Coming Soon: George Street Spiced Rum

[Arctic Wolf]

The Newfoundland and Labrador Liquor Corporation (NLC) will be launching a new Spiced Rum, George Street Spiced Rum. It will be a blend of 2 year old, 5 Year Old, and 7 Year Old rums and will be on the shelves in Newfoundland next Week.

I think I like this trend I see where the Spiced Rums are being aged before they are being spiced.

[Arctic Wolf]

I just received two bottles of the GSS a few days ago from the NLC, one in glass, and one in PET (Plastic). I think the NLC is trying to convince me that PET is as good as Glass since I beat them up a little in my Shiver Gin Review (http://therumhowlerblog.wordpress.com/gin-reviews/shiver-gin/) because I do not necessarily believe the claims that plastic is environmentally friendly. Does anyone have any thoughts on Glass versus Plastic.

(BTW:The GSS tasted really nice tonight with a lot more spiciness than I was expecting.)

[Jamie76]

PET is supposed to be resistant to leaching from solvents such as alcohol. There are a number of different brands out there that do come in plastic bottles, and I don't think there have ever been any issues with these.

What do you mean by "environmentall friendly"? I am assuming you mean "health friendly."

Next year, I believe Pepsi will be coming out with 100% bioplastic bottles. These are made from waste vegetable matter and will be free of certain chemicals inherent in plastic such as phthalates. If I was going with a plastic bottle for spirits, I would try to market this.

[Arctic Wolf]

The point I made in the review is that almost 100 % of the plastic ever produced is still in the environment. It does not decompose and the only way of getting rid of it is to incinerate it. That just doesn't seem environmentally friendly to me.

[Jamie76]

The point I made in the review is that almost 100 % of the plastic ever produced is still in the environment. It does not decompose and the only way of getting rid of it is to incinerate it. That just doesn't seem environmentally friendly to me.

And only about 34% of the glass produced each year in the US is recycled. How long do you think it takes for a glass bottle to break down in a landfill? The amount of plastic recycled is around 27%. While I understand the environmentally unfriendly issues with plastics, it isn't just plastics.

[Arctic Wolf]

I have had the same thought about glass, but I don't see anyone marketing glass as environmentally friendly. So I guess its that angle I object too the most.

But having said that, I guess I should admit that I am not sold on the concept of alcohol sold in a plastic bottle, as I do wonder if some of the plastic makes its way into the Spirit. (I think I can taste it but I might be fooling myself.)

I have tried to do a little research on this topic, but finding credible information has proved elusive. Plastic bottles containing BPA (Bisphenol A) have been banned in many jurisdictions as the chemical has been found to leech into the contents which is especially troublesome as this was a common component of infant bottles. I could only find scant evidence that a similar process occurs with plastic PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles, but I recognize that BPA was used for decades before the problem was discovered. I worry that the economics of using PET cloud our judgment and blind us to what might be the dangers.

I found lots of statements from groups like Plasticsinfo.org which state that because the FDA says the risk is minimal we shouldn't worry, but none of these statements that I found actually quoted any research study.

However, the scant evidence I found points to studies conducted by William Shotyk, a geochemistry professor at the University of Heidelberg, who published two studies (here (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=17396641&ordinalpos=2&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_RVDocSum) and here (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=16470261&ordinalpos=2&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_RVDocSum)) that show that antimony, a potentially toxic trace element, leaches from PET bottles over time.

There appears to be no dispute over William Shotyk's studies, only over whether these levels are really harmful. Unfortunately that retort seems awefully familiar if you follow the history of the BPA studies where it appears no one took things seriously until it was demonstrated that BPA acts as a hormone mimicking chemical. Since that helped the understanding of why it was harmful, the FDA began to take notice.

[Jamie76]

This is why I like the idea of bioplastics. Although not all forms are cost competitive with petroleum based plastics, they don't contain the chemicals such as BPA. As petroleum prices continue to climb, bioplastics will begin to take over the market.

Not all biodegrade however, so there is still the issue with proper recycling. Those that do biodegrade may not do so in an anaerobic environment such as found in a landfill anyway.

That being said, I just don't like the idea of a spirit being bottled in a plastic bottle. It seems to cheapen the experience.

[Arctic Wolf]

Back to the George Street Spiced Rum

The base of the rum is a Guyanan blend with the minimum age being 2 years old. The spices used are a combination of extracted spices and distilled spices. I sampled a few drams last night and I think the NLC has a winner here.