These are 100% Blue Agave tequila. These are my first (and so far only) tequilas.

The agave flavor really comes through. The only way I knew what agave tasted like, was that I had also purchased agave nectar and knew the smell and taste. I also know it isn’t my favorite taste, but I can tolerate cocktails made with tequila. I did like the reposado (rested, aged in barrel for a period of time) better than the blanco (white, unaged).

Proof: 80 (40% ABV)

Paid: $10 for 375ml

Buy again: Probably

Evan Williams 1783 Bourbon

  By , ,

This was a tough one. While making some cocktails with my son and his girlfriend, my son asked what kind of whiskey I had.

There was no whiskey in the cabinet, and until that point, I never intended to have whiskey anywhere near me. (If you haven’t read the intro page, now is a good time).

By this time, I had tried the Meyers’s rum, and it had reminded me of whiskey, but perhaps because of the presentation, had not turned me off to the taste.

So I went down the rabbit hole of reviews and a visit to the ABC store to snap pictures of the entire wall of whiskey, focusing (no pun intended) on the middle shelf. At this point, I discovered just how high-end whiskey had become. So, I also snapped away at the bottom shelf for reference.

I’m not a whiskey drinker, and my intention was to ALWAYS mix it. Even then, I didn’t want to settle for the bottom shelf. Strangely enough, there appears to be a fairly good opinion of some of the bottom shelf whiskey when it comes to mixing (and a few that are decent neat sippers).

I finally settled on Evan Williams. Then the challenge became a choice between the lower end Evan Williams products, and the lower middle shelf.

The online consensus was that even the bottom shelf Evan Williams bottles would work in a cocktail. But in the end I decided to go one step up to the Evan Williams 1783 Bourbon.

Update: Evan Williams 1783 has a caramel flavor with a slight spice.

Distiller: Heaven Hill

Proof: 86 (43% ABV)

Paid: $17 for 750ml

Buy Again: Yes