Category Archives: rum

Thomas Tew Rum

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thomas tew rum xyz cocktail

Thomas Tew Rum is distilled and aged in Rhode Island from blackstrap molasses. Named for the infamous Rhode Island Pirate, this rum is created in small batches and is tough to find outside of Rhode Island itself.

Thomas Tew Rum has the scent of molasses and maple syrup, but has a very dry finish. While Tew is a good sipping rum because of that clean sweet/dry combo, I found it is a particularly good rum for making mixed drinks. Here’s one of my favorite cocktails with dark rum: rich, sour, and sweet all at the same time:

XYZ

  • 1 oz dark rum (I used Thomas Tew)
  • 1 oz triple sec (I used Giffard Premium)
  • 1/2 oz lemon juice
  • shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
  • lemon wedge garnish

Coffee Liquors

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coffee ums and liqueurs

A few new coffee liqueurs are hitting the market, and I got to try them. Below Deck Coffee Rum retails for $18, Kahlua Midnight for $22, and Hoodoo Chicory is $24 for a half-sized bottle  (375 ml). Other than the coffee connection, these are all pretty different products.

Below Deck Coffee Rum is from Eastside Distilling in Portland, and it shows. Marketed as coffee rum rather than coffee liqueur,  Below Deck smells like your favorite corner coffee shop. This is a strong drink (70 proof), and while I tried mixing it in traditional coffee liqueur cocktails like a White Russian, I found Below Deck tasted the best on the rocks with a splash of cream.

Kahlua Midnight. The replacement for Kahlua Especial, Midnight is very much a Kahlua product. It has the iconic Kahlua flavor, but with less of the syrupy characteristics you find in standard Kahlua. It’s a stronger drink, too (70 proof), and much like Below Deck, it’s less mixable as a result. White Russians were too strong and unbalanced with Midnight, and I realized that Midnight and cream was the best fit here, too.

Hoodoo Chicory Liqueur. Made by the same folks that make Cathead Vodka, Hoodoo is closer to a traditional coffee liqueur. It’s lower proof  (40), so it’s a better fit for coffee cocktails. Chicory is a root that’s often used as a coffee additive or coffee substitute, particularly in the South, and as a result, Hoodoo is more herbal-tasting than the other here. Anyone familiar with New Orleans-style coffee will recognize the rich flavor. I took Hoodoo’s recipe for a Café au Lait, converted it up, and made a thermos full of it for a party:

cafe au lait thermos

Thermos of Café Au Lait

  • 10 oz Hoodoo Chicory Liqueur
  • 12 1/2 oz warmed milk
  • 25 oz of strong brewed coffee
  • while brewing the coffee, warm the Hoodoo and the milk on the stove over low heat, stirring constantly
  • once hot, pour it all into a big thermos like this one (Amazon link)

Daiquiri

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below deck silver rum and a daiquiri

A Daiquiri is a classic cocktail that’s simple to make: it’s rum, lime juice, and simple syrup. There are several ways to adjust the ratios of those 3 ingredients, but the best recipe I’ve tried is from Portland bartender Jeffery Morgenthaler. It seems fitting to use a Portland rum in this drink, so I used Below Deck Silver from Eastside Distilling. You can also experiment with aged rums like Zacapa.

Daiquiri

  • 2 1/2 oz rum (I used Below Deck Silver)
  • 3/4 oz lime juice
  • 1/2 oz simple syrup
  • shake with ice
  • double strain into a chilled cocktail glass (pour through the shaker and a mesh strainer)
  • lime wheel garnish

Zacapa 23 Rum

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zacapa 23 rum

A while back, I asked the Cigar Smoking Man what he likes to drink when he’s smoking a cigar, and he mentioned Zacapa.

Zacapa 23 is from Guatemala, a blend of rums that have aged in barrels from 6 to 23 years at 7,500+ feet above sea level. This rum is comparable to a fine bourbon or scotch, and Zacapa recommends drinking it straight or with a large ice cube to cool it slightly.

The scent of this rum is sweet initially, but as you drink, you’ll taste barrel-aged richness and spice. Because rum is distilled from sugar cane, it can be a lot sweeter than a whiskey or brandy, but Zacapa is not so sweet. I found it to be strong and smooth, with faint traces of sugar, spicy chocolate, and toasty wood. I drank it neat – no ice – and found it to have a great and palatable flavor. Zacapa 23 is a quality aged rum that’ll run you about $45. Older brother Zacapa XO, a richer and more elegant variety, is $99.

Breckenridge Bourbon and Spiced Rum

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Breckenridge Bourbon and Spiced Rum

I always like to seek out products that are distilled near me, and Breckenridge, Colorado is only about 350 miles north. I was anxious to taste the line of spirits that Breckenridge Distillery has coming off the line, and I got to try their award-winning bourbon and their spiced rum.

Their bourbon one of the spiciest I’ve tasted. Bourbon can run anywhere for sweet (like Don Quixote or Maker’s Mark) to really spicy (like Bulleit or Buffalo Trace), but Breckenridge is a bourbon that’s so spicy that you could initially mistake it for a rye whiskey. Is it a good bourbon? For a guy who likes both bourbons and ryes, you bet it is.

Breckenridge also makes a spiced rum, with a pirate-map label and a jolly roger wax seal. I can’t understate the quality and flavor of this rum. I don’t drink a lot of rum because I often find it too sugary, but Breckenridge rum is rich, warming, and spicy, and it finishes with just a trace of subtle sweetness. Whiskey drinkers should definitely get a bottle for their liquor cabinet, because it’s a pleasure to drink straight. Breckenridge spiced rum is great after dinner, and it’s a great complement to a cigar, too.

If you see Breckenridge bourbon or spiced rum in the stores, buy them. Breckenridge’s 750ml bottle of bourbon retails for $40, the 375ml bottle of rum for $25, and you can find them both with the distillery’s “Hooch Locating Tool” here.

Captain’s Blood Cocktail

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old port deluxe matured rum

India’s larget distillery Amrut makes Old Port Deluxe Matured Rum ($25) along with their large line of single malt whiskies. The scent of the rum is creamy butterscotch and it’s got a bit of spice in the finish. It also makes a fine ingredient for this simple cocktail:

Captain’s Blood

  • 1 1/2 oz Amrut Old Port Rum (or other dark rum)
  • 1/4 oz simple syrup
  • 1/4 oz lime juice
  • 3 dashes of bitters

Pink Pigeon Rum

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pink pigeon rum

Let your mind wander toward Africa…..then go east a little bit to the island of Madagascar (home of the famous animated zoo animals), then think east again a few hundred miles to Mauritius. That’s where Pink Pigeon Rum comes from, named for the rare bird from that same island.

Local sugar cane and Madagascar vanilla beans are used to distill it, so the rum has a very pronounced vanilla scent and flavor. It’s somewhere between a white rum and a spiced rum as it’s not too mild or too spiced.

The bottle is pitch black with white and pink trim, so I was curious if the rum itself would be pink when I poured it. It’s not – it’s a light amber color, and when sipped straight, it’s got a good vanilla scent but doesn’t have the lingering sweetness I usually associate with rum. It has a strong, good bite at the finish.

I started working on ideas for a cocktail that would work with this special rum. The distiller says Pink Pigeon will work great in traditional rum drinks like daiquiris or mojitos, but I ended up creating an orange-and-cream cocktail instead:

pink pigeon rum creamsicle cocktail

Pink Pigeon Creamsicle (by Greg Mays)

  • 1 1/2 oz Pink Pigeon rum
  • 1 oz orange juice
  • 1 oz triple sec (orange liqueur)
  • 1/2 oz half-and-half
  • Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail glass.
  • Garnish with a 1/4 orange wheel.

Pink Pigeon is a great rum and makes some outstanding drinks. It’s about $35 a bottle and it has the flavor and smoothness of other spirits in that price range. It’s very tasty, not too sweet, and is a really unique.